Thank you. Come on, let's give the Lord some praise. Let's welcome the other locations, shall we? Come on, everybody outside the room, we love you. Prison Church Network, it's good to see you in the house of the Lord. Are you guys ready for the Word today? All right, pull up a chair. I hope you've been enjoying this series in the Gospel of Mark. We're looking at the ministry years of Jesus. I can't think of a better way to invest your time than studying the life and times and the power and the words of Christ. Amen?
So before we go to Mark chapter 6, I want to thank you for being a sending church. And we say this often, that what happens within the walls of this building and our other campuses goes far beyond the walls. And last week, while Pastor Hillary was hitting it out of the park. Can we get that? Can we give it up? If you weren't here, you need to see that. Pastor Mark was upstate New York at a church there, helping with some things with their team, working out some problems. Pastor Jude was in Portland, Oregon, and he spoke four services straight at the rapidly growing Rose Church, one of our network churches in Portland. I mean, you know, Portland needs some Jesus, right? There's no doubt about that.
And I was in Orange County at an amazing church called Ocean's Church, spoke at a men's event, and then did their weekend services. And all this has happened. It's happening on the same day. Pastor Joseph was leading worship at Infineon Raceway, Sears Point, to the race car drivers. So get a visual. Helmets under arm, right? Getting ready for gentlemen, start your engines. And Pastor Joseph is strumming his guitar, singing "How Great Thou Art." But someone's got to do it, right? So give it up for him. And Pastor Raymond was at some undisclosed location, but a prison, preaching Jesus at the prison church network.
All that to say the reach and the impact. The impact of the house that we're a part of is felt far beyond these walls. How many of you are glad you're a part of a church like that? Come on. God has given us much, and we are going to be responsible for that.
Well, let's just jump right in. Today we are in chapter 6 of the Gospel of Mark. It starts out reading like this: Jesus left there and came to his hometown, Nazareth, and his disciples followed him. Let me mention that he left there. There was Jairus' house. There is where Jairus' daughter was dead. And Jesus went home with him, laid hands on that daughter, and raised her back to life. If you missed Pastor Hillary's message last week, she talked about Jesus wants to come to your house.
And so the miracle takes place. He sticks around a little bit longer, teaches some parables, and then he heads back home to his hometown on the Sabbath. And he goes to church, or to synagogue, as was his custom. And Jesus gets up to teach and to preach. And I don't know about you, but I'd love just to be somebody. I'd love to be somebody in the crowd when Jesus taught. We don't know what his subject matter was or what text from the Torah that he shared. But we do know this: when Jesus shared the word, people were stunned and amazed at the authority on his life.
But then things take a downward turn in chapter 6. They actually go horribly wrong for those sitting in the synagogue that day. And the account that I'm going to share, this historic account, is also written in the book of Matthew and in the Gospel of Luke. We're going to read from the book of Mark.
Verse 2 says, "When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. Where did this man get these things?" they ask. "What's this wisdom that has been given to him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing?" And then something shifts. In fact, in Luke's account, it says someone began to ask, "Hey, hey, wait just a minute here."
Verse 3: "Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives, and in his own home." And he could not do any miracles there except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at what? At their unbelief. He was amazed at their unbelief.
Now, it's believed that the few miracles that Jesus did, he actually did on the way into town. Because Luke's account of this event, as he was preaching, the crowd turned into a mob. And they grabbed him and they dragged him outside the city and took him to a cliff. This precipice is a long drop. I've stood there. And they were going to shove him off this cliff. But it says Jesus slipped through the crowd. Don't you love that? Can you see him? He's like, "Hey, look over there, a bird." Jesus is out.
Now, listen. I preach some really bad sermons in my preaching career. There's no doubt about it. And I preach some pretty good ones. But I've never preached a sermon that had that kind of an impact where the whole congregation wanted to grab me and throw me off a cliff. I haven't reached that level. Now, some of you might be thinking it, but we don't do it. You just blog on Instagram. And that's fine. Keep doing that.
Now, I want to talk to you about amazing unbelief and then juxtapose that with amazing faith. Jesus was amazed. He marveled. There's only two accounts of him having this response to a crowd, to an event, or to faith, or lack thereof. And there's one Greek word I want to share with you. Amazed or to marvel. And it's pronounced "thomazo." Thomazo. Would you say that with me? Look at you learning some Greek on a Sunday. It's a good thing. It means to be surprised by, shocked and filled with wonder, to stand amazed.
So, this is a jaw-dropping moment for Jesus. He's shocked. He's surprised. Especially in light of the fact that these miracles have been taking place. The dead are being raised. Lepers are being healed in public. Blind eyes open. Demons are cast out. The kingdom of God is among them. And they're standing there in amazing unbelief.
But let's do a bit of a doctrinal dive for just a moment. So, get on your doctrine snorkel if you don't mind. Because I want to just break down one question. Lean in. Did Jesus willingly abdicate his omniscience when he became fully man? Think about that question. There's divided responses among theologians and denominations and those who study scripture. Did Jesus willingly abdicate his omniscience when he became fully man? Because it says he was shocked and surprised. The "thomazo." But if he already knew what was going to happen because of his omniscience, he'd probably be like, "I knew I was going to be surprised. Sure enough. Boom. Surprise."
Now, there are some attributes of God that you cannot obtain on this planet. It says, "One day we'll be like him when we see him." But now we know in part, we prophesy in part, and all of you are in this process. But we can share and grow in many of the attributes of God. Attributes like gentleness. That's an attribute of God. You can grow in the sense of justice. He has an attribute of long-suffering and kindness. You can grow in those. Righteousness and mercy and on and on they go. The fruit of the spirit are attributes of God.
But here's the three that are above your pay grade. The omnis. God is omnipotent. He is omnipresent. And he is omniscient. And for just in review, omnipotent means that God is all-powerful. There's no power higher than him. All thrones and dominions, kings and rulers are under his command. All demons, the powers of hell. No one can touch the power of God. He is all-powerful. He is omnipotent.
Then he is omnipresent. That means what? God is everywhere all the time. Holy Spirit covering the earth. David said, "If I make my bed in hell, you're there. If I go to the mountains, boom, you're there." Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? There's nowhere you've gone this week that God is not right there. I always feel like. Anyway, moving on. Just a throwback.
The third one, though, is he's omniscient. And that basically means that God knows everything about everything before it happens. And he never forgets that it did happen. And he's never surprised. In other words, right now, there's a bit of a scurry and a buzz about AI. "Oh, don't trust AI. Or what's it going to do?" And the Godhead in heaven is not looking around going, "Are you seeing this, the AI thing? The robots are taking over. Ah! You didn't see that coming." That never happens in heaven. Wasn't surprised by the pandemic. He's not surprised or shocked by this circus we call the 2024 election. And he won't be surprised the day after, okay? You're going to be just fine. More of that in months to come. So I'm going to give you a baby amen.
Now, in his sovereignty, though, he knows the thoughts you think before you think them. He knows the prayers you pray before you pray them. You're like, "Well, then why do I need to pray?" Right. Because God in his sovereignty has chosen to partner with you to establish his kingdom. So he gives you his desire. And as you speak and pray and ask, the kingdom is established. It's a mind-bending concept.
Now, some would argue that Jesus was fully omniscient on this planet. But I want to submit one verse to you to consider. I know this is a segue, a deep dive, but it's worth going there. Philippians 2:5. Look at this. "Christ Jesus, though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, what does it say? He gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave. He was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name." Amen?
But I want you to see something. I would submit to you that when Jesus released his divine privileges, he abdicated them for a season. Two of them were omnipresence and omniscience. Because here's what the word shows us. There's not one verse that ever says that Jesus was in two places at the same time. It wasn't like we saw him walking on the lake, but I saw him downtown at the same time. No, he released that for a temporary season. And I would submit that he also abdicated his omniscience while he walked as a man in this earth. Thus, Jesus could be surprised.
Now, that was taken the long way home. But I want you to read now another account where Jesus was surprised and amazed. Not at amazing unbelief, but amazing faith. So I want to read this account to you and then give you some application points as we compare both. This one's found in Matthew and Luke. I'll read the Matthew account.
When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer, or a centurion, came and pleaded with him, "Lord, my young servant lies in bed paralyzed and in terrible pain." And he said, Jesus said, "I'll come and heal him." But the officer said, "Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come into my home. Look at this. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. I know this because I'm a man under authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say go, and they go. Or come, and they come. And if I say to my servants, do this, they just do it."
Look at this. When Jesus heard this, he was "thomazo." He was amazed. He was amazed. He was marveled. He was shocked and stunned at this guy's faith. And turning to those who were following him, he said, "I tell you the truth. I haven't seen faith like this in all Israel." Which didn't impress the Israelites that were listening.
Now, this centurion dude was the most unlikely person to amaze Jesus with his faith. Why? He was a pagan. He was a Gentile. He'd never been to synagogue. He didn't know Yahweh. And his job description, he was stationed in Palestine, to subject the Jewish people to the emperor's rule. So he was hated by the Jewish people. But yet, he has enough faith that his faith came up, and it was evidenced in his confession. And his confession created an atmosphere of the miraculous.
Lean in. Your confession is creating an atmosphere in your home, your marriage, your school, your church, your city. Whether it's a confession of "I don't believe it," and it's amazing unbelief, or you confess what Jesus has spoken, and you create an atmosphere of faith and expectancy.
Now, let me talk to you a little bit about atmospheres. Faith is actually an expectation. Faith is an anticipation that God is going to move in my life. You've heard the word. You've studied the word. You've heard the preaching. You believe he's going to heal your marriage. You believe he's going to come through in your finances and be your provider. You believe that all your children are going to come back to Christ and the prodigals are coming home. Why? Because the book of Acts says you will be saved and your household. And as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And you actually expect and anticipate God to do something. And that creates an atmosphere in your world where the door of the miraculous begins to open. And that's what we want, right?
But amazing unbelief is this. It's an atmosphere of disbelief. It's an atmosphere of cynicism and sarcasm and questioning God's ability to pull anything off. And when that comes, it actually shuts the door of the supernatural in your life.
Let me just make it personal for the Father's house today. We're all about creating atmospheres. Intentionally. We are creating atmospheres that you walk into at all locations. Atmospheres of worship. Atmospheres of the presence of God. Because we're releasing those rivers of living water. We're intentionally creating atmospheres of community, love, acceptance, and an atmosphere of expectation.
I want you to know that. I want you to come to church with something your heart says, "God could do some big miracles today. Nothing is too difficult for my God. He can heal. He can deliver. He can save. He can provide." I want you to have faith in the house of God.
Now here's the reality. You're either adding to or taking away from the atmosphere of the Father's house. You're not neutral in this thing. So let me just lean into you for a moment. You're either bringing your passion to worship or you're bringing your apathy and we're dragging you along. You're either bringing your faith or you're bringing your cynicism and your sarcasm. You're either bringing heartfelt worship or you're coming in with religious ritual. And all these are creating an atmosphere that you are participating in right now.
So let me just lean into you and appeal to you. Help us build an atmosphere of faith. Help us build an atmosphere of worship. It's a big deal when you lift your hand. It's a big deal when you clap your hands and shout unto God all you people. It's a big deal when you worship in spirit and truth because it shifts the atmosphere.
Now I have the privilege, the opportunity, and sometimes the challenge to travel to a lot of different churches around this great nation and beyond. I was just speaking at a men's conference and a couple churches here and there. And here's my experience. You ready? I prepare pretty much the same way. I study the same amount of hours. I fast. I pray. I get ready to go preach and do God's will at these places.
And some spaces that I walk into, man, the atmosphere is so dry and brittle and faithless. And I'm up there just swinging for the fences thinking, "I don't deserve this. I don't like these people, God. Get me out of here." Seriously, while I'm preaching. I'll take the same preparation, maybe even the same message. And this last weekend, thank you for praying for me. All the intercessors. I had a thousand intercessors in our army that was holding me up in prayer while I spoke at this ministry.
And this amazing church. And I go down to Ocean's Church in Irvine, California. And they're meeting in a tent out in the middle of Industrial Park. The tent seats about a thousand people and it's spilling over the edges and multiple services. And they have these delayed speakers and screens going all the way back. It's kind of a narrow tent. Man, I got up to preach. This place was electric. I just got up and said, "Hey, good morning." They're like, "Oh, praise God, I love you." Why? An atmosphere of faith. An atmosphere of faith. An atmosphere of expectation. They believe God is going to do something with them.
So help us change the atmosphere. Hey, and if you're cynical, if you're apathetic, if you're in dead religion, then just repent. Let God give you a new heart. I want to build a church with an atmosphere where people walk in the doors and they weep because the presence of Jesus is here. They realize anything can happen in this house. God is alive and he is in this place. Is anybody with me?
So let me give you a few attributes of amazing unbelief that you can identify and repent of in your life.
Number one, amazing unbelief is when the sacred becomes common, we shut the door to the miraculous. Now, these Jews from Nazareth, they were very familiar with Jesus. This was his small hometown. It wasn't an area of high status or income, pretty much a backwoods little community. And they grew up with him and his family. And while he's teaching, someone says, "Hey, wait a minute. I know that guy. He's my carpenter. Lives right down the road. In fact, he made my lawn furniture. Probably dead. It's probably fine stuff too."
Someone else says, "Yeah, I went to school with his brothers, James and Judah. And those guys, I tell you what, they're not from a holy family. Don't kid yourself. I know those guys." Someone else said, "Oh, yeah, yeah. My cousin married his sister. She's just over at the house. We had dinner." And the familiarity of Jesus began to create, as Proverbs says, a paraphrased version, familiarity breeds contempt. And they were too close to the Son of God.
They were too, listen, when the holy and the sacred becomes common, we shut the door to the supernatural. It happens in church. Some people come with passion and energy and worship like I described. Others, just checking a box. "I go to church, you know, twice a month or once a month. And yeah, I come in. It's a fast one and two slow ones. And a sermon chat and a prayer at the end. And then get me to the restaurant, box checked," shutting the door to the supernatural in your life.
I want to remind you what we do in this place is a holy moment. We are the bride of Christ. The Holy Spirit hovers upon us. The living word is preached to us. We get to entertain the very living God, Emmanuel, God with us. This is a holy moment. So don't let it become common or it will turn into dead religion that will shut the door to the miraculous.
See, these Jews in Nazareth, they went to the synagogue every week. They knew the Torah. They knew the drill. They lit the lamps, burned the incense, did the deal, sang the hymn. But yet they shut the door to the miraculous because when the sacred was among them, they made it common.
Let me give you one more application. At the close of our services, almost every service, we give people a chance to make a decision. And the decision moment is this: Is there anybody here today that you feel you're far from Christ? Today's the day of salvation. And if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, Romans 10:9 and 10, you will be saved. And this is a moment where, listen, people are making a decision to go from death to life.
I hope you believe in a literal heaven as is described in the Bible. Real place. Hopefully you're going. Now, if there's a literal heaven, there's a literal what? Hell. And it's basically the description of what you find in scripture. And I know a lot of denominations have tried to deconstruct it. But based in that reality, this is a significant moment when people say, "I'm coming home to Jesus." And if we dishonor that moment, we're shutting the door to the supernatural in our church.
Very practically. I'm not trying to shame anyone, but let's say we get to that part of the service and people are feeling conviction, like, "Yeah, today's my day. I'm coming home." But someone's like, "You know what? I'm going to be the first one out of the parking lot. I'm not waiting in that long line to get my kids. And I'm hungry. I'm going to get the ribs. I'm out." Okay, great. Good on you. But you're shutting the door to the supernatural activity of God. You're creating a space where people coming to faith has been dumbed down to just part of a ritual.
If that feels like a rebuke to you, please receive it in Jesus' name. I love you. I'm telling you what. I want an atmosphere where people are weeping and crying and praying and worshiping as the prodigal sons and daughters come home to faith. That's what we do here.
Number two, amazing unbelief. When we do not intentionally recognize who is among us, we shut the door to the miraculous. That's what happened in the synagogue that day. They didn't recognize. Yeah, they knew he was Jesus, Joseph and Mary's son. There was rumor that he was Messiah, but they did not verbally identify and confess who he was.
You know, every week in our worship time as the band's on stage, our worship leaders, as Pastor Rich did today, will encourage you. "Hey, you lift up your voice. You speak directly. You speak directly to Jesus." You say, they're trying to get you off the screen and off the karaoke moment, if that's what it is for you, and trying to get you just to connect and confess who he is.
Do you know there's something powerful when you stand in the house of God? Because the Bible commands us to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting. The Bible commands, not suggests, that you sing to the Lord a new song. That's one you haven't sung yet. You know, the Lord tells us to make a joyful noise to the Lord. All you lands, serve the Lord with glory. Gladness, come before his presence with thanksgiving. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It's him who made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. So enter into his gates with thanksgiving. Enter into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name for the Lord is good and his mercy lasts to all generations. Whoa. I still remember Psalm 100. Haven't quoted that for a while.
So let me encourage you to do this. In worship, take a moment, begin to declare this. "Jesus, you're in this place. Emmanuel, you're with my family. God, I sense your presence here." And it will change the atmosphere right around you, first in your heart, but then it will begin to move beyond you and we all get caught up in the fact that there is a living God among us. Amen?
Number three, amazing unbelief. When we hold tightly to our preconceived ideas of how God will arrive, we shut the door to the miraculous. When you have a preconceived, "Oh, God's gonna move you. He's gonna move in my life like this. He's gonna provide the future spouse. It's gonna happen like, he's gonna heal or do this or that." And your prayer goes unanswered.
Listen, some of the greatest prayers, or let me say greatest responses to your prayers is God saying no or not yet. He's sparing you. But when God doesn't come through like we thought or when we thought or in the way we thought, we can grow a cynical heart and shut the door to the supernatural.
You see, these Jews at the synagogue in Nazareth, they've been waiting for Messiah for thousands of years. The first prophecies about Messiah were about 4,000 years old at this time. The specific ones detailed about 750 years old from the prophet Isaiah. And they were waiting for the coming of Messiah. But they thought he's gonna come in on a horse. He's gonna come in with great power. They were convinced he would overturn the Roman government and set up little thrones for all the disciples. But what did Jesus do? He came lowly, humble, riding on a donkey. He came with a towel in his hands, serving the least of these. He came from a backwoods little village called Nazareth. He lived down the street. And when he did not meet their expectations, it caused unbelief to fill their heart.
I'm telling you, God may answer your prayer different than you're planning on, but that don't make him any less God. He is faithful and he answers the prayer of the righteous. So let's not put him in a corner, amen? Amen.
Let me give you a few attributes about amazing faith that you can apply to your life today. This is our centurion friend, the sheriff in town.
First one, amazing faith believes the report of what Jesus can do. It believes the report. Our centurion man of faith had never met Jesus. There's no record that he went to any of the meetings, but yet he heard the word of what was going on. The word on the street is this guy could be the Messiah. And there's dead people being raised, just last week, Jairus' daughter came back from the dead. And lepers are being healed in public and blind eyes open and demons cast out. And Jairus believed the report of a guy that he'd never met, of a faith that he was not a part of, and it created an atmosphere for the miraculous in his life.
The reports you believe and confess are shaping the trajectory and the destiny of your life. And we're always getting reports, negative reports about the economy, about the nation, maybe about your job and its future, or about your health. You are bombarded and saturated with negative reports.
So Isaiah steps up, Isaiah 35, I believe. He says, "Who will believe our report?" The book of Numbers says the children of Israel were coming out of Egypt. God says, "You're going into a promised land." And they believed it until they saw the challenge involved with it. And so they sent in these 12 spies. You know the story. 10 of them came back with the Bible, and the Bible calls an evil report. The evil report is this: "We're going to die. Yep, seen the giants. You're all going to die. It's over. We cannot do this." But there were two that had a faith-filled report. Caleb and Joshua said, "Oh, we can certainly take this land. God told us we can take."
So I've got to ask you a question. Whose report are you going to believe? Are you going to believe what Jesus has said he will do? Or will you believe your circumstances, your unbelieving agnostic relatives, and co-workers, your past experience that's lying to you? What are you going to believe? Because every day you're making choices. And those choices will determine the level of faith you operate in.
And without faith, it's impossible to please God. I cannot walk and grow in God while I'm cynical and critical and reflecting on my unanswered prayers and broken hopes and dreams. No, I've got to get in the Word at a level where the Word comes to life. And I believe what God has said about my future. I'm preaching now. I need a shot of tea. Worship among yourselves. Ah, I'm back.
So in 2012, 2013, I was experiencing liver failure from my life in the 70s. Another story. And so I went to the doctor. I ended up, they sent me to UCSF. Pretty serious deal. And there was a clinical study going on with just a few people in North America were invited to be a part of this study. And so I met with the doctor. We did all the chats. And bottom line, I won't drag you through it all. He said this, "Dave, either you're going to do the clinical study and it works or we're putting you on a list for a liver transplant."
Well, I'm 52 at the time. I'm like, "That doesn't sound like a good time getting a liver transplant." And so I said, "Yeah, give me the drugs." I probably said that too many times in my life, but this one was appropriate. So I said, "Give me the drugs." So we go on this interferon and cocktail mix I'd never tried before. And I had a horrible reaction. So almost died. Long story, 12, 13. If you were in the church, it was a miserable season for me. And I'm in my 30s. I'm in my house, shingles from the top of my neck down to my back. And pain, just excruciating pain. They couldn't figure this thing out.
And so someone drops by who's a leader in the house at the time and gives me a prophetic word. And says, "The Lord says, get your house in order. And you haven't treated leadership correctly and he's going to take you home." And I said, "Well, thank you for that word of encouragement. The Lord bless and keep you as well." Let me just say, I did not receive that word.
Now what I hold in my heart and yeah, that's why I'm here today. Look at that. Stuff works. What I'm holding here in my hand is these are just pages of prophetic words that have been spoken of our church. They're highlighted, they're underlined, they're tears dropped on these pages because these are words God's spoken over my life and over our church. This started in 2020. So these are 24 years old, some of them.
And now some of you might think, "Well, now we're going to go down the charismatic rabbit trail." Let me give you a verse. 1 Thessalonians 5:20 says, "Do not despise prophecy. Do not downgrade or disregard the prophetic word." 1 Corinthians 14:1 says what? "Earnestly desire the gifts, especially that you might prophesy." So we honor and esteem the prophetic word of the Lord in the house. We have men and women that are in the office of a prophet come and speak to our leadership. That's how we roll. We're that church. It's biblical. It's straight up, just right on. You should be glad you're part of it.
Now, I started going over these prophetic words. I'm just going to read a couple highlights because when God began to give us these, we were a couple hundred people meeting in Three Oaks Community Center. We had no building. We had no land. We had no staff. We had no money. Had a little trailer that we put our equipment in. And God began to speak some big things. And I went down and I made just a short list.
Things like, "You will have buildings in acreage." Check. That one happened. Now that prophecy is from 2020. Excuse me, 2000. That prophecy is from 2000. Fast forward another 15 years or so. That one came to pass. How about this one? "Ministries will come to you and give you buildings." Check. That's happened a couple of times. "You will be networked with ministries all over the nation." Check.
"You will have a training center to train young people and raise up leaders. Leadership college." Check. Here's one that said, "You're going to have a coming network," which has happened over the last decade. And here's one that hasn't happened. "You will have a permanent place for retreats. It will impact the body of Christ on a national level." That hasn't happened yet. But guess what? I'm pretty sure it's going to. Right? The batting average is pretty strong.
So when I'm in this season where I wondered if I'm going to live to preach the next year in 2014, God began to speak to my life out of his word. And I was reading about Apostle Paul. And one day, you know, Apostle Paul had been flogged and beaten and threatened and they were going to kill him. And he looks at the leaders that were sentencing him and he says this, "I got to go to Rome." In other words, God's not done, so I'm not done. Right. And I begin to believe. I believe the report of the Lord, not the report of the doctors, not a report of the negative sayers, not the report of hate and diminishing my future.
And you got to make a choice. Whose report are you going to believe about your future?
Number two, amazing faith runs toward Jesus, convinced that he can change the situation. There's a certain passion and intensity that manifests itself through real faith. Look at this in verse five. In the Amplified, as Jesus went into Capernaum, a centurion came up to him, begging him for help.
The pastor Hillary talked about this heart condition last week, it's not a passive inquiry. This is a passionate, urgent, humility, desperation-wrapped request. This guy was probably running, fell at Jesus' feet and begged him. Today, whatever you're in, make a move toward Jesus. Don't have the mindset. The mindset, "Well, God knows where I'm at. He got my address. If he wants to talk to me, he knows where I live." Hey, he's sovereign. Who are you again? Right? Let's have some accurate perspective. He's the king upon the throne. He's the maker of the universe, and he's invited me to boldly approach the throne of grace.
So I'm not gonna sit back in passivity and unbelief. I'm gonna run toward the Lord with all that's in me and fall at his feet and beg for some mercy and grace. You gotta run after him. I'm preaching better. You're responding. I'm not discouraged because I gotta go to Rome. Bah! Remember that bit about atmosphere? Let's work on that. Shall we?
Okay, the last one. I'm a little spicy today, aren't I? Father's Day. I'm like, "Yeah. Yeah." I like it. I love you. Thank you.
Number three, amazing faith speaks the promises and proclaims God's ability. While the Jews in Mark 6 did not recognize, they didn't verbally affirm that the Messiah was among them, one pagan Roman soldier, centurion. He recognized the honor and the authority of Jesus and his glory. His confession came from what he saw and what he believed.
Look at this in verse eight. But the officer did what? The officer said. He spoke out who he believed Jesus to be. "Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come into my home." Can you read the bowl with me? Just say, "Lord." Why is that so important? Because based on the confession of your faith, your spiritual reality is established. It's not enough to just believe that Jesus is the Son of God. When you confess it with your mouth, when you line up with what the word of God has said about your marriage and your kids and your future, and you declare that out, you are creating a spiritual atmosphere.
But the officer said, let me give you a little homework this week and then we'll pray. Here's your homework. Dig into the word, okay? Whatever trial, whatever thing you're facing, we all have something. We have a Goliath in front of us, an impassable Red Sea. We've got a challenge. We've got kids we love that are prodigal. They're away from God. Whatever your situation is, there are Bible apps, there are websites where you can do word studies and find 20 or 30 verses that fit your situation perfectly in context.
I want you to challenge. I want to challenge you. Write those out and begin to declare as you walk through your home. Let me just segue for a minute. Some of you come to church, but the atmosphere of your home is not a place of faith and worship. You can change that. You can crank up some worship and walk through the halls of your house and through the living room and blessing the name of the Lord and saying, "Jesus, you are Emmanuel in this place. You're king over our home." And when you do that, it will shift the atmosphere.
So find those verses and write them down and begin to change the atmosphere and open the door for the supernatural. Amen? Amen.
I'm going to have you read the final verse with me before we pray. This will come up on the full screen. I'd like you to read it out with some passion. It's 2 Corinthians 4:13. Let's read. Here we go. "It is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken. Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak."
So today, what atmospheres are you creating in your world? And if they're not an atmosphere of faith and grace and the entrance of Jesus, you can change that today in Jesus' name. Amen?
Let's bow our heads. Other locations are going to have a ministry time. With our heads bowed, let's honor the Holy Spirit. If you're here today and say, "Pastor Dave, as you're preaching this, I'm getting a right now word from the Lord saying, 'Son, it's your day. Come home. Daughter, it's your time. Come back.'"
And if God is speaking to your heart right now, I want to give you a moment, this amazing moment in time and eternity to say yes to Jesus. So if that's you, I want you to do something bold while everybody else is praying. You have a moment of privacy. I want you to look up at me and wave and go, "Pastor Dave, God is speaking to my heart. Today's my day. I'm coming home."
If that's you right now, just shoot up your hand and wave at me. I want to agree with you right now over here and here, up here, over here, all in this section here. If you're way in the back, just wave at me a little bit. Upper row up there, right here on the aisle. God bless you, sir, with the ball cap over here and here. All across the room, today. If you're in the side rooms, you can join in and wave at us over there.
Hey, and if you're still on the stream, you're at home or somewhere else and you need to respond today, I want to invite you to respond. You can click the link there and one of our leaders will connect with you.
So here's the deal. We're going to pray a prayer together. And today, your confession is going to move you spiritually according to the word of God. I'm going to ask everybody to pray this out with some boldness. Repeat this after me. Say, "Dear Lord Jesus, I believe your word. I believe your word. I believe you are the Son of God."
on Jun 16, 2024
