Faith versus Fear - Pastor Rob Urban

Welcome to Logan City Christian Church podcast where we bring God's Word to you weekly.

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Worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords together.

What a privilege that we have this morning.

Thank you, praise and worship team.

We just appreciate you guys so much.

Praise the Lord, hallelujah.

God is good.

We have a few birthdays today.

I know Sophie's up the back there with her birthday today.

But happy birthday.

Who else is it today that you mentioned to me?

It's your birthday.

Mike tomorrow and the others have chickened out.

That's okay.

Happy birthday guys.

I'd just like to welcome Ross and Donna, missionaries, China, Myanmar, Thailand.

That's enough.

Praise the Lord.

You're welcome.

So welcome guys.

Lovely to have you with us today.

And praise the Lord.

Yes, you've noticed that Tony and Ross are back.

It was a bit of an effort on my part.

I went searching high and low through the scrub in the outback.

And I found them hiding in the middle of nowhere.

And Ross was under a tree in a camp chair reading a book.

And Tony was over the sand hill joining the indigenous folk doing a corroborate.

Brother, you were really, really good.

But I got them back.

So here they are.

Welcome back guys.

It's great to have you today.

Back with us.

And of course, everything was all true that I said.

Yes.

Someone asked me this morning or showed me a message that they're getting into shape.

And they said, pity the shape is like a potato.

But anyway, it's all good.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you for this wonderful day that we have.

And Lord, your presence that's with us this morning.

Holy Spirit, I ask that you would move through me to deliver this word that you placed in my spirit.

And I know like I know that as you stir faith inside of us,

as you have said to me this morning that there are going to be miracles take place in the house of God today and healings.

And we thank you for it.

And Lord, in advance, we we acknowledge you that it's you that it's you Almighty God and not us.

But Father God, today we are so grateful for you.

In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus today,

very simple message that I've often found the simple ones can be the most effective.

And today is faith and fear.

Faith and fear.

Now, initially at the surface, we might think, yeah, faith and fear, I understand.

And they're not friends.

They're enemies.

And I get that.

But let's have a look as we go a little bit deeper today.

There have been a series of messages come from this pulpit over the past few months on faith.

And we had a really good one again from Pastor Rowley recently and faith without it, it's impossible to please God.

And so faith is a very important part of our Christian walk.

And so you might be thinking, oh, well, the pastors doing these messages on faith is is he preaching what he's going through?

And sometimes we do and sometimes we don't.

It's a time when we receive that impression from the Lord and we follow his impressions.

But I guess we all go through tests and trials and times of need, you know, whether there be relationship issues,

whether it be need for healing, whatever it might be, our faith in God is so vital.

And to make sure that our faith is intact and that we we're not discouraged and fear is not trying to encroach on our faith walk.

But for some time, I've had this knowing in my spirit and I've shared it on a number of occasions that

and I think a lot of us know this already, that there are hard times coming to the Christian church.

I don't want to be a prophet of doom.

I don't want to sound to be discouraging.

But the fact is, is that the Bible makes it very clear that these days are coming and it's no good for us as people.

I'm not saying you're doing this, but if we stick our head in the sand and know that hard times are coming

and then all of a sudden when the hard times are upon us, it's like right in the middle of the storm.

I've got to start building my faith in God.

And what do I do?

And now is the time today is the day that we we really try to walk in the depths of faith in Christ and trusting in God.

And so these days are coming without a doubt.

And I believe person, you know, personal belief.

I know others, other ministers believe the same.

What I'm about to share is that the in the Book of Revelation, Chapter three, you have the two last churches that are mentioned.

There's the Church of Philadelphia and there's the Laodicean Church.

And I believe according to how it's written and the structure of it in the Greek is that these are the two last churches that are going to be present

and running parallel at the same time in the end.

There's going to be a church that is holy, blameless, doing the right thing, yet so persecuted, boycotted, you know, from society and really struggling.

But Jesus was saying this was the church.

That's the one that he really bled and died for.

That's the model of the church.

And yet running parallel to it is the Laodicean Church, that the church that Jesus said that it was a lukewarm church.

And he said to them, he'd rather they be hot or cold.

If not, he's going to spew them out of his mouth, which in other words, was saying it was making the body sick.

So these two, I believe, run parallel and we're seeing such persecution coming to the Christian church already, to Christians now,

that it seems to be a foreign thing or a strange thing that if a Christian today stands up and voices what the Bible says and believes that whatever it might be,

you say, no, this is what God says in his word.

It's like you're the strange one and I want to encourage you today, church, that hold on to your convictions, hold on to your faith,

hold on to what the Word of God says because if you don't, who's going to?

And there's a whole world out there that needs to hear the truth.

Truth is something today that seems to be falling by the wayside and not much value accredited to truth.

And at times, truth, when it's told, can reveal the falseness that's out there.

And sometimes some people don't want that to be exposed or to be revealed.

Whatever it might be, Jesus actually says in Matthew chapter five, he said, you're the salt of the earth.

Don't lose your saltiness.

Don't lose it.

Don't lose that saltiness.

He said, you're the light of the world.

Don't turn your light off.

And so we today, our saltiness and our light is based upon the truth of God's Word.

And I believe that the hour we're living in and where we're heading as a Christian church,

it's going to be so much more noticeable than we've seen today.

I don't know if it's going to come progressively, if it's going to be suddenly.

I really don't know, but it's happening.

I'd like to turn to Matthew chapter eight, verse 23, from verse 23.

Matthew chapter eight, from verse 23 to 27.

And we have the count here where Jesus gets on the boat with his disciples and a storm blows up.

And something really incredible is said here that I believe is just so in line with what the message is this morning.

So I'm going to read from verse 23 of Matthew chapter eight.

Now, when he got into the boat, into a boat, his disciples followed him.

And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea so that the boat was covered with waves, but he was asleep.

Have you ever been there?

You know, it says here that, you know, they got into a boat.

He got into a boat and they were with him.

And sometimes we can step out into a venture with Christ, heading in a direction and knowing that it's right,

knowing we're with Christ and knowing we're doing the right thing.

And all of a sudden, some of the greatest storms blow up and try and stop you.

And this is what happens.

And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea.

So the boat was covered with the waves, but he was asleep.

You ever thought that times, Jesus, where are you?

He's in the boat with you.

And if he's in the boat with us, which he is, no matter what we're going through, we're going to be OK.

We're going to be OK.

Then his disciples came to him and awoke him saying, would you have woken Jesus up?

I'll be the first to put my hand.

I would have been the first there.

You ever been in a boat where the seas are really rough?

I'm talking really rough and you're out at sea and you're not sure whether you're going to get back.

It can be a frightening thing because the sea shows no mercy.

And what the devil stirs up in life, he shows no mercy.

The devil is cruel.

The devil is a murderer.

He's a liar.

He just wants to steal, kill and destroy.

And he has nothing good for us.

But the person who's asleep in our boat, he's amazing.

He's the son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the one who bled and died for us and purchased our salvation.

The one who has total authority over all the works of darkness.

He's with you.

And so they wake Jesus up, Lord, save us.

We are perishing.

But Jesus said to them, why are you fearful?

Are you a little faith?

It's like, if that was me in the boat, what am I going to do?

Are you serious? Have a look around.

Why am I fearful?

Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea.

And there was a great calm.

So the men marveled, saying, who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him?

I believe this was one of their first revelations that Jesus was different to everybody else, that even the seas and the wind obey him.

That later in their ministry realized, as they would have looked back to say, of course, the wind and waves obey him.

He's the creator of the universe.

That the creation obeys the creator.

And how much more with that revelation than when we are going through a test or a trial, when we focus on the very fact of who Jesus is and that he is with us.

And that we are in the same mind, heart, for your communion.

It was awesome.

That Jesus is with us.

He doesn't lack any power.

He doesn't lack any authority.

And when a crisis comes their way, it's not like there's a crisis board meeting in heaven.

That God and Jesus are together.

What are we going to do?

Oh, it looks like it's all over.

God is still on the throne.

No one's going to move God off the throne.

God hasn't abdicated the throne.

There has not been an election where God lost the election.

God is still on the throne and he's there forevermore.

So we can be assured of this very one thing that God's always going to be there.

Jesus is always going to be with us.

So it's our focus then that possibly needs to shift.

But he says, why are you fearful?

You owe you of little faith.

That word little faith.

I'm not a Greek scholar, but I'll give it a crack.

Oligopistos.

Oligos means small and pistos means faith.

And what it means is faith that lacks confidence to trust or trusts little.

Its main meaning is undeveloped faith as opposed to outright unbelief or distrust.

So in other words, I believe Jesus used this as an object lesson to say,

hey, come on, guys, you're going to get through this and you're going to need to learn this for the rest of your ministry.

Because I'm not going to be here much longer.

And what I'm teaching you, you're going to need to know.

For when I'm not here, you are going to be the main man to lead other people into the kingdom

and train people just like I'm training you.

So Jesus was saying to them, guys, there's a big difference between faith and fear.

And he said to them, you have undeveloped faith, but you still have faith.

And I think that's what happens with us today is that sometimes we can allow fear to really challenge us to the point

that we feel what's the point in progressing any further.

Why don't I just surrender and just do what I know I can do just to get by?

Make heaven, but know God's called you to do amazing things.

God saved very ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

And so this faith, this undeveloped faith, sometimes as and probably not maybe all the times

as Reinhardt had mentioned this morning in communion, that it's the tests and the trials

that challenge us to grow in the faith, to develop undeveloped faith.

And so counted all joy.

Praise the Lord.

I want to shift now to Mark chapter five, verse 30 from verse 35.

An incredible story here, something that was not a story.

It's an account of what really happened.

And I'd like to read from verse 35 of Mark chapter five.

And while he was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said,

Your daughter is dead.

Why trouble the teacher any further?

And as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue,

Do not be afraid, only believe.

Do not be afraid, only believe.

And he permitted no one to follow him except Peter, James and John, the brother of James.

Then he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly.

And when he came in, he said to them, Why make this commotion and weep?

The child is not dead, but sleeping.

And they ridiculed him.

But when he put them all outside, he took the father and the mother of the child and those who were with him and entered where the child was lying.

Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, Talitha, which is translated little girl, I say to you, arise.

Immediately, the girl arose and walked, but she was 12 years of age, and they were overcome with great amazement.

But he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that something should be given her to eat.

Let me now include the beginning of this story.

J. Iris, the ruler of the synagogue, his daughter was dying.

So he went and found Jesus.

And he didn't have to work too hard to find him because there was a massive crowd wherever Jesus was.

So look for the crowd.

You'll find Jesus.

And as he gets there, he finds Jesus and he says, My daughter is near death.

Let me read it exactly what he says.

Verse 23, and he begged him earnestly, saying, My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed and she will live.

And Jesus went with him.

But on the way that Jesus, when he left that crowd, that's when the lady with the issue of blood touched his clothes.

And Jesus perceived the power went out of him.

And he said, Who touched me?

And the disciples are saying, Really?

Look at the people around you.

You're being thronged.

There are people everywhere and you're saying, Who touched you?

But let me say, church, there's a difference between touching somebody and there's a difference between touching somebody.

And what happened with this lady?

This woman knew that if I can just touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed.

And she just touched it.

And Jesus felt it.

I could only imagine what Jairus was thinking.

Come on, my daughter is dying and let's get this thing happening.

And right at that point, when they start moving on, Jairus's servants come and said, Don't bother the master anymore.

Your daughter is dead.

I want to pick up on verse 36 because this is so, so important.

Your daughter is dead.

Before Jairus had a chance to respond, Jesus intersected that conversation.

He cut it off at the pass.

And Jesus says, as it says here in verse 36, as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not be afraid, only believe.

And so he if you can see it, here he is standing there.

They're just about to go to lay hands on the daughter so she will live.

And just as they're about to go, his hopes are high.

The rulers servants come and said, Don't bother the master anymore for your daughter is dead.

And Jesus immediately says to him, Do not be afraid, only believe.

Now, why did Jesus use the word, Do not be afraid?

Because I believe throughout scripture, Jesus teaches a lot about how fear will erode or undermine or insulate faith.

And so we can have the fear of death, fear of failure, fear of whatever it might be.

So Jesus is saying to him, Jairus.

What's going on?

You initially found me.

And you said to me, Come and lay hands on my daughter so that she will.

Let me read it.

Verse 23, let lay hands on her so she may be healed and she will live.

I can imagine it's like Jesus, Jairus, you found me in the crowd.

You had a message from God.

What stirred in your spirit that you came to me, that you knew to come to me, that everything was good.

What is it?

What is it with us that at times when something doesn't work out or we get a bad report from a doctor, whatever it might be,

it's the first thing that comes to us that is like, Oh, Jesus, if you could, I'm believing for a healing.

If you could touch me, lay your hands, the same sort of thing.

Is that true?

And so our first port of call is Jesus.

Well, it should be.

It should be.

See, God had birthed into Jairus's heart a measure of faith.

And I believe that God would have stirred up something he'd already heard or something he'd already seen.

Now, people in the region knew about Jesus.

How do you know that?

Look at the crowds that followed him.

They knew Jesus was the popular person in town.

People were drawn to him.

He was attractive, not just looks.

It was who he is, who he was and who he is and what he was doing.

People were looking for this.

So the thing is today for us, that faith that God had birthed in us, that inner persuasion,

that confidence in God drives us to the feet of Jesus.

But the devil knows that if we stay there, that we will get our victory and the devil loses.

That word afraid, do not be afraid, the Greek word phobeo, where we get our word phobios from,

it means to fear, to withdraw, to avoid.

And I've got a good example for this.

A couple of weeks ago, school holidays, I had Andre and Naomi, two of my grandchildren, with me at home.

And we walked up the back paddock and it was early in the morning, well reasonably early,

and there are cobwebs everywhere.

So we get a stick and we're knocking down cobwebs along the track and that sort of thing.

We're having a good old chat and all of a sudden, Andre screams,

Granddad, you've got a spider on your arm. And I looked, the spider is about this big.

It's like he was already preparing the eulogy from the funeral.

He's going to die, Granddad.

And then Naomi started, she said, Granddad, it's climbing up your arm,

but it's stuck in your long hairs on your arm.

And I'm listening to this thinking, my goodness, this is so entertaining.

I love it. So I let that spider climb all around the place and they're standing back and Andre says,

Granddad, he's got a stickler, I can hit it for you, Granddad.

It could have been worse, the spider could have been on my head.

But yet I see his heart was that he was fearful for me because his fear of spiders was trying to be transferred onto me.

And it nearly worked at first because when he said, Spider, I was expecting like, hmm.

And if it was like, hmm, hit it son, beat it, murder that thing.

But when it was little, you know, I have a little prayer shed that I built up the back.

And there was one night, it was early hours in the morning.

And I just at that time, a little candle burning and I could hear this scratching noise like something moving.

I thought, what is that? So I got my phone and I put the torch on.

And I'm kidding, anyone ever seen the bird eating spider before?

You seen them? My Lord. They could wear boots. These things are huge.

I mean, to eat, to catch birds and eat them, they're a big spider.

And it's the first time I saw one of these in real life.

And I thought, well, here is a test here.

I built this prayer shed and Spider, you're not welcome here because I'm having a good time with the Lord.

And I was thinking, but how am I going to get rid of it?

I didn't want to kill it so that I know what I'll do.

So I went back down to the house and I got a container and I thought, I'll put the container over it and then slide the, you know, the piece of paper under it.

All in control. Not a problem.

So I get this container and the container wasn't big enough.

Unbelievable. It was a big spider.

So I thought, what I'll do, I'll get a stick and I'll flick it out the door.

And that's when I realized that bird eating spiders can jump.

And I flicked it with a stick and it jumped right at me, landed on my clothes.

Have you ever done a spider dance as a kid?

Let me tell you, I did the spider boogaloo.

I would have won any dance competition.

And you just don't know where that thing is.

But my understanding is that, and before that, that bird eating spiders are not really venomous.

So I came to my senses and was quite pleased to know that it was only the Lord that was watching.

So I got over that hurdle very quickly.

But my second one was to convince myself that even if this spider still is clawed onto me somewhere, I'm not going to die.

It's just ringing true to anybody today.

If you're challenging, you're being challenged in an area in life, we need to challenge that fear.

So I went back into the prayer shed.

I said, Lord, I feel like a real goose right now, but that's okay.

I think a lot of people would have.

But where is the spider?

And the spider was still there in the shed.

It didn't even do anything.

What's my point in all of this?

What's it? Arachnophobia is a fear of spiders.

Yeah.

I didn't ever think that I had that.

I never thought that I did.

But when you're placed in a situation as such, you learn things about yourself that you never knew before.

And it took me months to get over that because sometimes you feel something there that's not there.

But there's nothing there.

You feel something brush your leg and you're just jittery.

I can see some of you shaking your head.

You're going, yeah, I've been there.

Being there, done that.

But this fear is exactly what it does.

That fear stopped me from progressing with my time with the Lord.

And my whole focus was focused on this fear of spiders and this spider is going to kill me.

And often, how often does the devil cause things or things that happen in our lives like the spider to cause fear in our life?

Spiders.

Horrible things.

When I get to heaven, one of the things I'm going to ask God is why did you make mosquitoes?

Why did you make flies?

Why did you make spiders?

But as soon as the word was spoken, Jesus immediately, he cut through.

Before Jairus could respond, he said, Jairus, don't fear, only believe.

When we hear a report, we've got to cut it off and don't fear, only believe.

Now, why is it saying only believe?

What did Jesus just say?

Don't fear, believe.

Only believe means that there are so many other combinations that we could come up with.

Don't fear.

The only thing that we are instructed to do, the only thing, the one thing on its own, separate from anything else, is to believe.

To just believe.

Are you with me this morning?

So it seems to me as soon as a bad report came that his daughter had died, Jesus knew he wanted to help Jairus' faith to not fear.

And then Jairus walked with Jesus.

They went to the house.

The people were mocking Jesus when he said that the girl is not dead.

She's just sleeping.

He got rid of the negativity.

Sometimes we have to deal with negativity.

Some people are very positive and very creative and very, you know, full of faith.

Some people are not.

And it's going to be extremely difficult for you that if you all believe in God for a miracle or a breakthrough to be around people,

God doesn't do that anymore.

God doesn't heal anymore.

It's like Patrick said this morning, does God still, does God operate in healing without a license to heal?

God's creator.

He can do whatever he likes and he doesn't need anybody's permission.

And the end of the story is, is that Jairus' daughter was raised from the dead.

What was the thing that Jesus dealt with first?

Fear.

Faith and fear.

Faith and fear.

Praise the Lord.

Don't allow fear to withdraw you from your position of faith.

That inner convincing that God has birthed in us is there for a reason.

And God is like he births in us.

I am your God.

I am the God that heals you.

By the stripes of Jesus, you were healed.

Okay, so we get that.

We get that.

But fear can try and insulate that from our spirit to receive that, to believe it.

Do not fear, only believe.

Second Timothy 1, 7, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and a sound mind.

Now this can be interpreted two different ways.

The most common one is that God has not given us a spirit, like a demonic spirit of fear,

a demonic spirit of fear that comes to terrorize.

I'm not so certain that that's what the right usage of that for this scripture is.

What I believe what it's speaking about is God hasn't created in your spirit, your spirit man to be fearful.

You were not created with a fearful spirit.

But life and circumstances in life, the things that we have been through in life, for some of us,

we've been through some terrifying ordeals, experiences in life and can condition as spirit man that the first reaction to anything is fear.

Because it becomes our disposition.

It's our experience and God saying, Hey, I haven't given that to you.

I haven't given your spirit man was never created to be fearful.

It was created to be faithful, filled of faith.

So whichever one, you know, they fear and faith, they want this place in our life.

But if we follow fear, fear will take us so far away from faith in God.

But faith has the ability to totally extinguish fear.

Amen. A ship never sinks because of the water that's around it.

A ship only sinks when that water around it gets in it.

And there can be fearful circumstances around about us.

And we can be OK.

But if we start to start to allow fear to come into our ship, into our life, our boat, our life will start to take on fear.

And it's the fear that will sink that person or that ship, both analogies together.

Does that make sense?

So there can be fear surrounding you on every side.

But if we are filled with faith that we know that God is with us, we have nothing to fear.

As Reinhard said, Emmanuel, God with us, God with us, what more do we need?

So never let the fear that's around you get inside you and weigh you down and sink your life.

Circumstances may look very, very grim at times, but don't allow the scenarios of impossibilities to be truth.

Allow God's word to be true in our life.

Amen.

Fear is going to try and contain us and inhibit us in our walk of God and to hinder us from our faith in God.

But, you know, listen to this, fear will give you all the reasons why it won't work.

Fear will give you all the reasons why you won't be healed.

Fear will give you all the reasons why, you know, whatever you believe in God for is not going to come about.

But faith gives you all the reasons why it will work.

That's what faith does.

Fear causes us to play it safe at times where faith enables us to walk on water.

There the differences are so far apart.

Fear is from the devil.

Faith is from God.

And there's a war that goes on at times.

Here's a quote that says, you cannot wish for both strong character and an easy life.

The price of each is the other.

Isn't that good?

I'll read it again.

You cannot wish for both strong character and an easy life.

The price of each other, sorry, the price of each is the other.

In other words, if Lord, I want you to build strong character in my life, well, guess what?

Things are going to get tough.

You're going to face some challenges.

And those challenges are going to cause you to grow.

But if you want an easy life, you're going to avoid the challenges so they don't work together.

Jesus said to Jairus, only believe nothing else, not another thing, nothing.

He said, just believe, just believe.

So what does believe mean?

It means to believe.

It means to have faith and trust.

But this is what it means.

Have a listen to this.

In this particular scripture, it has another meaning that goes deeper.

You listening?

It's used of persuading one's self.

Now, that is interesting.

I'm going to try and break that down a little.

But it means it's used of persuading one's self.

It's talking about human believing.

It speaks about with the sacred significance of being persuaded by the Lord also.

However, this clearly defines a personal role for the person that is believing God for something,

that there is a persuading of one's self.

So what does this look like?

Well, we know that faith, that God in birth's faith into each and every one of us.

And so it's an inner persuasion.

It's a knowing like we know, like we know, like we know.

This is God.

This is his word.

This is what he's saying.

This is the direction that I've got.

And we're only halfway there.

The second half is only believe, in other words, that we need to begin to persuade ourself.

This is what Jesus is saying.

Only believe.

Our focus is this.

For me, I need to look at the circumstance and find the scriptures that relate to that circumstance

and take those scriptures and read those scriptures and allow them to come alive in me

because that will in itself persuade me deeply as a human being.

So there's a persuasion that works on two parts.

There is an inner persuasion that God births into us.

Then we have the responsibility to be persuaded within ourself that what God is doing is right and we follow it.

Is that making sense?

Yeah.

So in context to this scripture, believing, it's a believing that leads to the and conjunction with the in-birthing faith of God.

It's a human believing in a divine persuasion.

Can I say that again?

It's a human believing in a divine persuasion.

That's what Jesus was saying to Jairus.

He said, you just don't fear.

It's going to cut it all off.

Only believe.

Only believe.

I believe one of the greatest assets any true Christian can have is simply to trust God at His Word.

Trust Him at His Word.

And I know it can be hard.

I know that there are times that we believe in God for what the Word is saying and we seem to be seeing everything else but anyone ever been there before.

But it's not the end of the story.

It's not the end of the road.

We don't stop believing.

We don't stop trusting God.

Whatever the future holds, it's our absolute trust in God and belief in what He says is absolute and true that God is trustworthy.

So what are you believing God for today?

You believe in God, you're needing God for a miracle today.

You're believing for that?

Is there sickness in your body?

Trust God at His Word.

So what is His Word to trust God for His healing?

If we don't know it, then we won't be able to believe it.

If we don't believe it, we won't experience it.

In 1 Peter 2 24, by His stripes you were healed.

Now God has, I think it's Exodus 15 26, that I am the Lord God who heals you.

There's so many scriptures that God has promised healing for us.

Now God has put it in His Word, placed it in His Word for a reason, it's for us.

Because He knew that at some stage we may need it.

So God has said to us that by the stripes of Jesus that you were healed.

It doesn't mean a lot to a person who was not ill, but it means everything to a person that may have received a bad report.

So what do we do with the scripture as such?

If we read it like the courier mail, it's not going to do much good for us.

And we don't read it for the sake of reading it.

And do we understand that this is God's promise? I'm sure we do.

God's promise to me, He's saying this is for your healing, only believe.

Nothing else. That God, He gave His Word, His promise by the stripes of His Son Jesus.

I've provided healing for you in the atonement. It's yours.

Take it. But faith will rise up, but fear will come and challenge it.

That's why Jesus cut that off, that bad report straight away to Jairus.

He intersected that conversation.

He said, do not fear, only believe. Jairus got his breakthrough.

So what do we do? We speak it, we believe it. Let faith arise and overcome.

So, you know, we speak it, we believe it. Let faith arise.

If you're going through a situation, what would be relationally or whatever, financially,

find the Scriptures in God's Holy Word and write them down.

And every day make that our assignment that this is my road to freedom and healing.

This is my road to restoration and a family.

And we take those Scriptures and they become our bread, our daily bread.

And we begin to speak them and speak it and believe it and confess it and speak it

and believe it and confess it and speak it, believe it and confess it and keep doing it

and doing it and doing it and doing it.

Something that happens is that we ourselves, this inner personal persuasion lines up

and believes God's Word. There's an agreement that takes place in our spirit.

Now, fear cannot exist in that place.

And every time that we begin to confess and believe and to speak the Word of God,

faith arises inside of us even so much more to the point that there's this strength inside of us.

I know, like I know, like I know, like I know God has got this. He's bringing me through.

I have nothing to fear that I can get on with my life. I still have a future.

I still have a hope that God is going to get me through this.

But I believe that I need to bind that fear that's trying to cause doubt into my life

to saying to me that you're not going to get your heal, you're not going to get your breakthrough,

you're not going to have whatever it is. No, in the name of Jesus,

there's a time that that inner persuasion in us needs to really rise up and say,

no, I'm going to believe God at His Word. I don't care what I'm seeing.

I don't care what the report says. I'm trusting in my God. Praise God for doctors.

Praise God for psychiatrists. Praise God for all these people.

But God Himself may have a totally different direction when it comes to healing.

Absolutely. God is God. Amen.

You need a financial breakthrough. Trust God.

If you're suffering under persecution, trust God.

You won't be the first and you certainly won't be the last to experience it.

You need peace in your life. Trust God. Trust God.

If we need peace in our life, there's only one way peace will come, and that's through Jesus Christ.

It's the only way. The Prince of Peace.

I don't know where everybody is at today, the Lord Jesus Christ,

but I'd like to give everyone an opportunity and those watching online today,

that if you have never received Christ as your personal Lord and Savior,

that today can be the first day the rest of your life to make this decision,

to enjoy the peace of God, to enjoy the blessings of salvation.

There's an incredible passage of Scripture that says in John chapter 14, verse 6,

John 14:6

Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.

And no man comes to the Father but by Him.

But today we're hearing it being said a little bit different.

People are thinking that Jesus is a way, that He's a truth,

and that He's a life, and that I can pick and choose whichever one I want

because all roads lead to Rome, that everything leads to heaven.

No, it doesn't.

I heard someone say, in fact I read it on a church billboard,

reservations for eternity, smoking or non-smoking.

You see, people don't end up in heaven by accident, it's by choice.

People choose. People choose.

Looking around here this morning, I believe that we are the ones, those here today are saved.

But I really want to make this very clear.

Like the Laodicean church, the Christians, they were going to church,

they thought they were serving God and Jesus was saying,

the problem is guys, you can't see.

You've wandered so far from the truth that you don't even know what truth is anymore.

And here's a good test for the Christian today.

Does truth offend us?

Or does truth comfort us?

We are finding today that many pastors around the world

are being challenged for speaking truth.

When it comes to morality issues, when it comes to character issues,

that people are trying to silence truth from the pulpits.

That's not a new thing, but it's getting to the point that it's so obvious.

It's the truth that makes us free.

It's nothing else.

It's the truth of God's Word that makes us free.

And the beauty of that is, is that if you've been made free,

that's who you are, you are free.

That's who you become.

I just want to do two things.

One, just quickly, pray a very simple prayer,

similar to what I prayed some 30 years ago.

And if you here today may have missed it, you know, I said before,

I think everyone here said, maybe not everyone is.

I don't want to assume that.

But those of you watching online, I would encourage you to really consider this

and pray this prayer to receive Christ into your life.

It would be the best thing that you ever do.

Could we pray together? Would you repeat after me?

Now, this prayer is just the beginning of many steps to come.

This is not the end result.

This is the beginning.

This is you coming into the kingdom of God.

Discipleship is a very important part of our Christian walk.

That someone mature in the things of God leads us and teaches us the ways of God.

That is vitally important.

But would you pray with me?

Father God, I come to you in the name of Jesus.

I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth

that you, Jesus, are the Son of God.

You died for me.

God, you raised him from the dead for me.

This day, I turn away from everything that is wrong

and I turn to you, Jesus, and I ask that you would save me.

This day, I receive you, Jesus, as my Lord and Savior.

Amen.

Now, if anyone here this morning that you've prayed that prayer for the first time

or you've made a recommitment today, would you just raise your hand very quickly?

Would you just put your hand just straight up?

Just don't hesitate.

Just let me see that hand.

I'm not going to call you out the front or anything like that.

Just acknowledge that before the Lord.

And if you're watching online and you've made that commitment this morning,

why don't you contact us with the information on the screen

and we'd love to get in touch with you to help you walk on these very first important steps as a Christian.

As I close, I'd like to leave the altar open.

If there's anyone that needs prayer for anything, anything in their life,

regardless what it is, regardless.

I sense the Spirit of God just so ready to lunge if you like,

to heal and to deliver people and to bless people this morning.

If that's you, please come forward and I'd love to pray for you.

And if that's you coming forward, why not be in an agreement already

that when we come together as a church, we're going to pray, we're going to believe God.

Here it is. Here it comes. Here it is right now.

In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you for joining us.

We pray God's richest blessing on your life.

If you haven't already, make sure to join us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

You can also find us at LoganCityChristianChurch.com.

See you next week.