The Switch Of Faith 2

And so let's lift our Bibles up and wave them around, as our custom is around here.

Make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Let's say this together, say Heavenly Father, I'm glad to tune into live stream.

I'm taking advantage of the Word of God coming over right into my home, right where I'm watching.

Father, we thank you that you are speaking to me tonight.

What I need for my faith to grow and my victory to increase in Jesus' name, that's what the Bible teaches.

We go from faith to faith and from victory to victory, from strength to strength.

Let's turn in our Bibles tonight to Matthew, chapter eight.

I'm gonna read some familiar verses, starting with verse five.

And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him and saying Lord, my servant life at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

And Jesus saith unto him I will come and heal him.

And the centurion answered and said Lord, I'm not worthy that you should have come under my roof, but speak the Word only, and my servant shall be healed.

Notice his faith.

My servant shall be healed because, for I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this man go, and he goeth, and to another come, and he cometh.

And to my servant, do this.

And he doeth it.

And when Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed barely.

I say unto you I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the kingdom of heaven, and but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out in the outer darkness and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And Jesus said unto the centurion go thy way and as thou hast believed, see notice.

He said go thy way and as thou hast believed, so be it.

Done unto thee.

And his servant was healed in the self same hour, and one version says that instant.

And so tonight I wanted to continue my series.

The second message on the switch of faith.

The switch of faith.

Faith is the switch.

It turns on the power of God.

You know, a number of years ago God told me and instruct to make, teach what you take for granted.

And I know that we need to hear these messages over and over, because faith cometh by hearing and hearing, and you know you might hear something one time and a couple of years later you hear it again and you identify.

Well, I have heard that before, but if you'll have ears to hear, you'll hear something that you need to hear for right now.

And every message is not a sermon, it's a message.

And this message tonight is so important the switch of faith.

You know, faith is the switch that turns on the power of God.

And notice, we made this point very emphatically last week that faith is not the power, faith is the switch that controls the power.

And that's important for us, because many times I think we're intimidated by the size of the problem and we think well, our faith, my faith is going to have to grow out.

I just don't have enough faith.

This problem is bigger than my faith.

Let me tell you something, you know it's not bigger than your faith.

Your faith is just a switch and God's power is controlled by that switch.

And once God's power comes to bear on whatever it is that you're facing, I'm telling you, things begin to change in your favor.

So we talked about last week the woman with the issue of blood in Mark, chapter five, and what she did.

She began, she heard of Jesus and she continually said the amplified says.

She kept on saying I shall be whole.

And she came in the press behind and she touched the him of his garment.

She said, if I can just touch but the him of his garment, just put his clothes.

She said she didn't know what the hit it was going to be the him until she got there and he was crowded with people.

And so we made the point that she turned on the switch of the word.

She kept on saying you know, if you're going to exercise faith, you've got to exercise words of faith coming out of your mouth.

You preach.

You know, speak the word.

Speak what you're believing to happen.

Don't speak about the problem.

Talk about the problem.

Don't magnify the devil, don't magnify the trouble.

Talk about the answer, talk about what you want, call what you want.

So turn on the switch of the word.

Then we talked about turn on the switch of action.

You know she didn't stay there in her home.

She was sick for 12 years, hemorrhaging.

She could have just stayed home and said I hope he comes to my town, I hope he walks up to my front porch.

If he does, I'll be healed.

No, she went to where he was and so she overcame all the hindrances that she had.

We talked about that last week.

So we have to take action.

Faith without corresponding action is dead James 2, 20 in the way.

And so if we're going to speak something, we also have to act in line with our words.

And one good prayer to pray when you're facing something and you're believing for things to change is Father, how do I act?

My faith, what course of action do I need to prove that I have faith?

See, faith is simply acting, like the Bible is true.

Our faith is acting on the Word.

So our faith has got to have action.

And then what she did was she received.

You know, as soon as she touched the hem of his garment, you know she had to get on her hands and knees and crawl through all those dirty feet and all that smelly.

You know, man, it had to be smelly down there.

You know that crowd, it's hot, it's sweltering, and she's down there with all the dirt and everything else.

And she gets to the hem of his garment because she identified the priest's robe that he was wearing and she touched that and as soon as she did, she felt in her body, she was healed of that plague and immediately he felt in his body, virtue or power go out.

So you notice that she felt and he felt and so she received.

That's the point I'm making.

You know, when you pray, believe you received, and you shall have the receive to receive, means to take with a hand of faith.

So you count it done.

The minute you start speaking and acting, like the Bible is true, you say, father, I believe I've received, and then you begin to praise God.

That's part of receiving is praising him, Even before you see any change in the circumstance.

And then, finally, jesus looked around to see who had done this, who had made a demand on his anointing.

He touched me and she came and fell at his feet and told him all the truth.

She testified.

So it's so important, your testimony is so important.

So there's a difference between saying something.

See, you're confessing the word, but testifying is not the same as confessing.

Testifying is telling what happened after the fact.

You sit in the witness chair and you testify of what you have seen and heard.

You testify of the goodness of God.

If it's healing, you testify that you've been healed.

If you testify that God came through for you financially, you testify that God delivered you.

We just had a wonderful deliverance service and dozens of people came up Sunday morning to get delivered from depression.

And I mean you know their confession needed to be from that moment on they needed to say thank God, god delivered me from depression, hallelujah.

I mean.

The anointing came upon me and destroyed the yoke, Amen, so testify.

And those four things are the way that that woman gained her healing and kept the switch of faith turned on.

Turn on the switch of testimony.

So tonight I wanted to talk about the centurion and his way of receiving from Jesus.

And it made Jesus marvel.

His faith made Jesus marvel.

He marveled in his own hometown, at his hometown's unbelief, and but this is the only place concerning faith where Jesus marveled.

He marveled.

He said you know, let me tell you something.

A lot of you people to whom the promises are made, you know you're going to be sitting around with Abraham, isaac and Jacob and you're going to be thrown out in the outer darkness.

And I said why was he being so mean?

Well, because a Capernaum was the city in which he was.

At Capernaum he had done great and mighty miracles and they had denied him, they had not embraced him, they did not believe him, even though he had done great and mighty things there.

He said you know, if the miracles had been done that's been done in Capernaum and done in Tyre and Siden if they had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have way long time ago repented in sackcloth and ashes.

So he had some harsh words to say about people who didn't receive what he was saying.

And so here's the centurion see, a Roman centurion.

He doesn't really have a covenant, he has no covenant with God, he has no real right to come to Jesus.

But yet he had heard that Jesus was one who never turned people away, and so he came to Jesus.

We see two words here in this account, here in Matthew, chapter eight, we see two words.

We see the word faith and we see the word believe.

Everybody say that out loud Faith and believe.

Now you know.

Getting back to your English, you know you all took English.

I took English in high school, and so faith is a noun and believe is a verb.

It's an action verb, and so believe is an action verb.

Think about that.

When you believe, you have to take action.

Believing is not mentally agreeing that something is true.

A lot of people think believing is just simply agreeing that something is true.

Oh yeah, I believe that Jesus is the healer.

Yes, I believe he's my healer.

Well then, act like it, get out of bed, quit acting sick.

You have to resist sickness and disease and you know, sometimes all you can do is wiggle a little finger.

You know if you're that sick, you know I've been an ICU.

I know exactly what it's like to be weak and infirm.

I know exactly what that's like.

But I resisted All the time that I was in there.

I resisted, consciously and unconsciously.

I would do things that were uncomfortable, I would make myself resist and, of course, taking all the medications and all the I don't know how many times they stuck me with needles to draw blood.

They ran out of places and you know you're an ICU, you're pretty sick and you know I could have been condemned.

I could have said here I am a pastor, I'm teaching on faith and here I am stuck in this place.

No, I didn't think that way, because Jesus said in the world you shall have tribulation, test, trials, anguish.

You're going to have a contest on your hand, you're going to have battles.

There's no great faith without great battles, no great.

You know victories without great tests.

So you just have to know that.

So the Centurion took action.

When his when he and he didn't come on his own behalf, he came on behalf of his servant who was sick with the palsy, grievously tormented.

He just told Jesus what the problem was.

He didn't ask him, he said Jesus, I just want to tell you about this problem, and it's for my, my, my servant.

He's lies, lies at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

And so Jesus volunteered hey, I'll come and heal him, I'll come.

Oh no, I didn't mean that I'm not worried that you should come under my roof, but just speak the word only, and my servant will be healed because I'm a man under authority.

In other words, basically, what he's saying is I recognize the authority of your word.

No one could do what you're doing unless they were under the highest authority available.

Nobody I know what you say goes.

You don't have to travel all the way to my house and come inside my house.

You don't have to do that.

Just speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.

You know how I recognize that?

Because I'm that way.

I'm a man, I'm a Centurion, I've got a hundred soldiers under me and I'm a man under authority.

That's reason my authority works.

I've always obey orders, and then, when my orders are given, they are obeyed.

See, that's what he's saying.

He's given Jesus the reason why he believes that all he's gotta do is speak the word only.

And Jesus marveled Hallelujah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha.

And so the authority of the Word of God.

See, when your faith starts resting in the authority of God's Word, you're coming along spiritual growth.

Now, the authority of the Word, the Word itself, carries with it the power.

See, do you believe in the Word?

Well, then, act like the Word is true.

That's the simple definition of faith, simple definition.

So Jesus says to him here in verse 13, as you have believed, so it will be done unto you, let it be done unto you.

So, let's put it this way so, as you have acted on the Word see, let's plug in acted on the Word with the Word believed.

As you have acted on the Word, so let it be done unto you.

See, how did he act on the Word?

Well, he acted on the Word by coming and telling Jesus what the problem was, and then he said go thy way.

So when he turned to go his way, that was his saying well, I believe it's done.

Then he didn't keep talking.

He said well, you know, maybe maybe you ought to come with me check on him see if it's okay.

No, he just when he's away, he knew it was done.

Right.

Then he knew it was done.

When he gets back home that man's probably cooking him a chicken fried steak.

Who knows what he's doing.

But anyway, praise God.

So when he went he showed his trust in God's Word, in the authority of the Word that Jesus spoke.

And you know we do this all the time in other areas.

I mean, we're practiced at doing this.

It's not that hard to do because we do it all the time.

We do it all the time.

For instance, let's just say your employer says okay, johnny, I'm giving you a raise next month.

You're gonna see it in next month's paycheck.

Maybe you work for somebody that they don't give you a paycheck in person.

They just transfer it into your account, a wire transfer.

A lot of times corporations do that.

Nowadays, instead of a check, they get a wire transfer.

That's how we do our payroll at Glorious Way Church.

And so you know, just be looking at the bank and you'll be getting that bonus.

Excellent, you know you're gonna get a thousand dollar bonus, where you go home and say, honey, we got a thousand dollar bonus.

Well, has it come in yet?

No, but see, you believe the Word of your boss, honey.

I think we can afford to have those drapes now.

You've been wanting new curtains for the din and those fancy things.

You know, we got a thousand dollar bonus.

I, you know, just start shopping, let's go find us, honey.

I think it's good news.

I thought what do you think about that?

How many men would do that?

Probably none.

But anyway, it's hard to get a.

I have to be honest with you, it's hard to get excited about curtains, right?

So so you know, that's one example.

You know, when you were little, you know mama would say Johnny, it's cold outside, don't forget your jacket, you're gonna need your jacket today.

Well, you don't sit around and doubt mama, you just believe mama.

You go and get your jacket and put it on and you enjoy the warmth of it all day long.

I mean, see, we act on.

We act on people's word.

That's my point.

We act on people's word all the time.

We act on people's word, we believe what they're saying.

You know, I bought a car one time and I had to order the car.

Frankly, because it was a Corvette.

It was a 2008 Corvette Z06.

And in order to buy one here in town, I would have had to have bought a black one, which I did not want a black Corvette, I wanted a blue Corvette, and then I would have had to have paid 10,000 over list.

Well, I didn't want to pay 10,000 over list, I wanted to pay 2,000 over list, which I found, a dealer in Nashua, new Hampshire, and I bought it online.

Well, you know what?

I sent that dealer in Nashua a thousand dollar check with my order blank.

He sent me an order blank and I checked all the boxes on the order blank.

I checked every option on the Corvette, every one of them.

I got all the options you could get and I sent him a thousand dollar check and I trusted that he would order that Corvette.

Then I went to my lender.

I said I've just ordered a new Corvette.

It's not going to come in for a few months, but I want to, you know, and I applied for the loan and they approved my loans.

Whenever it comes in, you just give them this number and they will call and do a draft and then you come in and sign the paper.

It was all done, basically, on a.

I didn't even shake anybody's hand.

It was all done on the telephone.

And what was I doing?

I was acting on the word of the dealer, I was acting on the word of the banker.

And you know what?

In a few months that Corvette came in.

I got to drive it.

Everything turned out, worked, it worked.

So it works.

If it works with people, it works with God.

Come on, lift your hands right now.

I mean you just trust what God's word says and you act on it.

Believing is an action verb.

It's acting like the Bible is true.

It's acting like the authority of the word is something you can base your life on, and you can so in Mark 11, 23,.

The Bible says whosoever shall say unto you Jesus said this whosoever, verily, verily, I say unto you.

Jesus said my dad would have said it this way.

Look at him now.

That's what he would have said.

In other words, what I'm about to tell you is true.

Look at here now.

Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, well, what's doubt?

It's the opposite of faith.

So if faith is acting on the word doubt is failing to act on the word.

So whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not and shall fail to act, he shall fail to act on this word, but shall act like the mountain is gone.

He shall have whatsoever he says.

So we have to act like once we speak to the mountain, we can't deal with the mountain anymore.

As far as we're concerned, it's gone.

Well, wait a minute, it's still there.

The debt's still there, the sickness is still there.

No, I know, but you call the thing that, being honest though they were, so you act as if it's gone.

So, again, if you've speaking to sickness, the mountain of sickness has to go, and therefore, I'm up out of bed and I'm moving about and I'm resisting staying here.

Now, you, you might get weak and you might have to go back to bed.

Well, there's no condemnation in that.

The main thing, though, is to resist it.

Amen, are y'all getting this now?

And so, once you know what the word says about your situation, we simply act on that word as if it's true, and when you fellowship with the Father, you know around the word, it'll be natural to you to just act on His word and trust what it.

You trust the authority of the word, you, you just know what it.

Well, god said it.

I believe it, that and I act on it.

That settles it, amen.

So we're in this building because we acted on the on the word that God gave me regional center.

You know, I was looking at five acres and God said you're a regional center.

My five acre faith eventually went to 92.7 acre faith.

And then that land we bought and then we traded that land for the land we have now.

And all those years later, here we are in a paid for building, 10 acres of property, all because we acted on God's word.

I'm telling you God's word is uh, as I'm teaching you how to appropriate God's promises so you can have all the things that Jesus blood purchased for you, amen.

So let's act on God's word and be prepared, you know, to to see all these wonderful things come to pass that we have need, be prepared to see your life change when you act on God's word.

Amen.

Faith is a switch that turns on the power of God.

Let's lift our hands and receive the word tonight.

Short but sweet.

Hallelujah, father, we thank you.

Tonight.

We have people watching that have all kinds of situations in their lives and and we thank you that we agree with them and we agree that the switch of faith is being turned on tonight and God's power is flowing to all those circumstances to change them.

Amen.