Lock Out The Doubt 4

Well, I trust that you're not tired of this message, but I'm gonna.

I've just still got mindings.

You know that's what happens sometimes I get into a series and I mind all the gold nuggets out of it.

So we're talking about locking out the doubt.

Lock out the doubt and don't let doubt rob you of God's best.

So we've been preaching and sharing with you this message.

This is our fourth time, and so let's look at Matthew, chapter 14 tonight, and you know the story by now.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

This is the story of Jesus walking on the water, and.

But he had just fed the 5,000 and he put his disciples in the ship and said I'll see you on the other side.

They didn't know how that was gonna happen because he didn't say a with them.

He went up on a mountain to pray and then, in verse 25, in the fourth watch of the night, which is between three and six am, jesus went under them walking on the sea.

And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying it's a spirit, and they cried out for fear.

But straightway, jesus spoke unto them saying be of good cheer, be of good courage.

It is.

I be not afraid, and I tell you that's the message right now let's not be afraid of this coronavirus, let's not be afraid of all these, these negative, the people that want to overthrow our government.

They want to change everything.

Let's be not afraid, let's be of good courage.

And so Peter answered him and said Lord, if it be thou bid me, come to thee on the water.

And he said come.

Just one word.

And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.

Let's keep that in mind.

Everybody say Peter walked on the water, say sometimes we forget that he actually walked on the water and he did, but in verse 30,.

But when he saw the wind boisterous or strong, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried, saying Lord, save me.

And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him O thou little faith, wherefore it didst thou doubt.

And when they were coming into the ship, the wind seized.

So Jesus took him back, walked him back to the ship.

So lock out the doubt, don't let doubt rob you of God's best.

Little faith enabled Peter to walk on the water.

O you of little faith.

See, I mean I would have said no faith, but no, he had little faith.

Little faith walked on the water.

Just think what big faith will do.

And yet doubt sunk him and robbed him and the other 11, we've been making that point the people watching him were robbed as well.

The doubt robbed them of the privilege of not only watching the miracle but participating, because potentially they could have all gone over the side and walked out there to be with Jesus.

He's no respecter of persons.

It wasn't Peter's talent that had him walking on the water.

He didn't have some special thing, it was faith.

I'll tell you, when you've got faith, you've got what you need.

And we all have been dealt the measure of faith.

So we have it.

Don't say you don't have it, you've got it.

And so doubt came from acting on the fear of circumstances.

Now, I'm convinced, if he hadn't say help, lord, you know, I think if he'd have said Lord, I'm coming, I'm walking on the water, I'll be out there shortly.

I mean, you know, if he could have just somehow got his eyes off the water he didn't see the wind, but he saw the effect of the wind I believe he'd have said something besides Lord, save me.

I believe he could have stayed up, stayed up on his feet, walking on the water.

So doubt came from acting on the fear of circumstances.

Doubt came from uncertainty of God's will.

You know, sometimes when we see trouble we start to doubt whether we heard from God.

We start to doubt what he said to us.

He just gave him one word come it.

Kind of, in face of all those circumstances he kind of forgot that word.

It was Jesus' idea for him to come out there.

So we talked about in previous weeks having the eyes of faith.

You know, faith people see beyond the circumstances, the eyes of faith.

And then, having the hand of faith, we receive what God gives us with the hand of faith.

And so we have eyes of faith, the hand of faith.

We need hand-eye coordination.

Sometimes it takes a little practice to learn how to walk by faith and to receive what God's best for us.

And we talked also about the language of faith.

You know he had the language of doubt.

At first he had the language of faith, but then when he saw the circumstances he lapsed into the language of doubt.

So we've got to keep the language of faith going.

Faith calls the things that be, not as though they were.

And I've said this and I say it again in 40 years of being saved 33 years in the ministry, the thing I see is that people have the hardest time calling the things that be not as though they were.

They can do it maybe one time or two times, but they don't do it every time.

They don't do it consistently.

They tend to back off of those words when pressure comes.

So faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

Doubt is the defeat that overcomes the believer.

Say let me say this again faith.

Bible says faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

First, john, faith is the victory of four four.

Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

Doubt is the defeat that overcomes the believer.

So we got to lock out the doubt, all right.

So I wanted to share with you some more along this line.

Matthew, chapter nine, if you will, and let's read, starting with verse 27.

And when Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed him, and that was JIRS house.

This was the testimony of JIRS daughter and how Jesus raised her from the dead and powerful.

And so he's leaving there, and these two blind men were there and followed him from there.

Two blind men followed him crying and saying, or you could say crying and praying thou, son of David, have mercy on us.

See, they were asking Jesus for something.

Whatever they asked, they were asking for mercy, mercy on us, two blind men.

And when he was coming to the house, the blind men came to him.

So they followed him in the house and Jesus said unto them believe ye that I'm able to do this?

And they said unto him yea, lord.

And then touch, tea their eyes, saying according to your faith, be it unto you.

And their eyes were opened and Jesus straightly charged them, saying see that no man knoweth so what I want you to see.

According to your faith, be it unto you.

The great law of faith.

You know.

Faith is used according to principles.

There has to be certain procedures followed in order for your faith to produce results.

Just, it's made by the same God who made the universe, who have physical laws.

I mean we have the law of gravity, we have the law of lift, we have all these different physics laws of impulse and momentum.

I had to go over all these laws as my study for engineering.

Believe it or not, I got a degree in mechanical engineering, so I know a little bit about science.

I know a little bit about the laws of nature.

We saw walking on the water.

That violates laws of nature.

And here are these blind men.

So they followed Jesus from Jairus' house where they witnessed a young woman raised from the dead and even after crying and praying, they were still in the same shape as before.

They were crying, oh, jesus, have mercy on us and our son of David.

See, they even recognized that he was the Messiah.

They had faith to believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

A lot of Jews didn't believe that they had that kind of faith.

They had the faith that believed that Jesus was who he said he was, that he was the son of David.

And were they healed?

We know they weren't healed.

They cried, they said, oh, have mercy on us.

And they still were blind.

And then they went into the house and they were still blind.

You know, many have prayed for years and are still in the same shape as they were before.

And it wasn't until Jesus asked or do you believe?

Do you believe that I'm able to do this?

You see, up until that time they had the faith that he was a son of God, but they didn't have real faith.

They didn't have faith in their heart that he was gonna heal them, that he wanted to heal them.

They were just asking without any faith.

You know, a lot of people pray with no faith in their heart.

Faith, yeah, listen, you've gotta pray with faith in your heart.

Or you've gotta say with faith in your heart, if you're gonna get what the Bible says you can have.

So they'd never before prayed in faith and they couldn't access the law of faith until they believed in their heart.

See, the law of faith means you've gotta believe in your heart and speak with your mouth.

That's the law of faith.

It's a law just like the law of gravity.

And you know, I still see people who want God to perform based on just believing alone.

And you know, jesus didn't say you can have what you believe.

He said you can have what you say.

You can have what you say you believe in your heart.

So there's two things that have to happen you have to believe in your heart and you have to speak with your mouth, what you believe in your heart.

So that's the law of faith.

They did not follow the law of faith until Jesus prompted them.

He says do you believe that I'm able to do this?

Yay, lord, that's all it took.

He touched their eyes and both of those blind men saw Suddenly the law of faith kicked in and they received what they were after.

And so it's according to your faith, and notice what Jesus said.

According to your faith, be it unto you.

According to your faith, it's not according to somebody else's faith, not according to Sister Bucket Mouth's faith, not according to your momma's faith.

I mean, you know, children, your momma can do some things and believe some things for you.

But once that happens, one time you're on your own, you're gonna have to start believing for yourself and not according to how many prayer lines you called.

I was talking to someone a few months ago and it was a wonderful miracle.

They weren't members of this church, but anyway, I think most of our people would know better than to say this.

But I said well, what a tremendous miracle.

I'm so glad to hear that you were here.

She said well, I tell you, I know it was because people all across this country was praying for me.

I mean, I had lots of people See, no, lady, I didn't tell her, she's not my sheep, you know, I wanted to, I really wanted to, glad as she would have.

She would have stopped me on the foot if I'd have started down that road.

But no, she wouldn't.

She's not here to offend herself, but he wouldn't have been wise.

I mean, for those things said, let them that are ignorant be ignorant still, but anyway, but she's ignorant of the law of faith.

It's not according to how many people are praying for you, it's your faith.

According to your faith, be it unto you.

I'm not saying she didn't get a miracle.

Maybe the miracle was because because of mercy.

A lot of times we count mercy as a miracle and really it's just God having mercy on us.

But if you want to receive what you're desiring, you've got to have the law of faith working in your favor.

You've got to meet the conditions.

Say that out loud with me.

Meet the conditions.

And what are the conditions?

Believe in your heart, speak with your mouth what you believe in your heart, and not just once.

Inconsistency lies the power.

It's not saying at one time and then, when things are a little bad, then we didn't say something else and then no, we've got to hold on to our profession of faith without wavering.

Without wavering, see, that's the law of faith.

And and so James 5, 14, 15 the prayer of faith saves the sick and the Lord will raise him up.

The prayer of faith.

The prayer of faith.

What is the prayer of faith?

The prayer that calls the things that be, not as though they were.

See, I don't pray for healing in the sense of asking God, but if someone asked me to pray for them, I may go over and I may anoint them with oil in the name of Jesus, according to James 5, 14.

And when I pray the prayer of faith, I don't say, oh Lord, please heal sister Jones here.

No, I say, oh, father, in Jesus name, I know it, sister Jones, with oil and according to faith, james 5, 14, I pray the prayer of faith.

I say that she is healed according to the stripes of Jesus and we just count it as done as of this moment, for when that oil is on her, on her forehead, she's gonna know that by the stripes of Jesus she was healed and she is healed, and we declare it and we receive it now as fact.

It's finished fact, in Jesus name.

Amen.

See, that's the prayer of faith.

I never did ask Jesus to do it.

I claimed it.

Why?

Because Jesus has already done all he's gonna do about our healing.

It's.

It's unscriptural to ask him for something he's already done.

It's silly, it's not faith.

And so Another definition of faith is Hebrews 11.

One faith is the substance of things, hope for the evidence of things not seen.

So the prayer of faith is stating the evidence of things not yet seen as Fact.

In other words, the symptoms are still there, the fever is still there, the pain is still there, but we declare healing in the face of all of the negative circumstances.

That's the prayer of faith.

And then this, and then the person being prayed for.

Their responsibility Then is not to keep praying.

Oh, I hope I'm, I hope I'm healed.

Well, I hope these symptoms leave.

No, you start thanking God that you are healed in the face of the circumstances.

Hey, man and uh.

So we see Another aspect of these two blind men.

They had been prayed Without faith in their heart and they were just the same as they were no telling how long they'd pray.

There have been people that that had prayed for years and years and never did really have the faith.

They didn't pray with faith.

They didn't pray with any faith at all.

They just keep asking and keep begging and they keep asking, they, they just wear out.

You know I'm storming the gates of heaven.

Well, the gates of heaven are open, you don't have to storm them.

I mean, you know there's no, you know there's no storm in the gates.

I mean all that's unbelief, all of that is natural thinking.

Let's get by Bible, let's, let's think like the Bible says.

And so here these two are, and they actually came into the house.

So now they were.

They had faith that he was a son of God, that he was the Messiah, and they, they asked him for to have mercy, they wanted their side and they were in his presence.

They were in His presence and yet they were still blind.

A lot of people think well, if I could just get to church, I'll just automatically be healed.

Well, you can get in the presence of God, and if you don't have faith in your heart, you can forget it.

You're not doing the things necessary to fly.

I mean, you know I might want to fly out there, but I doubt if I can go out there and run fast enough and my arms extended to fly.

I don't think I can.

I'd be the first human in being in history to ever do so.

No, you have to have wings, you have to have enough speed, and Wilbur and Arville Wright figured that out back in 1903, and they were the first to fly in an airplane.

And that's the law of lift, overcoming the law of gravity.

So it can be done, but you've got to meet the conditions.

People are not meeting the conditions unless they believe in their heart and speak with their mouth and the presence of God.

Yes, it's important to be in His presence, but that alone won't heal you.

You have to still have faith in your heart.

You have to have a release your faith with your words.

A very similar situation was found in Luke, chapter five.

You all know the story of the man had palsy and he had four friends who took him to a Jesus meeting.

And they got to the house where Jesus was and in the house were Pharisees and Sadducees and doctors of the law, and the Bible says the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

I'm just telling you what the Bible said.

Was any of them healed?

No, not one of them was healed, even though there was power to heal them.

It was there, wow.

Well, because they didn't meet the conditions of the law of faith.

There they were, but they didn't turn the switch of faith on.

They could have any.

That group of people was so crowded that that man couldn't get in the door.

So his friends took him up on the roof Can you imagine the way that must have felt on this stretcher?

And they pulled him up on the roof with ropes, I guess and broke a hole in the roof and they lowered him down in the presence of Jesus.

Here's Jesus preaching to these guys in there and they're kind of skeptical and they're wondering about Jesus and all of a sudden saw dust and shingles and wood, and two before start falling down on the floor.

And here comes this man on ropes being lowered into the presence of Jesus.

And it says and when Jesus saw their faith, now faith, can you see faith?

See, faith is a spiritual force.

You can't see it with your eyes, but you can see its results.

You can see the actions of faith.

What Jesus saw were faith-filled actions.

When they broke a hole in the roof and lowered that man into his presence, he saw their faith and he turned to the man.

He said son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

And then the crowd.

They start questioning among themselves does he have power on earth to forgive sins?

And they were offended at him.

And Jesus picked up on it.

You see, sometimes unbelief can be seen.

You can see unbelief in body language.

You can see unbelief in the way someone holds their countenance.

That's why in-person services are not optional.

You can't really have a church without in-person.

I mean, I can tell so much about the state of this church when we're all together.

For instance, this past Sunday morning, when I got up on the platform, I felt well I shouldn't say feel, see, because you think it's a physical feeling I perceived in my spirit that we were at another level.

I mean, I perceived the spirit of God in this sanctuary was at a higher level than it had ever been before.

It was just electrifying to be here just after praise and worship.

When I stepped up on the platform See, I'm preaching into the camera.

I don't perceive much of anything.

I by faith.

I believe some of you are watching.

I don't know, I don't have anything to tell me.

You're watching, so I just believe you are.

But it's different when you're hearing person, because I can see you and I can perceive the faith of the crowd.

And then we know that we're gonna go off and we're gonna have some miracles, we're gonna have some people helped.

We know that the Word will come forth in power and so and I know the same thing tonight this Word is anointed all by itself, and I'm not knocking that you're not here.

I'm just saying I miss you when you're not here.

So don't get used to this too much, although I know some people live out of town so we're glad we can help you.

And so here they were, in God's presence or Jesus presence, and they still weren't healed.

So again, you've got to meet the conditions of the law of faith.

You've got to lock out the doubt and meet the conditions of the law of faith, doubt will sink your ship, doubt will sink your life, glub, glub, glub.

And so we can activate the law of faith.

So lock out the doubt.

All right, I have three things One, two, three things for you tonight, just for you to activate and kind of think about about this message and see if it applies to you.

Over the years I've seen people.

They just feel like they have to call somebody's prayer line.

You know back when O were you I don't know if they still have a prayer line, but they used to have a prayer line.

Millions of calls a year would come in.

They had a whole big staff of people answering the prayer.

They prayed with people over the phone.

Well, I can understand where people are maybe shut in, don't have any place, they don't have a church or they can't leave.

They're maybe in a nursing home or something like that a hospital.

I can understand that value.

But listen, if you've got a church I mean number one you can pray yourself and number two, that's why you ought to have a local church, that when you need someone to lay hands on, you can come and have hands laid on you.

But it's not about the multitude of prayer.

Okay, first of all, first point, about locking out the doubt Faith is of the heart or of the spirit.

It's inside of you.

In Romans 12, three, god has dealt to every man in the measure of faith.

You got dealt a measure of faith when you got saved.

Just enough faith for you to get saved was given to you as a gift.

And what you've had since then?

Some people never have added to that faith.

Well, I believe you have, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith can increase, faith can grow.

Paul congratulated the Thessalonians and said it's all over the world the knowledge that your faith is growing exceedingly, and so your faith can grow or it can shrink, or it can be almost nothing and so.

But faith is of the heart.

So pay attention to spiritual things, pay attention to the word of God.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing.

Many of you have heard this message or something similar to it over and over.

I've heard so many faith messages Brother Hagin and Brother Osteen.

That was a favorite thing.

They taught.

Well, people need messages on faith to feed their faith, and so faith is of the heart, faith is of the spirit.

The second thing to keep in mind is that's Mark 11, 23.

Whosoever shall say unto this mountain shall not doubt in his heart and shall believe that those sayings which he saith shall come to pass.

He shall have whatsoever he saith.

So say or sayeth some version of say is in that verse three times, and believe is in there one time, and so we emphasize on what to say and what we should continually say, what we believe.

And then 11, 24, the next verse what thinks whoever you desire when you pray?

Therefore, what thinks whoever you desire when you pray?

Believe you receive them and you shall have them.

So believe that you receive and you shall have when, when you pray, not when you.

You don't believe it when it shows up.

You believe it before it shows up.

You believe you have it, you believe you receive it and then you shall have it and there's an amen, and that's when you believe you receive and that there it is, happens later.

There's always a time distance between the amen and there it is always.

Keep that in mind.

And so believing is having right.

I mean, it's just believing is having.

If you believe it and say it, you have it.

You have it so that you can rejoice.

You don't have to have a pity party, you can rejoice.

Well, but the symptoms are worse.

I don't care.

Believing is having.

It's on the way, rejoice, it's on the way.

Hallelujah, I believed I received when I prayed.

I shall have hallelujah, I have it now.

Believing is having.

Believing is possessing.

Believing is possessing.

A lot of times we wait till we actually have the report, while we ought to rejoice as soon as we said amen, and every time we think about it we ought to rejoice again.

Rejoice, rejoice.

You know John 647, we can take part of that verse he that believeth has, he that believeth has.

So see, think about that.

When you believe you have it, that's time to shout.

That's time to shout Amen.

And then these are some of the conditions that have to be met.

These are some of the conditions that have to be met for the law of faith to work.

It's the great law of faith.

And then the last one that I challenge you about.

This is a very common trip up.

Watch your tenses.

I sound like an English teacher.

Now Watch the tenses of your verbs.

Faith is always now.

Faith is always now.

It's never future.

Future is hope.

Well, god's gonna heal me.

That's hope, but that's not faith.

That's sincere, but it's not the law of faith.

The law of faith.

Sincerity is not part of the law of faith.

Law of faith says now what you believe in your heart and speak with your mouth.

Now, you have it.

Now.

Believing is having.

Believing is possessing.

So when you say, oh, god's gonna heal me, no, he already did so.

Faith is always now.

Faith is having.

Faith is having.

When all the circumstances or symptoms say that you don't have it here, we get into calling of things that be not as though they were.

I still I know in my spirit many of our, especially our newer members.

If you're watching tonight, you have to challenge yourself.

Well, I feel like I'm lying.

No, you're not lying.

I mean, you know, when people ask me how I'm doing, it doesn't even matter how I feel I always say better and better, better and better.

There was a time in my life I had just moved back to Houston from Corpus.

I was broke.

I was so broke I couldn't pay attention.

I was living in my sister's house.

She had to give my family a place to live.

I couldn't even provide a place to live for my own family and had no.

I mean, I'd been self-employed so nobody wanted to hire me.

I was looking for a job.

They all told me I was overqualified.

And so the height of my confession.

I knew not to ever come to church and say I'm doing so bad, would you pray for me?

I knew better than to do that.

I had a smile on my face.

You know, nobody knew I had any trouble.

But when they asked me how you doing, john, I'd say well, I'm hanging in there.

And somebody else had asked me how's it going, john?

Well, I'm plugging along.

And after I'd said that about a thousand times, see, that was about the height of my confession.

I mean, it wasn't a good confession.

I mean, do you really want to just hang in there.

You know, I mean, don't you want to do something better than hang in there?

But that's the best I could do.

I couldn't bring myself to say I'm blessed, thank you.

All my needs are met, thank you.

I could have said that that's calling the things that be, not as though they were.

And so, after I'd said that about a thousand times, the Holy Ghost rose up on the inside and says I told this man one Sunday, right in the front of the Old Lakewood Church, I was walking around it before the church started.

He came up to me how you doing, john?

Well, I'm hanging in there.

And then, yeah, and then I heard this voice.

I thought everybody heard it in the whole church.

It was loud yeah and your fingernails are about to break.

That was the little corrective word from the Holy Ghost yeah, and your fingernails are about to break.

He was laughing, but I was not laughing, I was serious.

I mean, I knew I had done the wrong thing and I ran after that man.

I said let me correct that I'm doing better and better what?

He didn't know what I was talking about.

He didn't figure it.

I said I was hanging there, but I'm doing better and better.

Oh yeah, whatever.

He wasn't paying attention, but the Holy Ghost was paying attention to my confession.

Well, let's pay attention to what we're saying out of our mouth and let's not put everything off to the future.

Let's you know, faith has not gonna have.

Faith possesses not gonna possess, amen.

And so watch the tenses of your verbs and whenever you say you don't have, that's doubt.

Whenever you put it in the future, that's doubt.

Lock out the doubt.

Lock out the doubt and say it's mine now.

Don't let doubt rub rob you of God's best for your life.