Sermon

Pastor Bryan Grant | The Miracle | October 18th, 2026

Kelowna Christian Center

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  1. How are we all doing this morning?

  2. Just gonna Bernice just hang out there for a minute.

  3. Um we've been in a series called Ministry Mindset.

  4. Pastor Brody and Pastor Malachi have really set us up really, really well for this.

  5. And the whole idea of this series is simple.

  6. Ministry isn't just for the job that are here, it's for you that are out there.

  7. Amen.

  8. It's the posture that we carry as everyone, as people who are believers, that follow Christ, that come to attend this church.

  9. That's our posture.

  10. Is that we are ministers from this place and we go out to there and we get to make a difference.

  11. When we've been going through Luke chapter 10, Jesus does exactly this.

    Luke 10 chapter mention

  12. He sends out what Luke has dubbed the others.

  13. It wasn't the twelve, it was the others.

  14. He sends out 72 people, not the professionals, and this is what he says.

  15. He says, When you enter a town and are welcome to eat what is offered you, and then he says this He says, Heal the sick who are there and tell them the kingdom of God has come near to you.

  16. So here's the thing.

  17. When we see miracles in church, when you see people come in off the street, when you see your friends or your family come here and they give their life to Jesus, that's a miracle.

  18. When you see someone physically healed, that's a miracle.

  19. When you see someone's mental health change because of the power of the Holy Spirit, that's a miracle.

  20. But where you go, and when you leave this place and you go out there, the Bible says to heal the sick.

  21. Because when you do this, it actually shows the kingdom of God to people.

  22. It'll show the doubter, it'll show the skeptic, it'll show someone that God is doing amazing things, and that thing that maybe you believe in that they don't, all of a sudden, because of you just going out there and being obedient to the word of God, something changes, and his kingdom comes alive for someone, no matter where we are, and it doesn't happen just on Sundays at church.

  23. That goes where you go.

  24. So this is the the the truth of this is that when we talk about healing, I'm gonna I'm gonna touch on some stuff right now.

  25. That when we talk about healing, people will flinch in this room, and the reality is I'm one of them.

  26. I'm one of those people that flinch because we have people in this church right now that are sick that need a healing touch from God.

  27. We have people right now that need that healing.

  28. There's people that maybe have gotten a call the last couple weeks and are carrying that and they haven't even told anyone else what's going on, or maybe you have chronic pain in your body and you hurt every single day.

  29. We have those people in this church, maybe emotionally you are just tied up in knots all the time, and you're reaching out and you're crying out for help.

  30. And I'm gonna say this is that there's been times at this altar that maybe you've made your way forward, we've prayed for you, and you've walked away the same as when you came up for prayer.

  31. That's the reality.

  32. But let me tell you, this morning, as I was telling people, no one knew that I was talking about healing today.

  33. I had like five people that we've prayed with or that have been prayed for at this church the last like six months that came to me and said, God has healed my leg, God has healed my shoulder, God is doing this, this is what happened.

  34. So the reality is that emotionally, it's actually hard for a pastor to pray for people, lay hands on them.

  35. Me and Brody talked about this.

  36. Pastor Malachi, we lay hands on people and they don't get healed.

  37. And then I have someone tell me this morning, they're like, you know what, Brian?

  38. Is that people are gonna get prayed for, they're gonna get healed, and they're gonna walk away and they're being healed.

  39. One time in Lake Country, we were praying for one of our ladies out there.

  40. She couldn't even show up.

  41. She's had chronic headaches her whole life.

  42. She texted me five minutes before we started a prayer meeting, said, Hey, do you guys just mind praying for me?

  43. I said, Yeah, sure, absolutely.

  44. So we prayed for her.

  45. And God healed her headaches, and she's not had a headache since.

  46. So the message this morning, I got this, I got this.

  47. We're okay.

  48. The reality is that we'll pray and we end up with a funeral.

  49. We'll pray, and that's the result.

  50. And so easily it's for us just to blame God and say, God, you didn't do what I asked you to do.

  51. But if we approach Him, if we approach Him and say, God, I need you now.

  52. That regardless of the outcome, there's a statement that I have says, I know that you can, but even if you don't.

  53. I've had family members pass away after I prayed for them.

  54. I've had I had my son had an issue with his eye.

  55. Sorry, this is I just feel like I just want to encourage this this morning before we get rolling, because this is gonna be a simple message that I'm asking you to respond to this morning, because I believe God wants to heal people in this room today.

  56. We had a son that had a tear duct that was gonna have to have surgery, and we spent months praying for him, and one day it went away.

  57. I had chronic back pain, literally would kick me off work for months or for weeks at a time when I was early married.

  58. For 10 years, I had back pain.

  59. One day it was gone.

  60. I've never had a problem since.

  61. So even though sometimes our outcome is different than we desire, the idea is that we still pray, we still pursue, we still go after Jesus, we still do what we ought to do.

  62. And you know what you do when you have that struggle?

  63. You bring it to him, and you say, God, you didn't answer the prayer that I wanted.

  64. How do what do I do now?

  65. But we pursue him in this.

  66. So, this is what I want to ask you this morning.

  67. I want to build what God wants to build this morning, and that's testimonies in this place.

  68. God wants to heal people in this place.

  69. I've prepared the worship team, our leadership team is ready.

  70. We're gonna lay hands on people, but this is my ask of you that you don't hide behind it.

  71. Don't sit there if you know you need prayer, you know you need healing.

  72. I want you to make your way front.

  73. I'm this is the ask that we have for you is that God's gonna do something for you this morning.

  74. Amen.

  75. Just gonna pray, Lord.

  76. Build our faith in this house this morning.

  77. Build our faith.

  78. Lord, as we step forward and we hear from you and we say, God, I have body pain, I have something else going on.

  79. I got all I need a touch from you this morning that our hearts and our minds are open to respond to all, to all.

  80. Lord, that every person that gets that has issues this morning would walk away different than when they came in.

  81. Lord, we thank you for who you are and what you're gonna do.

  82. And we stand in faith together as a church that you will move in a mighty way in Jesus' name.

  83. Amen.

  84. Thanks so much, Bernice.

  85. Well, that blew my opening.

  86. I want to touch on something just as I kind of something that we hear often, and Pastor Brody's heard this, I'm sure Pastor Malachi has.

  87. And sometimes we hear this, and it's it's it's a common pressure in church circles.

  88. And we hear this thing that someone that says it's well-meaning, they mean it to be encouragement, they mean it it's the right thing, they mean it like, oh, this is meant to be some kind of stop.

  89. Maybe you've woken up at two in the morning and you've said this, uh, and it sounds like we're taking our faith spiritually or uh seriously, but we have to go to the Bible for stuff to see if these kinds of things hold up hold up, right?

  90. And so I want to just touch on this lack of faith idea.

  91. Lack of faith is a common pressure that you hear in church because of this person's lack of faith, they didn't get healed, they didn't get what they they desired.

  92. They didn't, so we hear this all the time.

  93. But there's a story that I want to start out start out with as we just work our way through this is in Mark chapter 9.

    Mark 9 chapter mention

  94. There's a father that brings his son to Jesus.

  95. And this son, um you read this the passage of scripture, it has a he has an impure spirit, but he has he foams at the mouth, he has seizures, he falls down, and he's really, really like it's bad, and it's been going on since childhood.

  96. So much so that the Bible says that when he would have these seizures, it would throw him into the water or would throw him into the fire.

  97. And it was really, really bad, but he would foam at the mouth.

  98. But there's a passage, there's the way that Jesus approaches this.

  99. So the son uh is with his dad, the father comes to see Jesus, and immediately when Jesus turns and sees it, the son just goes and starts to have a convulsion.

  100. He starts to he's like having a seizure.

  101. And Jesus, the son or the father asks the son, and he's this what he asked Jesus, this is what he says.

  102. He says, if you can do anything, help us.

  103. And Jesus answers with, if you can, he said, Everything is possible for one who believes.

  104. And then this is what he says afterwards.

  105. He says, Immediately the boars, the boy's father says, I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.

  106. Why this is such a powerful portion of scripture is that we would see look at that and be like, Well, that's just not enough faith.

  107. Brian would be like, that guy didn't have enough faith.

  108. Of course.

  109. But what does he do first?

  110. He admits to Jesus, he says, I do believe.

  111. I believe that you can do that.

  112. I believe, I just don't know really that that's what you're gonna do.

  113. And then in the next breath, he says to Jesus, help me with my unbelief.

  114. He says it out loud.

  115. And then Jesus heals the boy.

  116. And at that moment that we actually see when Jesus heals this boy, not only do we see a physical healing, we also see a spiritual one.

  117. All that happened at the same time.

  118. We see another story of Jesus raising a widow in uh in Nan, Nain, in Luke chapter 7.

    Luke 7 chapter mention

  119. Nobody asked, no one believed, the kid had already passed away, and Jesus just bumped into her at the market or on the street and had compassion for her and then raised the boy from the dead.

  120. She didn't ask Jesus, she didn't extend any faith, but Jesus had compassion and he healed.

  121. The equation that enough faith mealing, enough faith means healing, immediately has an issue.

  122. We see Jesus healing people who didn't qualify.

  123. Jesus sent the others, the 72, out to heal the sick and proclaim the gospel.

  124. He doesn't say, find the ones that believe me, the ones that have the right faith, the one that knew of Jesus.

  125. He says, Go out and heal the sick and let them know that the kingdom of God is at hand.

  126. That's what he does.

  127. It's not a currency.

  128. Then we see already right away we have to look at the other side of this as well.

  129. Something that I've already spoken about.

  130. We have to look at those people who had real faith but weren't healed.

  131. Paul, how many of you know of you the story of Paul?

  132. There's a story about how he prayed three times for a thorn in his flesh to be taken away.

  133. No, there's no real description of what it is, other than the historians believe that it could have been malaria or consumption or stomach issues or something was going on, but three times Paul asked the Lord to take it away, and this is Paul's or Paul's response, or God's response to Paul.

  134. We see through in the Hebrew Hall of Heroes in chapter Hebrews 11.

  135. People were killed, sawn in half, that died, that some were released or were never released from prison.

  136. All of this we see people that were of great faith.

  137. And what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11 is that they were commended for their faith, not corrected because they didn't see the promise.

    Hebrews 11 chapter mention

  138. They were commended for their faith.

  139. And so this is where we see the the lack of faith formula go wrong really quickly.

  140. Is it makes faith a currency.

  141. It takes your faith that you have in Jesus and turns it into a transaction.

  142. It reduces it down to a transaction.

  143. If you have a faith bank account and you have enough faith, you get what God has promised.

  144. If you don't, then you can't get what He's asked, what you asked for.

  145. We reduce it down to a transaction, but we see this isn't how Jesus talks about it.

  146. Jesus talks about faith like this.

  147. There's a uh in Matthew 17, we tie the two, uh, Mark chapter 9 and Matthew.

    Mark 9 chapter mention

  148. It's two lenses for the same story.

  149. This is what he said after the others read verse 17, you unbelieving and perverse generation.

  150. Jesus replied, How shall I stay with you?

  151. How long shall I put up with you?

  152. Bring the boy here to me.

  153. This is after the disciples tried to cast the demon out of the boy, and it didn't go as well as they were hoping.

  154. And so they brought him to Jesus.

  155. It's like, didn't this plan didn't go well, I gotta bring it to the boss.

  156. Right?

  157. Something goes wrong, I have to bring it to Pastor Brody, because he'll fix it for me.

  158. Right?

  159. He's kind of just looking at me like, maybe not.

  160. But then he goes to the and he's then to the dis Jesus rebukes the the demon and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment, just like we read.

  161. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, Why couldn't we drive it out?

  162. And this is where this is so great for us.

  163. This is because you have little so little faith.

  164. Truly, I tell you, if you have faith, small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move.

  165. Nothing will be impossible for you.

  166. Because you have so little faith.

  167. That's the same story, that's the same day, that's the same idea.

  168. Matthew and Mark are showing it from two different angles.

  169. The father says, Help with my unbelief, and the boy gets healed.

  170. The disciples tried and they couldn't do it.

  171. And then later you read in verse 10 or in Luke chapter 10 that Jesus was or the disciples were so excited that they used Jesus' name and cast out a demon.

    Luke 10 chapter mention

  172. Like they couldn't do it the first time, but then they get rebuked by Jesus.

  173. And the second time they're like, oh, I got this.

  174. We can do this.

  175. I just have to use the name of Jesus.

  176. And if you look at the the seed, it's the smallest seed you'll ever hold in your life.

  177. It is so small that if you if you didn't see it was there, you just is this the tiniest, tiniest of the seeds.

  178. That is all the faith that God is asking us for it to have.

  179. In that moment.

  180. If when we're asking for God for something, we feel in that moment that we don't have very much faith, but we have faith that's just that big, he will move the mountains for us.

  181. The power isn't in the amount of your faith, the power is in the object of your faith.

  182. I heard someone say this to me before.

  183. Is that sometimes we have faith for faith's sake?

  184. Is that we have faith because Pastor Brian said that we need to have faith.

  185. We have faith because that's what Pastor Brody says that we need to do.

  186. We don't, we need to have faith in Jesus, not faith in faith.

  187. Because we sometimes we take that faith and be like, well, that's the ultimate thing.

  188. No, no, your faith needs to be in the one who can actually do it.

  189. In the Creator, in Jesus.

  190. He's the one that can do it.

  191. Brian can't heal.

  192. The disciples learned the hard way.

  193. They went to cast out the demon, it didn't work because they were doing it in their own power.

  194. They were doing it the way they wanted to do it.

  195. They had they didn't do it the way Jesus wanted them to do it, and that's in his name.

  196. Then they were excited that it actually worked.

  197. I'd be excited too.

  198. Faith isn't a vending machine that we feed the faith quarter, send up the faith prayer flare, and get God to do what we want him to do.

  199. But that's how we treat it.

  200. That's how I've treated it many times in my life.

  201. God, I've not really been in this mode right now, and I just kind of need your help.

  202. Do you mind if I just I need the you to do something on my behalf?

  203. And I shoot up the prayer flare.

  204. Feed the vending machine and hope that something comes through.

  205. Faith is trusting in the one who can do anything.

  206. Faith is trusting him when he says yes.

  207. Faith is trusting him when he says wait.

  208. Faith is trusting him when he says no.

  209. That when we see healing, it's a sign of God's kingdom come close.

  210. It's a preview of the kingdom.

  211. It's not the prize for the people that prayed the hardest.

  212. We've elevated physical healing to almost a place where it's just it's here or nothing.

  213. It's all or nothing.

  214. And that anything in between is just unacceptable.

  215. Do I believe that we should constantly pray and have and pray for healing and pray for what God wants to do?

  216. Absolutely.

  217. But when someone gets healed, it's not about them.

  218. They get healed, and it's an encouragement to those around them that God moved.

  219. And God did something amazing.

  220. How many of you have been in a place where you've seen someone healed?

  221. God did something amazing, and you were just fired up.

  222. I heard stories this week actually from Jamin told me some stories about what God had done, legs being lengthened in front of him while he was holding on to the hand.

  223. Come on.

  224. You've all seen that what God has done in amazing things.

  225. We know that he can do this.

  226. And is that about that person?

  227. Yes, the bonus is that person got healed.

  228. The better thing is that your faith was built.

  229. That the person that doesn't know Jesus all of a sudden is like, what is going on here?

  230. That they walk into this place.

  231. I I have seen in this room, I remember at one of our tent meetings, tent meetings, I say tent meetings, it's it wasn't a tent.

  232. We're in this room.

  233. Back when back when the chairs were marooned.

  234. No one remembers that?

  235. Okay.

  236. Okay.

  237. But I remember one one Sunday, or one Sunday night, it was during the service, I can't remember who was preaching.

  238. We're in the middle of worship, and there's a guy that was locally known to us as being like a Satanist.

  239. And he came into the service that day.

  240. We found out later, with every intention to disrupt the service.

  241. And whoever was preaching, whatever was going on, was just preaching the gospel, something happened.

  242. That guy walked up front from the back with no prompting from anyone and gave his life to Jesus that day.

  243. And what he did, he took, he had like stuff that was Satanist things on him and brought it and left it at the altar.

  244. That's a miracle.

  245. That if the same guy, I ended up talking to him a while, Pastor, I think Pastor Ed knew him, but ended up having, he had back problems and got healed on that same day.

  246. Because the power of God does things.

  247. And do you know what it did for our church?

  248. It built up our faith.

  249. It built us up to be like, man, God can do amazing things.

  250. The reason that we sometimes we pray small is that we've been burned by it.

  251. I can tell you, in times in my life, I've not prayed big prayers because I was worried about the outcome.

  252. That I was scared to pray that big, audacious, whatever that prayer is going to be, I was nervous and scared to do that.

  253. Because I don't actually think, church, that the problem that we have in our room is lack of faith.

  254. I think that sometimes, if I'm speaking for me, I haven't prayed the big prayers because the one I had prayed for didn't happen.

  255. So here's what I mean.

  256. We've prayed, I prayed for people that have been sick.

  257. Maybe you heard of someone who has a diagnosis.

  258. Natalie and I miscarried in our first five years of marriage, and we prayed and prayed and prayed, and that baby still died.

  259. Right?

  260. We prayed for the marriage.

  261. We tried absolutely everything.

  262. We prayed for it all.

  263. And still, God, you didn't follow through.

  264. And this is what happens is that we begin to protect ourselves by not praying the big prayer anymore.

  265. You don't ask for the big thing.

  266. Instead, you say to God, God, can you just give me peace with this problem that I have?

  267. Can you just give me the strength to get through this?

  268. Lord, if it's your will, I'll suffer.

  269. This is what we do.

  270. We start to justify why we're not praying for the big prayers when the Bible's saying, just ask.

  271. And if it doesn't happen, we'll ask again.

  272. And if it doesn't happen, we'll keep asking.

  273. Because he's a good God.

  274. Not because we're begging him, because he's a good God that wants to give his children good gifts.

  275. So this is what I want to remember the story of the leper?

  276. We see the story of the leper where he actually said, God, if you can do this, Jesus himself went and prayed to God, that God, I don't want to do this on the cross.

  277. Take this from me.

  278. And I get it.

  279. I am in that position.

  280. I sometimes struggle in that position where God, I have asked you for things.

  281. For 20 years, Natalie and I have been praying for certain things and they still haven't come to pass.

  282. For 20 years, I've been praying for members of my family to come to Jesus and they're still not come to Jesus.

  283. But I'm not going to stop praying.

  284. We've been hurt.

  285. We've all been in that place.

  286. I don't want you to put up your hands, but I would say that most of us have been in this place where we've prayed for something and it hasn't come through the way we wanted it to.

  287. But I would also hazard a guess that if I was to ask you, let's do this one, let's do this.

  288. How many of you have experienced the goodness of God?

  289. Right?

  290. We've experienced the goodness of God.

  291. And I will say that the goodness of God that you experience is going to easily overshadow the one or two things that God didn't do the way you wanted them to go.

  292. So we can't forget how good He is.

  293. So when we sing songs like this that we did this morning, the goodness of God, that literally is the Christian, like, I don't want to say mantra, that's a wrong word.

  294. Like anthem, thank you, Pastor Brody.

  295. See?

  296. If I don't know, I go to Pastor Brody, he tells me things.

  297. It's the Christian anthem that the goodness of God will always be good.

  298. And your perspective that I'm just gonna play, pray for strength instead of dealing with the suffering.

  299. I'm just gonna pray, and you actually reduce the prayer that you have because you make your problem bigger than the power of God.

  300. And that's what we do.

  301. But there's something that happens when we actually do this, it actually costs us something.

  302. It keeps you from the invitation that Jesus has for you, inviting him into that relationship because you create distance between you and God.

  303. The enemy of bold prayer in this room, I would hazard to guess, isn't gonna be doubt, it's gonna be self-protection.

  304. I know for a fact that I pray sometimes and have prayed in the past to protect me.

  305. God, I'm only gonna pray what I think you can do.

  306. So here's three things before we get to God doing some stuff this morning is we want to pray like he can.

  307. We see about that man from with leprosy, he was cut off from his family, cut off from the temple, cut off from people.

  308. He walked around, he would have to yell at people so they wouldn't come near him.

  309. This is what he says the leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling to him said, If you will, you can make me clean.

  310. Moved with pity.

  311. Another translation, moved with compassion.

  312. Another one says he was indignant.

  313. Jesus was indignant.

  314. He stretched out his hand and he touched him and he says, I will be clean.

  315. We need to pray like he can do it.

  316. If we're willing, he can.

  317. We see through the Father, we see in Thomas, if you read that story, you see the leper.

  318. None of them doubt that Jesus can.

  319. They just struggle with a little bit of unbelief.

  320. So if we settle the order right, God, I believe that you can.

  321. Once you know that he can, you believe it.

  322. If you believe it in your heart that, God, I know that you can, your prayer will change.

  323. Don't miss it.

  324. That he's not angry at the man.

  325. I think that if I read this, and this might just be me, he's a little sad that the man has to ask.

  326. That he lives in a world where people kneel in the dirt and wonder if God is willing to heal.

  327. So he doesn't heal the leper from a distance.

  328. He reaches down and touches him on the shoulder and says, You're healed.

  329. So here we go.

  330. Some of us have been praying like he can't.

  331. Praying to him like, God, I know you're just doing your best.

  332. God, I know you try really, really hard.

  333. God, who might not have it in him just to notice Brian is suffering.

  334. So we pray carefully.

  335. But we know that he can.

  336. He spoke, and there was light.

  337. He raised people from the dead.

  338. He walked out of his own grave.

  339. The can of who Jesus is isn't in question.

  340. Can he do this?

  341. This is what it says in James chapter 5.

    James 5 chapter mention

  342. Is anyone among them sick?

  343. Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil.

  344. And the prayer offered in faith will make a sick person well.

  345. The Lord will raise them up.

  346. Who has faith in this verse?

  347. The elders have faith.

  348. They're coming.

  349. You're coming with mustard seed faith.

  350. Those elders are coming.

  351. And they're going to be on the front row today, and we're going to pray for you with faith that God's going to heal.

  352. But the faith is coming from the elders.

  353. We're not praying for peace around whatever sickness.

  354. We're actually naming the issue.

  355. This is one thing I love.

  356. Pastor Brody spoke last week on peace.

  357. Such a good message.

  358. But do you realize that?

  359. I don't think you know you realize the weight of what he preaches every every Sunday when Pastor Brody preaches, he ends the service.

  360. May the Lord bless you and keep you.

  361. Remember that?

  362. You've been here for a while, you've heard that.

  363. This is interesting.

  364. I want to read just a part of it, and then I'm going to tell you why.

  365. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

  366. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

  367. In the Bible, the word shalom carries tremendous weight.

  368. So every time Pastor Brody speaks that over you, he's speaking this over you.

  369. He's speaking soundness, complete peace, harmony, prosperity, safety, wholeness, nothing broken.

  370. This is who he is.

  371. That's what he's praying over you every week when he releases us after church.

  372. We approach with confidence.

  373. The ask that we have of God isn't a lever that just moves him.

  374. We have to go and approach him and say, God, I want to approach your throne with confidence.

  375. Amen.

  376. We need to trust like he knows.

  377. Pray like he can, trust like he knows.

  378. I said earlier that Jesus was in the garden, Father, he was saying, Take his cup.

  379. He prayed with like hard and with tears in his eyes, who could save him?

  380. But we trust like he knows.

  381. There's a story, but how many of you have heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

  382. Great story.

  383. I'm just gonna recap it just for those who have never heard it.

  384. So three men were in the king's courts, and he erected a tower or a statue of himself, and he said, I need you to bow to this God.

  385. And they were the only three that wouldn't do it.

  386. So he approaches, they approach him and said, Well, the king had a law that if you don't bow, you end up dying.

  387. And so they're gonna get thrown into the fiery furnace.

  388. But the attitude was this of these three guys.

  389. I'm confident in my faith that God will follow through, but even if he doesn't.

  390. The king asked them multiple times, bow, and they said no.

  391. They knew that if they that potentially they knew that if I we don't bow to this, we're gonna end up dying.

  392. But their faith in God was so much that this is they said that even if God doesn't save us, I know what he's gonna do.

  393. So we need to trust like he can.

  394. He is able.

  395. You see how they they they said this.

  396. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, and the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand.

  397. But if he does not, we want you to know, your majesty.

  398. Now they're getting a little sassy.

  399. They will not serve that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.

  400. They knew that they might die, but they also knew in the same breath that God will save them.

  401. So I want to say that here's here's the point for some of this is that no and not yet are not evidence that he hasn't heard you.

  402. They're not evidence that you have failed in your faith.

  403. Trust is not understand what he is doing, not understanding what he is doing, trust is believing he's good when you can't see what he is doing.

  404. The last one is hope like he will.

  405. Now, faith is a confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

  406. Here's the key.

  407. We don't have faith for faith's sake.

  408. Hope is anchored in his character, not my outcome.

  409. I'm not hoping for a result, I'm hoping in a person.

  410. And that person has a track record.

  411. I asked you that before.

  412. Can we see by a show of hands again how many of you have experienced the goodness of God?

  413. Right?

  414. Just keep those hands up.

  415. Just keep those hands up.

  416. Look around the room, everyone, not just in front of you.

  417. Look around the room.

  418. All of us have experienced the goodness of God.

  419. You can put your hands now.

  420. Probably get you to keep them up there for a while, but all of you have experienced the goodness of God.

  421. Everything that we do and everything that we have is anchored in his character, not the outcome that I desire.

  422. This is what it says regarding track records in Lamentations 3, 22, and 23.

  423. You said, Because the Lord's great love, we are not consumed.

  424. For his compassions never fail.

  425. They are new every morning, and great is your faithfulness.

  426. Small faith in a big God still moves mountains.

  427. Can you stand with me?

  428. Can I have the prayer team make their way forward?

  429. So I want to say this.

  430. Said this to our foundations class a couple weeks ago.

  431. It's okay that you doubt.

  432. See here's why.

  433. It's okay that you doubt.

  434. If we read through the Bible, there's two ways that we can approach this, two ways the Bible deals with doubt.

  435. Doubt that leads you towards Jesus, towards seeking him out, where you have a desire to build a faith, lead him, lead you to search out Jesus.

  436. That doubt will be answered and your faith will be built.

  437. When we see the Father that was bringing his son, he did not deny God's promise at all.

  438. He knew what God can do, but he desired to know more.

  439. He desired what God had.

  440. But then we see the doubt that settles into like unbelief that leads you towards away from God, that leads you towards maybe deconstructing your faith or being angry at God.

  441. That has way less grace on it.

  442. But the dividing line that we see in this between the two, when you doubt or don't doubt, or doubt with grace and doubt without grace is direction.

  443. We see this in scripture.

  444. We can doubt towards Jesus.

  445. So when I pray for faith, God, I need your help, I need healing today.

  446. But I have unbelief.

  447. But we're doubting towards Jesus, not away from him.

  448. We're stepping towards him and into relationship with him instead of away from him and creating distance between us and God.

  449. That's what we're doing.

  450. This is what I have written down.

  451. Jesus has never turned away a person who brought their doubt and asked anyway.

  452. So I just want you to close your eyes for a minute.

  453. I just want the team to worship just for like a minute and a half or two minutes.

  454. But this is what I want you to do.

  455. If this is you today and you feel like you have a physical healing, something's going on in your body, you've had a diagnosis, you're praying for something big and heavy and weighty.

  456. This is what I want you to do.

  457. I want you to just take a few minutes.

  458. And I want you to ask boldly this morning, God, I need a healing.

  459. God, I have family members that need a healing.

  460. But if you're sick, you have struggles, body aches, cancer, whatever it is, we want to pray for you today.

  461. But I want to just let the team worship for a minute.

  462. Just prepare.

  463. Then I'm going to ask people to start making their way forward.

  464. You can make your way forward now if that's what you want.

  465. But I believe there's people in here that God wants to heal and God wants to build our faith, but God wants to build your faith.

  466. Amen?

  467. So let's just take a minute and pray.

  468. And let's boldly ask for what God has offered, for what His promise is.

  469. Just take a minute and just worship and just pray.