Houses- Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from LifeHouse Church.

Good morning, good morning.

Listen, turn someone.

You're already talking to somebody.

See, Mazza just turned to somebody else right now.

Say hello, welcome them to LifeHouse.

It's good to have you here in the house at Carlisle.

If you're at East Shore, if you're online, join us online.

You can just type in the chat and they'd love to, our host online, hosts would love to talk

with you and chat with you this morning.

But it's good to be in God's house.

It's good to feel God's presence.

Amen.

It's come to lift up His name.

How many came?

How many came expecting something this morning?

Anybody?

Good, about six of you.

All right, well you're going to be the ones that receive something, right?

Because expectation is part of it.

And really, you know, I was thinking about those kids that go to Winterfest.

Years ago, I went many, many times to Winterfest as a youth pastor and I remember going.

I remember the excitement ahead of time, getting ready to go on that trip.

And it wasn't just, you know, the fact of getting together, but we went expecting God

to do something every time we went.

And you know what?

God meets expectation.

He always did.

He always showed up.

Said, we should come to church same way.

You should come expecting to receive from God whatever God has for you, whatever the

Holy Spirit has for you this morning, that He'll just speak into your heart and life

in some way.

In some way He'll do it.

Amen?

All right, I got more of you on board.

Well, listen, I'm going to start this message with a statement this morning and it's this,

that sometimes the path forward requires us letting go of what we know right now.

Okay, let me say that again.

Sometimes the path forward is letting go of what we know right now.

Sometimes the go forward, you got to forget about what you know currently.

And I did some little remodel job at my house just recently and I ended up having to do

some drywall work.

Actually, that's why I wasn't in the pulpit last week.

I got a sinus infection from it, but I did some drywall work and I've done drywall at

different times.

I'm a weekend warrior.

I tried to get it done a little bit.

And normally how this works for me with drywall is I'll put a piece of drywall up here.

I'll put a piece of drywall there and you're supposed to tape it on the joint.

So I'll take a bunch of spackling and I'll smear it all down.

How many know the more the merrier?

That's what my theory is.

The more the merrier.

I'll put a bunch in there and I'll slap the tape on.

Then I'll put a bunch on top and then I come back a day later and I sand for 45 minutes

because I got all this putty.

Then I come back and I do it again, slap a bunch more on and about six or eight coats

later I got something that's almost worth painting, kind of.

And I did that for years and years.

That's just how I did it.

And I was self-taught and you could tell.

I was self-taught and one day I got the bright idea.

You know what?

I should watch a YouTube video and see how the professionals do it.

I do it like this over here.

I thought, wonder how they do it over there.

I wonder how the guys that do it every single day.

And I watched this YouTube video and it changed my drywall life.

It really did.

I watched this and one, two, three, three coats.

They got it.

They got tape.

I found out less is more when you're doing it.

And you put that drywall compound on and the next couple of times I did it, two, three

times, I actually got it half decent where you could paint the crazy thing.

It looked all right.

Sometimes you got to forget what you know to move forward.

Sometimes you got to forget how you're doing things and thinking things over here and understand

how they do it over there.

And it's the same way in the kingdom of God.

Sometimes you got to forget about what you're doing here and what you think and what you

think you know about here and find out how they do it over there.

You got to think, forget about how it worked in the kingdom of man and you got to find

out how it works in the kingdom of God and lean on that.

And I got to just forget how it works here and go over there.

Find out how it works over there.

So this morning we're going to land in the book of James.

I'm going to give you a scripture too before that, but we're going to go to the book of

James because James is great at talking about how it works over there.

Say over there this morning.

It's about being over there, right?

James is great about giving us life and telling us about how it works over there.

And we are going to go to chapter one if you're heading that direction.

And because you need to know that because what is done over there and this is an important

thing to understand.

What's done over there can actually be done here.

When we're talking about the kingdom of God and we're talking about the kingdom of man,

what's done in the kingdom of God can actually be done over here in the kingdom of man.

What happens in the kingdom of God can be duplicated in the kingdom of man.

It really can.

Jesus said this when he was talking to his disciples about how to pray.

And I know you all know this scripture.

If you've been in church any length of time, you've heard this in Matthew 6, 9, right?

The Lord's Prayer.

In this manner, therefore pray.

Our Father in heaven.

Most of you could quote this, right?

Hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Your will be done here just like it is in heaven.

Jesus said when you're going to pray, you should pray that way.

How it's done here, how it's done there can be done here.

And some people look at that and they'll say, well, yeah, when Jesus returns and he's Lord

and King of all, when he comes back again and he puts away all powers and all kingdoms

and he's ruling all of it, absolutely.

But I got to take you to another scripture because I think it happens before all that

because in Luke 17, 20, Jesus says this.

Now when he he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom would come, he answered them

and said the kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, see here

or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is within you.

So I kind of put those two together.

And if I'm getting this right, you know, if you put those two together, what happens in

the kingdom over there can happen in the kingdom of man here in and through us.

So this morning we're going to go to the Book of James and we're going to see what we can

duplicate from over there and make it happen over here.

All right.

In the Book of James, chapter one, verse one, turn to somebody, tell them one more time.

Listen, think about how it works over there.

Tell them how see how it works over there.

See how it works over there.

Come on.

I want to get this in your head in your spirit.

I don't see me think I'm just getting you to do something.

I want you to get it in your spirit.

Let's pray before we read the word.

Lord, I thank you for this day for your mercy, your love.

I thank you for the word of God that sets us straight.

God that gives us makes us whole.

God gives us wisdom, gives us guidance and gives us direction.

Lord, I pray that your word will go forth, Lord, and God, it would settle into our spirits.

God write it on our hearts, write it on our minds and God change how we do things because

of you in Jesus name and everybody said together.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's read verse one and we're starting at verse one and says this James, a bond servant

of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad.

Greetings, my brother counted all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that

the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work that

you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives to all liberally and without reproach

and it will be given to him.

But let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea

and driven and tossed by the wind for let not that man suppose that he will receive

anything from the Lord.

He's a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James hits a kingdom truth at the onset of this letter that he's writing to all the churches

and to the tribes 12 12 tribes of Israel and he stays something that is true 100% of the

time in the kingdom of God and it's this the only way to receive anything from God when

asking right is to ask in faith.

Look at the person beside you.

Don't say anything.

Just look at him right now.

If they're asking God for something, just stare at him for a second.

Make it awkward.

All right.

Just stare at him for a second.

If they're asking God for something and they're not asking in faith, you know what they're

receiving?

Say with me.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Right.

They're receiving exactly zero from God if they don't come and ask in faith and this

is true all the time.

It's not some of the time.

It's not occasionally.

It's not sporadically.

It's not on every other Tuesday of the month.

Right.

This is all the time.

If we come to God and we're asking in prayer for something, if we're making a request,

it needs to be accompanied with faith in God or we're probably wasting our time.

We're probably wasting our energy.

We're probably wasting our words.

Right.

We might be wasting heaven's time.

This is important.

This is how it works over there.

Somehow.

Right.

And this is incredibly important because somehow we get the notion in our heads and in our

minds that God responds to every single prayer that's thrown up there at him.

He answers everything no matter who it is and how it's tossed his way.

God answers prayers.

Right.

Somehow we think it's in his job description.

God's job description is to answer in all prayers and we particularly believe this for

Christians.

Right.

If we're followers of Jesus Christ, well, he has to answer my prayer.

Right.

It's required.

I mean, I believe in Jesus.

I follow Jesus.

I got my cross necklace on.

Some of you got your cross necklace on.

I got my cross necklace on.

I'm an ambassador for Jesus Christ.

When I pray, he's got to answer me.

Right.

I got a fish sticker on my car.

I listen to Christian music all the time.

It's just tuned in all the time.

Right.

Christian t-shirt.

I wear it every single day.

Got a different t-shirt for every day of the week.

Right.

Well, I got a news flash for you.

James is writing to Christians in this passage.

If we have no faith in God, when we ask God, we can expect exactly nothing from God.

And we all know that hearing and responding are two different things.

Right.

If you live in a household with more than two people, you understand the fact that hearing

and responding are two different things.

How many know somebody can be talking, talking, talking.

Somebody can be listening, listening, listening, but nobody's responding, responding, responding.

I've got five grandchildren.

And when they come over to the house, sometimes I'm talking, talking, talking.

And I know they're listening because they're not deaf.

They can hear.

Right.

And I'll be telling them, listen, I don't want you getting into the snacks right now

because supper is in about 20 minutes and you're going to ruin your supper.

And I'm talking, talking, talking.

And I know they can hear me.

They can hear me.

They can hear me.

But they're not responding at all.

They're just like, my pop didn't say a thing.

They're just, they know exactly where the snacks are because we got one cupboard.

You open the cupboard door and there's a slider you pull out and they can see all the snacks.

They know exactly where to go.

And they're heading that way.

I said, I know what they're thinking.

I know what you're doing.

Stop going that direction.

We're about ready to have supper.

We're about ready to eat a meal.

You can't be eating snacks right now.

And they're, I'm talking and they're listening.

Right.

But they're not responding to a doggone thing.

They just keep beelining for the snacks.

They keep opening the door.

They're sliding it on out.

They're examining the goods.

I'm going to know you got to get in there and see what's in the goods because we keep

that packed up in there.

Right.

And it's like in the kingdom of God, if you want God to respond, you need to attach faith

to your prayer.

Our prayer has to have faith in God attached to it.

In addition to it's how it works in the kingdom of heaven.

It's how it works over there.

Do you know that if you could right now, if you could, and I don't want you to do this,

please don't.

Okay.

I don't want you to die in the next 10 seconds.

Please do not do that.

Right.

That would change things drastically this morning.

But if we would pass from this life in this, in the next 10 seconds and we could go to

heaven and we could take a poll and that's assuming you're going to heaven.

Right.

And we could take a poll when you got there and you'd be asking, is there anybody here

who lacks faith in heaven?

Is there any of you that are low on faith in heaven?

Do you know what you would find out?

There's no faithless people in heaven.

Do you know what you'd find out?

There's no faithless angels in heaven.

There's no faithless creatures in heaven.

And matter of fact, everybody, nobody's up there going, you know, I wonder if God can

do that.

Hmm.

You wouldn't find that in all of heaven.

All of heaven has complete faith in God.

They all believe and all of heaven, anything's possible in heaven.

Do you know that?

Anything's possible where God is.

Anything's possible where there's faith that takes place.

If you've got complete faith in God, anything can take place.

And in all of heaven, all the millions and millions and millions and billions of people

that are currently in heaven, there's not one faithless person there.

Every single one of them has faith in the father, have faith in the son, have faith

in the Holy Spirit, and there is nothing that's impossible.

We got to understand it's how it works over there.

In the kingdom of God, listen, in the kingdom of God, they've got faith.

So when you make a request, if you want God to respond, have faith with your request.

It moves you.

Think of it this way.

It moves your request to the respond pile.

How many of you know there's a respond pile sometimes?

You say, anybody ever call in somewhere and you know you're not on the respond pile?

It moves it to the response pile.

Listen, James lays it out, right?

He says this in 1 6, but let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like

a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He is double-minded and unstable in all his ways.

God's not responding to wishy washy, half faith, half doubt prayers.

He's looking for pure faith attached to the prayer.

It's a must.

It's a minimum.

We get this all wrong.

We really do sometimes.

We think if we pray the right kind of prayer, then we'll hear from God.

God will respond if we use the right kind of words.

If they're churchy enough words and they sound holy enough, then God's going to respond.

If I get the right cadence when I pray and I got the right rhythm when I pray, well,

then God responds to those kind of prayers.

Right kind of vocabulary.

Maybe even if I say it enough times, but our words don't impress God.

What impresses God is if there's faith attached to whatever word you're speaking to.

It's not the words.

It's the faith in the words.

When we come and ask God for something, when we ask God, when we make a request, it's how

it works over there and it's how we need to do it here.

We ask God for the right thing and you got to ask for the right thing.

You got to ask according to his will.

That's in scripture.

You got to ask something that's according to his purpose.

But if faith is attached, he hears and he will answer.

He will respond.

Now, I didn't say he'd give you the answer you want.

I said he'll respond in some way.

Right?

You'll receive a response from God.

Amen.

You with me?

All right.

All right, pastor.

Okay, pastor.

I get it.

Right?

I need to have faith.

I got to have faith in my prayer.

But exactly how much faith do I need to have with that prayer?

What's that look like?

You know, if I want to pray and I got to attach faith to that prayer, is that like a two out

of 10 kind of faith with my prayer and got to respond?

Is that a four out of 10?

Is it a six out of 10?

Or is it got to be like a nine point five out of 10 before God responds?

Right?

I'm going to do a two to five on the Richter scale with my faith and God will respond to

whatever I'm praying about.

I'm not sure, pastor.

What is it?

Right?

How much faith do I got to have?

And a lot of times, you know, you get this kind of discussion going with people and it's

almost like some kind of faith scale, you know, that you got to be on like how much

is enough?

Right?

When do I get there?

And here's what I believe.

And you can argue with me if you want later on.

I'd be glad to answer any emails.

Please send them.

Okay.

We either have faith in God or we doubt God.

We have faith.

I see it a little bit differently.

And I think you see it in scripture.

I either have faith in God or I doubt what God's saying.

Right?

We either are functioning in a moment of faith or we are functioning in a moment of doubt.

Right?

Someone says some day, some days my faith is lower than others.

I think some days you're just walking in faith more than you're walking in doubt.

I think some days you're in the doubt lane a lot more.

Right?

You're driving over in the doubt lane instead of jumping on faith highway.

You're just kind of engaged in the doubting sector of things.

And in a moment in time, you know, that you've got faith in another moment in time, you're

completing down in God.

It really true.

And I know what some of you Bible scholars are thinking.

Wouldn't Jesus tell the disciples that you need to have faith the size of a mustard seed?

So isn't that a scale thing?

Right?

That's in scripture.

And, you know, I just got to have mustard seed size faith.

If I have a mustard seed here of faith and I mix that with all my doubt over here.

Right?

Well, then I can speak to mountains and they'll move.

That's what the word of God says.

If it's a scale thing.

Right?

See, if that's what it is, a little bit of seed of faith and a whole bunch of my doubt

and I can speak to first of all, how many, how many, how many that's worked out really

well for you?

Just a little bit of faith and a whole bunch of my doubt and God moves mountains for me.

Well, let's see what Jesus had to say when he was talking about the mustard seed of faith

in Luke 17 five.

It says this and the apostle said to the Lord, increase our faith.

They come with a scale question.

Right?

The disciples come to Jesus and they say, I need to know what the scale is.

Jesus, what increase our faith.

We want to have more faith.

So the Lord said, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be

pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea and it will obey you.

What was Jesus answer to the faith scale question by the disciples posed by?

Oh, I can tell you what he didn't answer.

He didn't say, go exercise your faith, build your faith muscles.

I've preached this, right?

I'm preaching against myself right now.

All right.

Go build your faith muscles.

Start on something little.

Start on something tiny.

Believe for that and then just go to the next thing.

It's a little bigger.

Right?

How many of you ever heard that kind of talk before?

Right?

Talking about just keep working at it.

Build it.

It's kind of like lifting weights.

Right?

Just add another pound on.

Just add another pound of faith on it and you're going to get bigger and bigger.

But that's not what Jesus said.

He didn't say, go exercise your faith.

He said, if you have faith as a mustard seed and you might think, well, that's a scale thing.

Right?

I just need a little bit of something.

I just need a pinch of faith, but I don't think it was a pinch.

I don't think it was an amount of thing.

I don't think it was a scale and size thing.

I think it was a time thing.

It was a timing thing.

I think it's a moment thing.

I think if you have a small amount of pure faith, no doubt, just pure faith in a moment

of time, you can say to a mulberry tree, be plucked up and thrown into the sea.

And if you've got pure faith in God in that moment in time, it can happen.

Right?

But seriously, how many of you have ever tried to live this verse out using the scale method?

Right?

Just a little bit of doubt or a little bit of faith in with my doubt.

How many of you have ever done that?

Right?

I got just a little bit of faith over here, but I got a whole bunch of doubt.

I'm going to go over and talk to this mulberry tree.

I'm going to tell that mountain to be moved and it just moved right out of the way.

Anybody have that happen in here?

It is a moment of faith.

This is a moment.

Say it.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Right?

Jesus says this in Matthew 17, 19.

He says it again.

Then the disciples came to him privately and said, why could we not cast it out?

He's talking about they were trying to cast out a demon possessed individual.

So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, because of your doubt, for shortly I say to

you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you'll say to this mountain move from here

to there and it'll move and nothing will be impossible for you.

Hmm.

If the mountain doesn't move, if the mulberry tree won't be plucked up, if the demon doesn't

come out, does that mean you didn't have enough faith?

Or maybe you just didn't have pure faith in that moment.

How much faith is mustard seed?

If God told us they have mustard seed faith, but he didn't tell us how much that really

was, right?

That's kind of tough.

Was that a one out of 10, two out of 10 or three out of 10?

I don't know.

Right?

What is that?

You know, maybe, maybe it's a four out of 10.

You get the four out of 10, bazinga.

You get the miracle, right?

Say bazinga.

It's a fun word to say.

All right.

I don't think Jesus was giving them a faith scale.

You can disagree with me.

You want that's okay.

That's fine.

You can take a look at it.

I think it was more like this.

I think it was about a moment of pure faith.

I think it was a moment by moment of pure faith.

I think it was a single moment of pure faith in God and you get the next moment of pure

faith in God and God began.

He can begin no doubt included, zero doubt, right?

Just like it, just like they do it over there in heaven.

We do it here and it is pure faith in God in those moments and God begins to work.

He meets it.

I think James nailed it, right?

Because I don't think faith and doubt can coexist.

I don't think I can say, you know what?

I got complete faith, but I think I doubt.

One doesn't go with the other.

I don't think you can say you've got one.

I completely believe, but I really, I doubt it.

Right?

That's kind of how many of you ever get a vanilla and chocolate swirl ice cream?

I don't think you can do that in this, right?

I know that's ice cream flavors, but I don't think you can say I got doubt and I got faith

at the same time.

They don't exist.

Right?

It's like saying I'm going to do a trust fall and I was going to get somebody to do this,

but I figured I might drop them so I won't.

But it's like saying I'm going to do a trust fall, but you really don't have to fall.

Right?

Do you ever do a trust fall with somebody?

How many know what trust fall is?

Raise your hand if you know what trust fall is.

Okay.

You can type it in the chat if you're listening online.

Right?

What's a trust fall?

Well, somebody comes up, they close their eyes, they put their arms out and then they

just trust the person behind them to catch them.

So they just fall backwards into that person's arms and they're believing they can catch

them.

Now how many of you come up, close your eyes and lift your arms out and say, I trust you,

but I doubt it.

Is that faith?

Or do you ever see somebody do a trust fall and they're gone?

Right?

They're rubber-necking, they're trying to see somebody's back, they're going to catch

them.

Right?

They don't coexist.

And maybe an easier way for you to think about it is I think there's a house of faith and

there's a house of doubt.

You can think of it as a house.

There's two houses sitting right beside each other and they got doorways.

And I think you're either in the house of faith or you're in the house of doubt.

You can either go in the door one or you can go in the other and you can jump back and

forth pretty quick because they're right next door to each other.

Right?

You can get from the house of faith to the house of doubt quickly.

And matter of fact, really quickly, but you're going in one or you're going in the other

and you can't be in both houses at one time.

And if you're trying to jump between the two, if you're trying to go from the house of faith

to the house of doubt, this is why we get so tired mentally and emotionally and spiritually.

If we're waffle in between the two, if we're wishy washy, like what James is talking about,

you get exhausted because you believe for one minute and you hurry up, open the door,

you run over it up there.

I doubt it.

I doubt it.

I doubt it.

Then you run back into the other house.

Right?

And I believe, I believe, believe, and you jump back and forth.

How many of that will mentally exhaust you?

Did you ever notice the people that are in one or the other are settled in their lives?

Did you ever notice that if the person's of faith and they're like, you know what?

I think I'm just going to park it here.

I think I'm just going to believe God fully here.

Did you ever meet people like that?

It's like, don't sweat it, man.

God's got it.

It's all good.

You know, I'm just going to hang out here.

Jesus is in control.

I know there's chaos and there's craziness going on around me.

I understand.

I read.

I check the news.

I do all those things, but I'm just going to hang out here because Jesus has it all.

Did you ever notice how settled they are?

And did you ever notice the person who's doubt, complete doubt?

They don't believe in God.

You know, now listen, they're not going to receive anything from God.

And one day they're going to stand before their maker and hell stand before them.

But at least there's over here in the doubt house and they just don't believe in God at

all.

And they're just completely settled.

Like I doubt it all the time, but they're not running around back and forth.

They're not going to get anything from God.

And one day hell will be in front of them.

But listen, the more time you spend in this house, the more settled you're going to get

in your spirit, the more time you getting over into the house of faith.

God's going to be able to get to move because he can't catch you when you're running around

back and forth, right?

You're running over into doubt all the time and you, he's not, he can't even follow you.

You're running back and forth.

It is, it is getting, listen, James was saying, when you pray, when you ask God for something,

get in the house of faith, stay there as many moments as you can.

I know we're not perfect.

I know some of us doubt sometimes, right?

We all do.

We get those moments, but don't stay there.

Run back to the house of faith.

Get back, come on.

Is anybody listening to me?

You hear me this morning?

Give me an amen.

Just if you think it's true, come on, right?

In the kingdom of God, I keep my eyes on Jesus and I park in the faith house.

And let me, let me show you exactly what I'm talking about in scripture.

In Matthew 14, 25 says this, now in the fourth watch of the night, say the fourth watch,

that's late at night, right?

When Jesus went to them walking on the sea.

Now I want you to picture this.

The disciples are out in a boat.

The day before this takes place, they were on a hillside.

They're ministering to people.

Thousands and thousands of people show up, about 5,000 men actually, and their families.

And they're there listening to Jesus and Jesus is healing.

He's preaching.

He's doing all these things.

As a matter of fact, the day gets late.

They all need food.

Jesus takes some loaves of bread and some fish.

He breaks it and they feed all 5,000.

The healing miracle takes place.

At the end of that day, he tells the disciples, I want you to get in a boat, head over to

the Sea of Galilee.

I want you to head the other side.

I'm going up here to pray.

I'm going to spend time with the Father.

He doesn't go with them.

So he sends them out.

They're out in the nighttime.

The sea is rough and it's dark.

And all of a sudden Jesus comes walking to them on the water.

And that's what's happening here, right?

It says this, then the disciples saw him walking on the sea.

They were troubled.

They were freaking out.

All right.

Saying it's a ghost.

They cried out for fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, be of good cheer.

It is I.

Do not be afraid.

And Peter answered and said, Lord, if it is you command me to come to you on the water.

So he said, come.

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

He's in the faith house right now.

Right.

But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink.

He cried out saying, Lord, save me.

And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, oh, ye of

little faith.

You're like, oh, oh, oh, there it is.

Right.

Wait, maybe it is a scale thing.

Well, I looked up that word little again.

You can argue with me if you want.

It's OK.

But one of the meanings of little in this particular portion of scripture means little

occurrence.

OK.

Little occurrence not happening so much.

And we'll look what Jesus says next, why did you doubt?

I'm not sure Pete fell from a four to a two on the faith scale.

I think he left the faith house and went over to the doubt house.

I think he got out of the boat and he started to realize this is how it works over there.

Right.

In the kingdom of God.

But then all of a sudden his brain kicked in.

He's like, this isn't how it works in the kingdom of man.

There's a gravity thing in the kingdom of man.

Right.

I'm a fisherman.

I used to go out on a boat.

I never saw anyone walk in the water.

People got on the water sunk.

He starts thinking.

He starts looking at the waves.

He knows the danger of the waves and what they can do.

You know, and he's and all of a sudden he sinks and Jesus gets him by the hand, pulls

up and he says, why did you doubt?

Why do you doubt?

Peter tanked because he left that faith house and he stepped over into the doubt house.

That's how quickly we can go.

Right.

It's how easy we can get over there.

He was believing for a minute and went into his head.

He forgot how it works over there and he started thinking about how it works here.

I'm going to ask if you'd stand.

This is how it works over there in the kingdom and the kingdom of God.

James tells us clearly if we come and we make a request, we've got to ask in faith.

So I'm not coming and asking you if you're praying or if you're asking the offer something,

you know, how your prayer life is.

But I'm asking you how your faith life is.

Maybe you know, how much time do you spend in the house of faith versus the house of

doubt?

I want you to maybe close your eyes for a moment just right now.

I want you to focus in on looking on the inside.

But how much time do you spend in the house of faith and how much time do you spend in

the house of doubt?

What you do or you run?

You waffle between the two.

You run them back and forth because James says you run them back and forth.

You're not going to receive anything.

You're going to waffle.

You're going to wane back and forth.

You got to spend some moments in the house of faith.

You got to meet God in the house of faith.

You got to put your trust in along with your words, because if not, you're vainly speaking.

You're vainly asking for something.

You're wasting your time and energy.

If you're asking and asking and asking, you really don't got faith along with it.

You might want to stop.

Think about how much faith you got in God.

Do you have faith?

Because what happens over there can happen here.

We just have to ask Him that way.

As you're standing and they're getting ready at East Shore, I know they're getting ready

for Pastor Eric's coming.

If you're listening online, I want you just to find a place to pray because I'm going

to pray in a moment here.

I'm going to say a very short prayer.

As I pray, I want you to do something.

I want you to make your way to the front because I want to pray over us as a congregation.

I know there's a lot of people here this morning, but slide up as close as you can.

Get up here as far as you can if you're able to.

As I pray, I want you to step forward.

Thank you for tuning in to this message from Life House Church.

We pray that you were impacted powerfully by this message.

If you have been personally affected by our ministry and you would like to partner with

us as we love God, love people every day, visit our website at www.lifehousecog.com.