Nothing to Fear - Unsettling Times | Unshakable Faith

So let's talk about fear.

Yeah, let's talk about fear.

Um Would you be interested in knowing what the top ten fears are that human beings have?

You want to guess real quick?

Guess.

What would one of them be?

I don't know what you're saying.

What?

What?

Public speaking.

Public speaking.

That is one of them.

Yeah.

In fact, in some surveys, it's number one, uh ahead of death.

People would rather die than speak in public.

What else?

Any other guesses?

Snakes!

That's kind of on here Hate with the eye.

Now there are a number of lists, so they vary, but um number one is actually on this list loneliness.

Yeah, then death, then public speaking.

But uh public speaking's worse than snakes.

Uh fourth is spiders, rats, snakes, and roaches.

They're in their own category.

Any anything in there that you are afraid of?

Okay.

Afraid of intimacy, that would be guys, okay.

Um crazy.

I don't fear it, I'm there.

Um Fear of Jones.

That's a big one.

Yeah.

And then um fear of being a coward.

And then Number 10, fear of getting old.

Oh pish tosh.

Okay, then uh there are some really weird fears.

I bet you've never heard of some of these.

There's, oh my goodness.

Araka buterreophobia.

That is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth I taught our grandkids.

There are three ways.

Youth ministry.

Okay, John, you'd be interested.

Nomophobia.

It's superior being without your mobile phone.

Here we go.

I can't, I don't know if I could do this one.

Hippopodo Mono Tro 's equipped de Dali Opophobia.

That is the fear of long words.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah, and then um uh I don't even know what that one is.

Oh, but here's one The last one I thought, apparently it's rare, but it should be one maybe we all consider.

It's called Phobophobia.

Phobophobia is the fear of fear.

Now that might be a good one.

Maybe this is a phobophobic night for us.

Because it's a pretty fearsome world.

Turn on the evening news.

That'll get some fear going in you.

Deadly diseases.

Next variant.

A lot of financial uncertainty Or maybe more personal.

What the doctor told you or what you're afraid of every year.

Do you have a physical?

How do you feel about when before you go in there?

Feel little uh butterflies?

Um you may have a struggling child, I know some do.

And their fears will go with that of where their choices will lead them.

I know what fear does to us I've had it happen to me.

It paralyzes you emotionally , certainly clouds your judgment.

I very seldom, I don't know if ever, made a good decision out of fear.

Made some bad ones.

You make impulsive mistakes, you panic, and you just do something to do something.

You miss opportunities because you're afraid and you don't, you just stop and you freeze.

Fear has certainly led to spiritual disobedience.

God's telling you to do something.

He says go, you say no, because you're afraid.

He says yes, you say no.

Because you're afraid.

He says no.

You say yes.

Because you're afraid of what will happen if you stop doing it.

But fear isn't king.

Jesus is king.

Fear should have no authority over us.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.

Fear not is the most common command in the Bible.

There are many hundreds of times, Old Testament and New.

No, no, Jesus has the authority.

And let me tell you, it's an antidote to fear.

Because you look at fear in the face and say, all authority in heaven and earth belongs to my Jesus.

But there is a never-ending battle in the life of everybody here.

Our fears are different.

But there's a never-ending battle between fear and faith.

And that battle is all the way through, the book of Matthew.

We'll see some examples tonight.

I think it's possible to have, at least most of the time, a fearless faith.

Because fear today, in light of chapter 1, volume 2, fear had its way in volume 1 too many times.

If volume two is going to be bolder, more significant, make a greater difference, touch more lives, we cannot let fear be the deciding factor.

I'll tell you an interesting statement I read.

It happened on D-Day.

And as those GIs got off those landing craft, and plowed into those beaches, snipers on the cliffs above, landmines all across the beach.

They know many it is a fact.

They know now.

They don't know which ones.

Many will never make it across there.

And a correspondent wrote these words.

He said, fear is not He said, courage is not the absence of fear.

I think of people running into the World Trade Center, a burning building.

Going in for the rescue.

You bet they were afraid.

No, courage is not the absence of fear.

It is the disregard of it Yes, I'm afraid, but it won't decide what I do.

Now, with that in mind, and a quote from Winston Churchill, I know if I want to be smart, I quote people like Winston Churchill.

I like this.

I just came across this last week.

He said fear is a reaction.

Courage is a decision.

Can I put in there, if I could correct Sir Winston.

Fear is a reaction.

Faith is a decision.

With that in mind, here's the fifth passion. that empowered the early Christians to be world changers.

You see it all through the book of Acts.

And that is faith that is bigger than our fear.

It is not the absence of fear.

It's faith that outweighs the fear and is decisive instead of the fear being decisive.

You look at the book of Acts and look at when Peter and John are told to shut up and not talk about Jesus anymore.

By the Sanhedrin who just crucified Jesus.

That would scare you.

They run back to the Christian community.

There's a big prayer meeting.

It says the whole place was shaken by the Holy Spirit.

And they came out of there and says they spoke the word of God boldly.

That was fa faith bigger than the fear, though there was a whole lot to fear.

So we go to the book of Matthew, where it's there a lot.

Write this in your notes.

Either our fears will overwhelm our faith.

Or our faith will overwhelm our fears.

I don't think there's any middle ground.

You may, even as a parent or a grandparent, or a husband or wife Have been making decisions out of fear.

It's a fearsome time to be a parent.

It's a fearsome time to be a grandparent.

I understand that.

I am one But is it overwhelming your faith?

So here's how faith becomes the epicenter of a kingdom life.

Number one, faith is the trigger of the supernatural.

Faith is what triggers divine intervention.

Let's take a look at some examples.

And the book of Matthew has got plenty of them, but it happens over and over again in Matthew's gospel.

Let's run through these real quick, guys.

This is in Matthew 8.

Jesus said to the centurion who had a very ill servant, Go, let it be done just as you believed it would, and just as you believed it would, and his servant was healed at that moment.

This is chapter 9.

Some brought men brought to him a paralyzed man lying on a mat.

When Jesus saw their faith. .

He said to the man, Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven. .

And we know that day he exactly, ultimately was healed.

When he saw their faith, look at chapter 9 again.

Jesus turned and saw her.

Take heart, daughter, he said.

Your faith, this is the woman with the issue of blood, your faith has healed you.

And the woman was healed.

You see, faith triggers the supernatural.

Here's another example.

Then he touched their eyes and said, according to your faith.

Let it be done to you.

And they were healed.

Faith is a trigger of the supernatural.

Now with our life in the hands of King Jesus, faith is not an irrational choice.

With someone who has control over all the outcomes as your savior, it is actually the most reasonable response to something we're afraid of.

And you know where faith plants its feet?

You don't plant your feet in your feelings.

Because your feelings will tend toward fear and retreat.

You don't plant your feet in your circumstances.

Because they will not tell you, they don't control the outcome.

No, you plant your feet on the unmoving rock of the promises of Almighty God.

And that is a conscious, deliberate, intentional choice to say, what does God promise about this?

And however the circumstances seem to be going, whatever the odds appear to be, whatever the doctor says, whatever the Dow Jones says, whatever my my kids are doing right now, I plant my feet on promises.

And you act as if those promises are your engine for your decisions.

Look at Matthew 24, 29.

Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

Yes, that's they say, well, that's really not a promise.

Well, it is not a happy one.

But even if heaven and earth passes away My words will never pass away.

Untouchable.

Unchangeable.

So you got your feet on something that ain't gonna move I love Joshua 23, 14.

It's a testimony of many was here.

You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you. has failed.

Every promise has been fulfilled.

Not one has failed.

Centuries, millennia of believers in this God.

Psalm 119 says, all your promises have been thoroughly tested over and over and over again.

And your servant loves them.

Plant your feet on the promises.

Antidote to fear.

Now, how do you exercise faith?

How do you activate faith?

Well, it's exercised through prayer.

You want to know, you know, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

One of Karen's favorite verses, maybe yours, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean out on your understanding.

Proverbs 3.

5.

How do you know if you're doing that?

How do you know if you really trust in the Lord?

Well one thing is, I remember I was I was told by some guys on Wall Street after 2008.

And the collapse of so much financially, major institutions.

He said, you know, Ron, if you asked any of us Christians on the street, And you ask us what our trust is in, we would have said, well, what do you think?

We trust in God.

He said, until the things we really trusted in, we're gone.

And then we found out where our trust really was.

Some of the things we trust in were shaken this past couple years.

And maybe it has exposed the fact.

That maybe that isn't where here's how you find out where your trust is.

If your trust is in God, you know how you're going to express it?

by the frequency and the fervency of your praying.

You want to see how much you trust God?

Evaluate how frequently during the day You go to heaven and talk to God and how fervent your prayers are.

Is it just the little dear God Thank you for this day.

Thank you for your many blessings.

Please help me with my many sins and bless the missionaries, whoever they are.

No?

Or is it, oh Lord?

Oh Lord.

That's how they pray in the Old Testament.

Oh Lord.

The dear God prayers.

Oh Lord, yeah, that's a desperate dependent heart.

The language of dependency, your declaration of dependence Is your prayer?

How often do you literally, God is your first response, you intentionally throw yourself on him and say, you got this God, I don't.

And how fervent is your praying?

That's how to measure where your trust is.

To me, that's a practical way to find it out.

Now the Lord taught us powerful prayer.

Remember the disciples said teach us to pray?

Hey!

So I don't want it's not the Lord's prayer.

The Lord's prayer really is in John 17, but I don't want to mess you up, so the Lord's Prayer. disciples' prayer, uh, is in uh Matthew chapter 6, and let's let's just evaluate it real quick.

I know you're very familiar with this.

This sin is how you should pray.

So it's Jesus' model for prayer.

Our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Notice Here we go with that kingdom, that connection of heaven and earth, living in the kingdom of earth, but living out the kingdom of heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

This is this is uh got a lot in it, believe it or not, a pattern for powerful praying.

And forgive us our debts.

As we shall also forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

So I try to write down what does this teach us?

Here's some of the characteristics of powerful prayer according to this prayer.

First, powerful prayer begins with praising your big, big God That had better be where your prayer starts.

Enter his courts with praise and thanksgiving, remember?

So how do you come into praying?

What what do you start with?

Where do your prayers start Well powerful praying starts out with, number one, the person you're praying to, our Father in heaven Right away, you've lifted yourself out of the situation you're in, and you have entered the throne room of the God of heaven You are now, you have a perspective that is from eternity just by saying, our Father in heaven.

So you begin with praising your big, big God Secondly, it leaves your needs completely in his hands.

It leaves your needs completely in his hands.

You heard that?

Give us this day your daily bread and forgive us our debts and we'll get to that in a minute, but leave your needs in his hands.

When um And uh Noelle, it's just she loves it when I mentioned her.

Um no, not at all.

Uh but um when Noelle was about three or four years old.

Uh Doug and Anna were still on the reservation and she's going through the living room.

She's got her red uh wiggles.

That was a TV show then.

She has her red wiggles uh backpack on and it's full of books very intellectual four-year-old and she's carrying all these books and she's like all stooped over and she's going through the living room and Doug says honey do you want me to take your um You want me to take your books for you?

I can I and and she's like, no, that first firstborn.

I can do it.

You know how that is?

Some of you firstborns, you know how that the diseases. is.

I'm one.

I can do it.

No, I can I can do I can do it, Daddy.

She takes a couple more steps.

He says, honey, do you want me to take that?

She says, yeah.

So he lifted the backpack, no big deal for him, and uh and uh and he said, how's that, honey bear?

And she said, oh, she said, I feel so much better.

For a while she was carrying what she didn't need to carry.

She had a father who had carried for her.

What are you doing carrying your needs?

You want to know if you really prayed or not?

You walk into the throne room of God and you're all stooped over, carrying the burden of your health, your family, your marriage, your business. medical whatever and you walk in all like this if you walk out like that you told God about it just like Noelle said yeah daddy this is heavy well I didn't help her until she left it with him and let him carry it.

If you walk in all bent over, you better walk out walking straight and tall.

Because you didn't just, God doesn't need to be informed.

He knows.

You need to leave it with him, not just talk talk to him about it.

So that so you you you leave your needs with him, then you persist.

Matthew 7, 7.

You persist in prayer.

Ask and it will be given to you.

That's kind of like Uh Lord, would you please seek?

Okay, now I'm pursuing this.

I'm going after it more.

Knock!

And the door will be open to you.

This is more and more persistent prayer Persisting in prayer is part of its power.

Look at Matthew 18, verses 19 and 20.

Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, be done for them by my Father in heaven.

For where two or three gather my name, there am I with them.

I thought, what's the deal here?

Is it God pay more attention if I pray with somebody else than if I pray alone?

What is this?

Well, since he's a father, all I can do is compare it to my father experience.

So um the question is what's for dinner tonight?

And uh so mom says it's a casserole.

I don't know why that's not a favorite answer to a lot of kids, especially boys.

It's like mystery something.

Casseroles are mysterious, we don't know what's in them.

And so they want to go to McDonald's.

So how do they go about that?

I'm in my study?

Well, they send the sacrificial lamb, the baby, Brad.

Brad, why don't you go to ask Dad?

Okay.

And so Brad comes in and uh he knocks on the door and says, Daddy, we want to go no honey, I know that's thank you.

I know mom 's got something else planned for tonight.

That's okay.

So he goes back, reports back.

They uh Lisa and Doug have a conference and now Lisa, the oldest, dispatches the two brothers with instructions.

Those instructions don't help.

It's still not persuasive.

Pretty soon, finally, we bring out the heavy artillery, the firstborn.

And all three come and say, Daddy, please, we all want to go to McDonald's.

We go.

There's, I don't know what it is, but there's something about all the kids together.

That touches the father's heart.

Now, I don't want to humanize God on this thing.

I'm sure this is really oversimplified, but I get the idea that there is power in going to him together, and he says, come to me together, and it's going to get done.

So part of the powerful praying, remember that is how you exercise faith is to bring others into that prayer effort with you.

And then prayer expects the supernatural.

I mean that's the nature of faith, isn't it?

Matthew 9, verse 2 Some men brought to a paralyzed man lying on the mat.

Here we go.

They were expecting the supernatural.

They expected that man would be carried in and would walk out.

And it happened.

So there's this Midwestern town that somehow has maintained staying dry from alcohol.

And the church in that small town has been the ones that really kept it dry.

Well, an enterprising guy who happened to be an atheist decided that he would build um, there wasn't laws actually, so he was legally able to build a bar, a tavern across the street From the church.

The church was very unhappy.

And so they prayed.

They got a big prayer meeting going together.

And literally the night before the bar was supposed to open, it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.

Well, believe it or not, the owner sued the church for causing the burning down of his business.

This went to court And finally the judge announced his ruling, but he preceded it by saying this.

He said, this is the strangest case I've ever tried.

For apparently, we have an atheist who believes in the power of prayer and a bunch of church folks who don't So, um, not a true story as far as I know.

Anyway, but um So expect the supernatural and ask yourself, am I just praying for something man-sized or am I praying for something God-sized?

Well, the words faith and believe, mostly faith, in the book of Matthew are used 23 times The word afraid is used 18 times.

It's almost a tie.

But faith wins.

Okay We got the first step here.

Here's the second one.

Fear is the saboteur of faith.

So faith triggers the supernatural, but fear sabotages faith.

I've had many fear flops in my life.

I flopped because I acted out of fear.

At least 11 times in the book of Matthew, it says, do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid.

Now we got some powerful examples of where faith and fear are fighting it out, just like they do in our hearts on a regular basis.

Let's go to Matthew 8.

We learn a lot from these examples.

Jesus got in the boat, the disciples followed him.

Suddenly a furious storm came upon the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.

But Jesus was sleeping.

Seems like that sometimes.

The disciples went and woke him, saying, Lord, save us.

We're going to drown.

He replied, you have little faith.

Now he didn't say no faith, I'm glad, because they at least did turn to him after freaking out.

You have little faith.

Why are you so afraid?

We're going to find out that the opposite of faith is not unbelief.

The opposite of faith is fear.

He said, you chose fear over faith.

Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

They were amazed, what kind of man is this?

Even the wind and waves obey him.

Who does that?

Notice the word says they were overwhelmed.

You ever get that way?

By your storm?

I have been.

You maybe not get to sleep because you're overwhelmed by it.

You replay all this stuff.

You're trying to solve it, fix it.

Prevent it.

Or you wake up early.

You're overwhelmed.

You know how that happens?

You forget the divine amazings that you have already seen.

That's what happened with the disciples.

You want to have you read the chapters right before this storm?

These disciples have just seen a leper healed.

Literally, that dread disease disappeared from a man's body.

They have seen that centurion servant dying of a fever, healed from a distance.

Jesus didn't even go there.

They have seen demons cast out, literally running at the command of Jesus.

They've seen a lot more people healed, it says.

But He can't handle their storm, of course.

You've seen so many amazings I say faith is like a fitted sheet.

Don't you think so?

Do I hear amen?

You're like, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Sometimes I don't either, but this time I do.

Faith looks like a fitted sheet.

You know why?

You ever had to put on a fitted sheet alone?

So three corners ain't bad.

How about that fourth corner?

That fourth corner is a bear man.

You mean you want the sheet to be tight, but this is crazy.

I'm hurting my old shoulder here.

Shoulder surgery.

Not fair.

Well you know why faith is like a fitted sheet?

Because your faith can reach over three corners.

But it couldn't reach over that storm, could it?

Their faith couldn't cover the whole deal.

It couldn't cover that.

Which is literally Almost a denial of what they've seen in the power of Jesus.

This isn't going to sync with the Almighty Savior on here And they let so afraid, quote, in Jesus' words, become little faith, haven't we all?

That's for fear, sabotages faith.

I love the words of this song, which I now like to sing for you.

No, I'm not going to.

It says basically I tell the big storm, I tell the storm how big my God is.

Instead of looking at the size of the storm, I look at the size of my You tell the storm How big your God is.

Matthew 16.

They have seen the feeding of the 5,000.

And now they're out in the boat again.

They hear Jesus talking about the leaven of the Pharisees, the yeast of the Pharisees.

And they start to say, you know, I know why he's talking like this.

We didn't bring any bread.

Here we go again.

We didn't bring any bread.

Jesus says, aware of their discussion, Jesus asks , You have little faith.

Why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?

Were you there?

Did you see?

You came you came back with a basket of leftovers, hello?

Do you not understand?

Don't you remember the loaves for the 5,000 and how many basketfuls you gathered?

Oh, but well we didn't bring any bread.

What are we gonna do?

You know what causes, I believe, little faith?

Spiritual amnesia.

Spiritual amnesia.

How, I mean, you forget yesterday's miracle because of today's fear.

Let me make a comment out of the original Greek.

Duh.

Okay.

Matthew 14.

Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake.

Whew.

When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.

Zagos, they said , cried out in fear.

In what?

Oh yeah, fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them, take courage.

It's I don't be afraid.

Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, with his usual impulsiveness, tell me to come to you on the water.

Come, he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water.

I just want to make a quick comment here.

We know you know what's going to happen.

But I just want to say this.

We all we all kind of bust Peter because he's like I am but he sank excuse me there's 11 guys who never get out of the boat can we give Peter some props here, okay?

Alrighty so He came toward Jesus, but when he saw the wind, now here we go, now I'm planting my feet in my senses.

When he saw the wind, he was afraid.

And immediately fear leads to sinking.

You know that.

And beginning to sink, cried out, Lord save me.

And we know immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, but here we go.

You of little faith, he said, why did you doubt?

When they climbed into the boat and the wind died down, then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly, you are the Son of God.

You know what's going on here?

Peter is taking on a challenge.

I don't think you're going to walk on water.

But you may be , Jesus may be asking you right now to take a bold new step That is your equivalent of walking where there's no visible means of support.

You know the security of your boat You know if you stay in the boat, you know how to do that.

But he's asking you to step out where there is no security There is no visible safety.

There is no visible support.

You don't know anybody who's ever walked on water.

This is where fear often wins.

The bold step might be simply is to go past the fear that's kept you from telling some people you know about Jesus.

The only thing keeping you from giving them heaven potentially has been your fear.

That might be a bold step.

Focus on the Savior and you can walk on water.

Focus on your storm and you're going to be underwater.

Focus on the Savior, walk on water.

Focus on your storm underwater.

Now, by the way, in the book of Matthew.

Jesus addresses fierce, powerful ally.

You know what it's called?

Worry.

Worry is like fear's great ally.

Matthew 6.

Oh boy, Jesus makes this pretty sobering.

You may not think worry is that big a deal spiritually.

Well hang on.

No one can serve two masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money By the way, can any of you, by worrying , add a single hour to your life?

Have you ever seen worry change the situation?

Really?

Change you?

Made you less capable of handling a situation.

And why do you worry about clothes?

See how the flowers of the field grow?

If they do not labor or spin, if that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow, and it's thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you?

You have little faith?

Here we go again, you of little faith So do not worry.

Say, what shall we eat?

What shall we drink?

What shall we wear?

The pagans do that.

They don't know to trust me.

They run after all those things.

But your Heavenly Father knows that you need them.

So once you do this, instead of seeking what your worry is having you trying to do, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all the things you're worrying about because you seek first the kingdom.

Will be given to you.

Therefore, do not worry.

Three times, do not worry, do not worry, do not worry.

This is a command of your Savior.

Worry is a sin.

It is a sin to a child of God.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow.

Tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Let me tell you what the word, there's something to be learned from what the Greek word is for worry.

You don't have to, it's in the air, you don't have to, we won't be tested on this material.

Maramnow means worry.

Here's what it means.

It literally means divided into parts It means going to pieces.

Something that was together is now apart.

What this word says is it's loaded in the Greek.

Worry divides, it distracts.

It distresses.

You see, um, you know where that word shows up?

Is when Martha, remember?

Martha is busy serving and she's like, Mary is a lazy bomb.

Get her up here, Jesus.

That's in the Greek.

And Jesus says, you need to sit down and do the more important thing and sit at my feet and listen, like Mary is.

But Jesus says about Martha, who by the way, is busy serving Jesus and missing Jesus while she's serving him.

That is so easy to do in ministry.

You are so busy doing stuff for Jesus, you lose touch with him.

She's got Jesus in her house And she's miserable.

No joy.

Critical of her sister.

When Jesus says this, here's his diagnosis.

You are worried, Meramnao, about many things.

This has got you totally distracted from me That's one of the problems with worry.

It splits you into pieces, it divides your focus And it certainly distracts you from Jesus.

In fact, you know what Jesus said in one of his parables in Matthew?

He said, the enemy comes and chokes the word with worry.

Worry, what you read in the Bible this morning that meant so much to you can literally be negated and neutralized by worrying an hour later.

Satan literally uses worry to steal away the word that God just sowed.

That really thwarts our spiritual progress.

And isn't it interesting it comes right after that no man can serve two masters thing?

When you worry, you're serving another master.

Now the thing you're worried about is really mastering you.

Because it's controlling your decisions, your emotions, your reactions.

Well, why not worry?

What's the reason not to worry?

Your Heavenly Father knows He's got this.

He knows what you need.

That's your security.

So I did a little chart here to contrast how fear works and how faith works.

Fear focuses on the size of your problem.

Faith focuses on the size of your God Classic example.

The Jews are cading Sparnia about ready to go into the Promised Land.

You know the story.

Twelve spies come back.

Ten of them go, we can't do this.

You should see the giants.

You should see the walls There's no way we can we don't we cannot do that promised land is not a very good promise.

We can't do it.

Joshua and Caleb go, wait a minute, we serve the living God What's the difference?

Ten guys are comparing the size of them to the size of the giants.

Two guys are comparing the size of the giants to the size of their God.

The ten guys win.

And do you know where that lack of faith lands them Forty years no promised land, and forty years of wilderness, and for most of them never the promised land That's why when you focus on the size of your problem, that's why you probably start your prayer with praise so you remember who you're talking to.

By the way, write this down.

It's not in your notes Prayer is ultimately much more about who you are talking to than what you are asking for.

Prayer is much more about who you are talking to than what you're asking for.

It may even change what you're asking for if you think of the Lord to whom all authority belongs in heaven and earth.

Fear?

I need all the answers before I'll take a step You've got to answer all my fears.

Faith proceeds, not having the answers But knowing he does.

That's all I gotta know.

We have so many questions we can't answer about the leadership center.

Many days, again and again, I won't say every day, but many days, we are faced with choices for which we don't have the answers Fear would stop us at that point until we had them.

Faith says we're going ahead because we know who does.

Fear postpones doing the right thing.

You should be having that conversation with that person.

You should have that confrontation even though it's scary.

You should face that issue.

But you put it off.

Because of fear.

Faith does it now before it gets harder.

Because that's all that's going to happen by you waiting.

Is the monster you fear is going to be a bigger monster.

Fear hesitates to obey.

And faith does it immediately.

So um what do we got?

Well we got that faith is the trigger of the supernatural Fear is the saboteur of faith.

Now, authority is the fuel of faith.

This is the good part.

This is really good.

Been waiting to get to this part.

This is the goodies.

Authority is the fuel of faith.

This is one of my favorite stories in Matthew and all the Gospels.

Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion.

Now this is an unlikely guy.

He's a Gentile.

He's a Gentile occupier.

He is an officer in the oppressing army. came to him asking for help.

Lord he said, my servant lies at home paralyzed.

Suffering terribly.

Jesus said to him, well, do you want me to come and heal him?

Look what the centurion says.

Lord, I don't even deserve to have you come under my roof.

But just say the word.

Say the word.

You don't have to even come.

You speak it, it's done.

Say the word And my servant will be healed.

For I myself, this is so key, guys.

This has been life-changing for me, this particular Story.

For I'm a man under authority.

I get authority.

I've got authority.

I have soldiers under me.

Now if I tell one go, he goes.

I say the word.

He does what I say.

Oh, and then when I say come, he comes I say to my servant, do this.

He does it.

Well, I know how authority works.

The one in charge gives an order.

And it's done.

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed.

What does he say over and over again to his disciples about their faith?

Oh, you of what?

This is amazing faith.

The the Roman officer, not his own disciples.

He's amazed at their fear.

And their little faith.

And he said to those following him, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel.

With such great faith.

Oh, you have little faith, my own disciples.

But I haven't seen great faith like this anywhere else.

Which one do you want to be?

You want to be the disciple with little faith where fear wins?

Or you want to you want to amaze Jesus with your faith?

Go, let it be done Just as you believed it would.

And his servant was healed at that moment.

Here is what amazing faith is.

You ready?

It acts on the basis that no matter the size of the need or the challenge Jesus will have the final word.

He is Lord of the outcomes.

That's where we started the first night He will decide the outcome.

This disease will not decide what happens.

This cancer will not decide what happens.

This COVID will not decide what happens.

The Dow Jones will not decide what happens.

The election will not decide what happens.

The obstacles will not decide what happens.

My bank balance will not decide what happens.

No disease, no disaster, no boss. decides the outcome for a child of God.

Because the king I serve is the Lord of my outcomes.

Say the word I'll tell you what, this is faith that proceeds boldly.

With confidence that my king will prevail, for he has exusia.

That is the right to decide, the ability to accomplish, and the power to prevail. greater than any power that exists in the thing I fear.

This is, ultimately I will say though, it's not faith in an outcome.

It 's faith in a person.

And while you ask for an outcome, which will be answered by uh Tim Keller says this and I think it's so brilliant.

One of the best things I've read about prayer.

He says, you know, we wonder sometimes why God didn't answer our prayer.

And he said, I'm not quoting it exactly, but he said God, if we knew what God knows, we would answer our prayer the same way.

We just don't know what he knows.

But we can trust him for an outcome.

A lot of these people are doing it.

The centurion did.

But what he really trusted was the authority of Jesus.

That's the locus of our faith.

Matthew 8. 16 says, he drove out the spirits with a word.

Matthew 8. 27 says, even the wind and the waves obey him.

You know I put a sentence in here, you might want to fill in.

What's your big what's the big what's the big hairy intimidating thing right now?

Why don't you put in there even the fruit obeys him?

Whatever you fear, put it in there.

If the wind and the waves obey him and the demons obey him, Your biggest fear will obey him.

In um Matthew, Jesus is talking to some of those blind men, and he asks them this question.

Do you believe that I am able to do this?

Can I suggest to you that probably several times a month Jesus asks you that question.

Do you believe that I can do this?

Did you know there's an awful cost sometimes to a failure of faith?

Here's a troubling little incident we'll wrap up with.

Matthew 13.

And he did not do many miracles there.

He would have because of their lack of faith.

You know where this is?

His hometown.

He's in Nazareth.

Another gospel tells us that when he came to town, the people said, oh, we know Jesus.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, I know his mom.

Knew his dad?

Oh, yeah, you want to meet his brothers?

His cousins are right over here.

This is scary, church folks The people who knew Jesus best trusted him the least Familiarity does not necessarily mean faith.

You've been around Jesus a long time.

You know a lot about him.

But you, if Jesus came to you, he'd say, where is your faith?

All these years with me?

What more do you need to see?

And some of us here are a daring act of faith away. from our miracle.

And it the miracle will be based on one thing.

Not what you figure out can be done.

Not that you can even see a way it could happen But it will be based on the fact that your Lord has all authority in heaven and earth and he decides your outcome.

And you can dare to go to him for an outcome that is unthinkable, unimaginable, and seemingly impossible.

The great missionary pioneer Hudson Taylor said, there are three stages in a miracle.

Stage one is impossibility.

Can't have a miracle if it's not impossible.

Stage two, it's difficult.

Stage three.

It's done.

Let's dare to believe him.

As we start the new volume with the faith that he deserves, the faith he has earned by his faithfulness.

We could be on the verge of some unimaginable breakthroughs.

So I'm gonna say a verse and ask you to repeat it phrase by phrase after me Sometimes I'll just turn to somebody in the family and go 320.

This is it.

He is able to do Excuse me, that was fairly wimpy.

Um let's um how about we put some hair on it, okay?

You ready?

Okay, here we go He is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine According to the power that works in us.

Will you act on that instead of your fear?

Let's pray.

Lord, we got mountains that need moving.

We need hearts.

We have hearts that need changing.

We need money that isn't there.

We need a son or daughter to come home to you.

A grandson or granddaughter, a niece or nephew.

We need a child who's making bad decisions and has a hard heart.

We need a heart changed, Lord.

We have a love that's in trouble.

And we can't fix it.

Say the word, Lord, and change the hearts.

We have fears about our future.

We have failed to obey you.

Because the fear has been bigger than you to us.

We're done with that.

We have been spending our days here in the presence and the and the majesty and the rule of King Jesus.

And as the representatives, the the the picture windows of his kingdom here May we have daring faith and fear we do not let win Lord, I pray you'd release a lot a new kind of faith in us to which you will respond with an outcome that for all our experience and all our smarts and all of our trying and our nagging and our worrying we have not been able to do.

May it be done now.

Because your authority has fueled our faith.

And that's where we're planting our feet.

And we pray in the name that moves heaven Paralyzes hell and changes earth.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.