18th May 2024 Lingering Service - Simon Chaffer - Seeing is not Believing

If I want to pray for Simon, as he brings

your word, I pray the Father God, It'll come to

edify us. It will come to encourage us, it to

come to restore us, to come to revive us, it

to come to deliver us, Father God. And as he

brings us his word, as he brings your word, Father God,

use him for your kingdom in Jesus name, Amen.

Owning. So the title of today's message is seeing is

not believing. Okay, seeing is not believing. Let's pray, well,

the Spirit, please take my words and in partnerent to

the people, make them your words, so that people get

out of this preach what you want them to get

out this preach. Thank It's not the work of a man.

It's the work of the Holy Spirit. To do what

you need to do. We are you welcome here. So

seeing is not believing. You know, our words are containers.

They carry power. You can say something nice to somebody,

something affirming to somebody, or you can cut somebody off

at the knees by what comes out of our mouth.

And a nice word sub a lord which cuts cuts

you off at the knees doesn't. But you can't take

it back. You can. Once you put it out there,

you can't go no, no, no, no, new it's there.

You can say sorry one John one nine. If you

if you're saying confessionally saying, and God will forgive you,

but you can't take it back. Jesus said in Matthew

five thirty seven, let your yes be yes, and let

you know be no. So my paraphse is watch what

you say. So language is not my my strong point.

I'm an engineer by professional training. So when we talk

about certain things, I didn't know this, Yesterdly, what anaphorism was.

I was. I was preparing this word, and I said aphorism.

I thought, what's that? So when after aphorism is good,

I'm not the only one that's okay. So an Afro

an aphorism is a short or memorable statement that reflects

a society's shared belief values or traditions. Right. The reasonhy

I look that up is because it can be found

in a proverb, such as a stitch in time saves nine?

Who said that that stitch in time saves nine? Or

it can be found in the maxim, such as an

apple the day, keep Salma away, or the doctor away. Yeah,

slam as a qualified doctor, an apple keeps a doctor away,

or it confound in the saying such as actions speak

louder than words. Yeah. So, if you're born in the UK,

I lived in the UK a long time. Some of

these will be familiar to here. If you haven't, sorry,

it's just what came up. Another one of these is

seeing is believing, or you need to see something before

you believe it or before you can accept that it

really exists. All right, So we believe that Jesus died

for our sins. We believe I went to hell, he

was raised from the dead, and he said to the

Father's right hand, that's what we believe. If you're a

Christian in this room today, if you don't come and

speak to me afterwards, okay, do we all agree?

Yes?

Good, thank you. So we believed in our heart and

we confessed with our mouth. Yeah. So that's Romans nine

Romans ten, sorry nine to ten. That says, if you

confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in

your heart that God raised him from the dead, you

will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness,

and with the mouth confession is mate to salvation. Right,

we may not have seen an outward transformation when we

asked Jesus to come into our life. Right, maybe you did,

maybe you saw angels. Maybe you know, you felt the

Prince of God. Maybe he didn't. But it didn't change

what had happened. Yeah, it didn't change what had happened,

the fact we were a new creation. To Corinthians five

seventeen says, Therefore, if anyone anyone is in Christ, he

is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold

all things, all things become new, all right. Also, when

we were born again from death to life, the Father

remembered our sins no more. Does no matter what you did,

what you said, you remember them no more Hebrews eight,

verse twelve. So that put it this way, for I

will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and

their lawless deeds. I will remember no more, all right.

And the last piece of this puzzle, he adopted us

into his family. Yeah. Relatians four and verse five says

to redeem those who were under the law, that we

might receive the adoption as sons. So I said all

that to say this, we went through a process. Whether

you've had a little booklet, or whether you prayed it

some day orways said God, here's my life. Not much

to do with it. Really take it and use it.

You know, some people have prayed various different sort of prayers,

but God's met them where they were at. Yeah, and

God does that presently meets us where we're at. You

don't pray a theological prayer. If we need help, do you?

Usually it's God, I need help, this is a problem. Help.

I do not know what I'm going to do about this,

fix it or with that sort of prayer that I

only pray. Yeah, but notice when I went through how

we pray, how it aligns with the Word. Yeah, So

be fair to say that in God's kingdom, believing is seeing.

All right, In God's kingdom, believing is seeing. It doesn't

matter what the circumstance says. What matters is what God said.

That's why I refer to the Word through those various elements.

You know, God's words alive and it's full of power

Hebrews fo Yeah, from the Word of God is a

lyone full of power, active optyp energized and effective sharpener

tudge it so penetrating the divide a line of soul

and spirit. Yeah, that's a fact, a spiritual fact. So

God's word is alive, right, and he wants us to

use his word like a tool. I don't know I'm

gonna put this.

So.

When I was younger, I used to a lot of

car maintenance because it was cheaper. Now I don't pay somebody.

Oh I've got a company car, so I pay for

my wife's car and I run my company car. So

I just take it to the guy as they fix

it because I haven't got time. When I was younger,

I used to have my own tools. I still got

my tools and run in the stairs. So when you're

playing out with brakes, you know, sometimes you gotta put

a spanner on something, or you've got to put a

socket set, which is like it has a certain size

socket which fits over the nut and fits on. Then

never screw. Am I losing people here? I don't know anyway,

Then you've got to apply pressure to move it. Yeah,

that's how it is. If you're not careful, you you

catch your finger like I did yesterday, but you use

the tool to move the nut. Yeah, that's just how

it is. It's the same with the word of God.

You take the word of God and you apply it

to the particular nuts you got to deal with. That

might be a person, that might be a circumstance, that

might be a situation. But you get the right tool

out of the box or at my toolbox to fix it.

I was working with Rob two sets ago, taking with

how many's wardrobeses one of those things for the screws.

They don't tell you where they put the screw screws here,

screws there, And I was showing Rob how to use

a screwdriver. Because Rob, he's not a practical sort of guy. Again,

you get the right tool for the job. I span

wouldn't have worked on his wardrobe. You wouldn't be very

happy with me because he wants to keep it. But

the bottom line is you take the right tool for

the job. And what God wants us to get hold

of is how we use the word of God as

a tool. All Right, it's not something where's it go,

It's not something that my Bible isn't here. It's not

going to take out and give it a nice polished

look at it and go that's pretty cool. Operate it

back in my bag, put back in the pocket. It's

something we should be using every day, whether it's at work,

at university, at home. We need God to intervene in

circumstances and situations, all right, And what God wants us

to do is tie up with his word. Right. His

word is a word that carries the power. Okay, that's

a fact. That's a spiritual fact. I could throw one

of those sweets up and it come down, and that's

the lord of gravity. Yeah, that's a natural fact. The

spiritual fact is God's words alive and it's full of power.

It will change every situation. It will change every circumstance

if you apply it, all right, but you've got to

apply it a certain way. I don't know. I may

have made all these notes because I seemply're going to

have peace to my mind, hm hmm, it's so good.

Look at this.

Yeah, they must give that up.

So to apply God's word, we've got to do it

in God's way. Yeah, there's no point, like I said,

using a scrowge a span to fix his wardrobe or

take it that. It wouldn't work. You've got to do

it God's way. About says righteous peace and joy. He

goes to the Kingdom of God or God's way of

doing things and being right. So God's got a way

of doing things. He has a pattern he follows. The

Bible is full of patterns. Yeah, So what God wants

to get over is today is how we follow a pattern,

apply his word, and see the results that we need

to see.

Yeah.

So it's like practical applications of the word of God,

so you can be successful in what you need to

do and gave a situation or a circumstance. Yeah, We've

all got stuff going on, whether it's nice things or

it's stuff we're not looking forward to. There's always stuff

going on in people's lives or people you know. Yeah,

and well, we all have some sort of baggage or

stuff we need to deal with. If I'm being honest,

you know, if you take the mask off today, we've

all got stuff you need to deal with. But we

need got to deal with that. So today we're just

going to talk a bit about this and see what

the host we wants to do. I've got a few

notes and i haven't followed much of many of those

right now. But then it's one of those sermons sometimes

God gives you a word and it's like here three

points wanted to share. You go, okay, what story goes,

We're not doing that today. Just make a few notes

and go up there and open your mouth and watch

how I'm going to fill it and watch what I'm

going to do, which is one of the the study,

which is today's sort of thing. Yeah, so you just

stand here and you listen, and then God says boom,

and you're going to say something. So if I'm stopping

and listening, that's because it's one of these sort of sermons.

I'm not sure as I prefer the best. Really, these

are probably better because it's it's possibly more on the edge.

It's like riding a wave. You've got a certain stand

of the surfboard and keep on going. You've got to

ride the wave. It's riding the wave of the Holy

Spirit rather the intellect. So Hebrews ten, verse thirty eight

is a familiar passage which simply says the just shall

live by faith. Yeah, they just shall live by faith.

That was taken from Habocat two verses three to four,

Romans one seventeen, Galatians three eleven. Yeah, yeah, those four places.

So God said that four times they just shall live

by faith. So for the for the avoidance of doubt.

That's us. That means keris shall live by faith, Angela

shall live by faith, Salma shall live by faith. Right live.

That means live. You could transmit it breathe, so as

you breathe, that's how you live. So if I'm honest,

I don't do that all the time. You know I can.

I've flipping it out of it sometimes, depending if I'm

deliberate and what I'm thinking about. If I make a

deliberate decision or a quality decision, I can stay in

that flow all day. If I don't, I can go, Oh,

I'm in the wrong space. I need to step back

over here. There's like two there's a light, a line

we walk, which is God's way and you know our

way because we all have our own way of doing things.

We've all been brought up differently, but we all have

like terms of reference, so like our control system. So

the key is to learn how to walk deliberately with God. Yeah,

everone get that? Yeah?

Good?

So we called to live by faith. We called to

believe God for those things that we cannot see. We

called to see into the invisible and do the impossible. Yeah,

I think it's Romans four seventeen, God who gives life

to the dead and calls those things which do not

exist as though they did. It's Romans fall. So God's

way of doing things to call those things that are

not as though they are. Right. He said light be,

and then light was. It was just like bang. Godd

wants us to operate in the same way. Yeah, that

means you and me. There's no favorites. He doesn't have

a scaling thing. Oh day is my favorite, today, Rob's

my favorite, tomorrow. We are all God's children, were all adopted.

That means you've got the same rights as Jesus, which

is heavy. But the way we do this, the way

we connect with God, because flesh to flesh is firm,

Spirit to spirit is firm. God is a spirit. Yeah,

we connect with God by faith. And Romans twelve, verse threes.

Have all been given a measure of faith as on

the screen as it. I don't know. Yeah, we won't

be given a measure of faith. So you've got a

bit of faith. I've got a bit of faith. Then

we have to apply that faith that God give them faith. Yeah,

So if you don't believe and you try to apply

God's word it won't work right, because you need to

be in the family. You know, you need to be

in the family. If you're not in the family, you

need to get in the family. If you are in

the family, you can take the principles of God and

apply them and see the results. Yeah, because we're adopted.

Hebrews eleven to one to three says, now faith is

the substance or the compound of things hoped for, the

evidence of things not seen for by it. The elder

has obtained a good testimony by faith. We understand that

the worlds were framed by the word of God, so

that things which are seen were not made off things

which are visible. So God's word created things which could

not be seen, were not visible by his word. And

God wants us to do the same thing. All right. Now,

the principle sounds fine, you can write it down. It's

really cool. Yeah, rock on. Then you've got to use it.

There's no point using it when there's a big deal

going on and you need it to work. You've got

to work it on the day today rather than something

bit kicks off, something drops down and they're going to

die in front of you. BEA's got a heart attack. Now,

it's not the time to practice. Yeah, time is to

practice beforehands right, so you could become skillful. I know,

carriage plays a guitar. I know. It's your practices. Yeah,

you get good at what you practice. So we need

to practice working in peace rather than working in anxiety. Yeah,

we need to practice working in patience rather than give

nuts somebody hit somebody. Yeah, we need to practice those things.

Faith is always now now. Faith is the substance of

things hopeful, the evidence of things, not saying it's always

and now. God's a now sort of guy. Yeah, that's

how he is. He lives in the now. He's interested

in your now, is interested in mine now.

Yeah.

It's like we can talk to God and we've got

a problem around the back here somewhere, and he goes, hi, hi, good, good,

What about the problem around the back? Then? What problem

around the back? What problem around the back? That problem

around the back? I mean this problem on the back here. Well,

it's not really a problem, is it. Yes, it is.

It's like to show me your problem, well, not really

show me a problem. Okay, then here's the problem. In

God's eyes. It's like our eyes. It's like massive, you know,

it's like a card to carry it God's eyes. It's like,

what is that minute speck you've got around the back there? Boy? Yeah?

Or is that just me? Okay, just being honest this morning.

So God's wants us to live in the now by

faith and give all those things we got round the back,

which may we have stacked up over time. We take

out and have a look after a while and go,

I've got six Now. He wants us to live in

a certain way and operate in a certain way. Hebrews twelve.

Let's thick, let's flick it back of it. So if

you read here was eleven that's called the you know,

the Hall of fame faith whatever. Yeah, I haven't talked

about that. And they go the Hall of faith? Yeah,

whoa great would we do? All right? And we look

at God's great? But do we live that way? I can?

We can talk about Noah, Abraham, Moses, Sarah, Joseph, Giddy, David, Samuel,

all those dudes who did great exploits. Yeah, and we

can read the Bible and what they what those guys

did and what they live through. That's right, that's really good.

But then there's our bit below that isn't there. It's like,

what did Simon do? What did Dave do? What did

Rob do? You know? What are we doing?

Yeah?

He was twelve verse one to two. Puts it this way. Therefore, also,

since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us lay aside every weight, every sin that and

snares us, and let us run with endurance the race

that is set before us. In other words, it's our

time to run. Moses is putting his fee in heaven

doing something else. Yeah, nothing, putting his feet up. But

he's doing something else.

Yeah.

I don't think one minute God's going to say, okay, Ve,

may it sit down, have a cup of tea. We'll

do something later. God is always doing something, is always

stretching his faith. Yeah, He's run his race on the earth. Yeah,

Paul's run his race on his earth. He got the crown,

he did the job.

Yeah.

Now it's our time to run, all right, it's our

time to run. So how are we running our race? Yeah,

that's a rhetorical question. Okay, so I have a think

about that. How we're running our race? And what do

we need to do to run our race? Yeah, we've

all got it tomorrow going to kick in. Yeah. And

the stuff that's going to go on, some easy things,

some stuff you think, oh gosh, I've got to do that. Great,

I'll suck it up, I'll smile, I'll get on with it.

God wants us to run our race by faith. Okay,

look into Jesus, the Author and the finisher of faith.

He goes on to say, Jesus the author and finisher

of faith. Jesus lives in here, Jesus lives in there. Yeah,

so he's with us every step of every day. The

Holy Spirit's in us. Yeah, that's just how it is.

So what can go wrong? The answer is the human factor. Yeah,

are we going to do it? God's way? Are going

to do it the Frank's arks and arsh Away my way.

So you look at my notes, I've seem to blow

and is a total heart okay in the mind. So

basically wantswer to take his word and apply it. So

just playing on the phone from the Scripture one Peter

five seven, this is the amplified version, casting the whole

of your care, all your anxieties, all your worries, all

your concerns, wants and for all on him. He cares

for you affectionately and cares for you watchfully. So if

we deal with something like that, which coins to statistics,

lots of us do we need to connect with God

right and cast all our cares on him. So it's

all coming handy. I wrote down six things yesterday I

was preparing the word, which sort of tie this together.

So what does God's works say about my need or

my situation? Yeah, so either go and find a word

or a scripture or use the when the Holy spirit's

given to you. So maybe in the morning you've used

it's so amias, you know every day with Jesus holding

he was that sort of stuff. No whatever cares looking

like what you're doing, you know, have a devotional, can't you?

Or you can just do your own thing. Sometimes you

open your your your Bible up and you're reading something

and it's something someone just jumps out of your flashing

lights and it says, you know, and it speaks you

throughout of the day.

Yeah.

So sometimes So I knew a guy who was that

he had he had a he had a he had

a he had a profession, a pressure pressure exam to do,

and God gave him a word. I think it was

Proverbs three, five and six. Trust and loaded all your heart,

you know and understanding in all your words, knowledge that

you should direct and make straight play your past. So

God gave him a word so that his hand to

do was with a bit concerned, and so he hung

on to that with white knuckles to get him through

that situation. God spoke to him and he took it. Yeah.

Sometimes God speaks to us and we take it. Other

times we have to go and find something and apply it. Okay,

so we apply it by confessing it with our mouth

and believe it in our heart, the same principle using

where you received Jesus, we confessed it and we believed it. Yeah. Remember,

God's word does not return to him void, but it

companies that which he pleases and prospering the thing where

until he sends it as R. Fifty five eleven. Yeah,

God's word does not return to him his voice. So

we've got to find that word and apply that word.

Then we need to thank God for the manifestation of

that word. Yeah, we need to keep it alive. It's

not just I just said it. You've got to keep

it before God. You've got to keep it before you

as well to trust God to work through that situation

with you. Then you've got to watch what you say,

don't say thinking one with it, which is aligning with

what God has said, and then flip it the next

time and say, so that's totally contrary to that. That's

double minded, isn't it. Yeah, So we need to keep

we need to keep saying the right thing. Yeah, we

need to be consistent. Also, there's another thing which is

called the prayer of agreement. When two of you get together,

et cetera, et cetera, sometimes it's good to pray about something. Yeah,

get some with great hair like me or Dave or

Rob we shaved a head. If you can't say to

pray with you, yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, it's

not a weakness. It's just a case of you know,

maybe going you to do that. Yeah, and then trust

God for his timing. Don't be impatient, don't abort your miracle.

We live in a and now generation. And get my

smartphone out and I can wat's something in real time

which happened across the world twenty minutes ago, which is

like weird. We live in an entertaineous society. But God

has a plan and a purpose. How he operates, and

it's not just press a button open an app. God

is not an app. He is a person. Yeah right,

so don't treat him like like an app. Treat him

like a person. Yeah, just checking the time. Dave Mark

nine to twenty three puts it this way. If you

can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Yeah,

so we are believers in what Jesus said. Yeah. So

if we believe and apply the word of God in

our certain other situations, we can overcome. That's why the

bow says we're overcomers.

Yeah.

And nothing is impossible to him who believes. Nothing is

impossible to him who believes.

Yeah.

So we'll just wrap this up now. Father, I pray

that the principles we've talked about here this morning, you'd

in part to everyone listening online later or in here

in this room, so that they don't just words at fall.

But there was that which you can encourage each and

every one of the other people so they can apply

your word and be successful to receive what you wanted

to receive. God wants you to walk by faith, not

by sight. Yeah, that's the that's the strap line. I've

had a scream that with a strap line. I wants

to walk by faith, not by sight.

Yeah.

But it's a day by day, moment by moment thing,

all right, and we've got to apply ourselves to it.

We've got to be deliberate.

Yeah.

So, as Jonathan said, we're gonna have a time of worship.

So if you are in that place where you want

some degree with you in prayer about something during that time,

come forward and somebody you'll pray with you. If you don't,

that's totally cool. Rob