Gateway Church's Podcast
Keys for Kingdom Living - Faith & Belief
Well, good morning, Pastor Robert is out on vacation. He and Debbie are taking the time to be refreshed. Last weekend he introduced a topic to you called the keys for opening heavens, having an open heaven above us. What he didn't know is that I had already prepared a message for this weekend, and the title of my sermon was keys for kingdom living. He started a series and he didn't even know it, but the Lord did because he likes to do stuff like that. You see, the Father is very interested in you knowing how to rule and reign on earth. There's somehow another lie that's entered into the church that I want to expose to you today because it is a lie. There's a lie that has been said among us that it's going to get worse and worse and worse on earth than God's people just not going to be able to handle it, and the only way he's going to be able to save them is just poop them out right out of here, poof. They're gone. Hey, I'm glad Lord that's over. I just couldn't wait to get to heaven. You know, when I look back in the Bible and Abraham's day, it was bad then, wasn't it? He seemed to make it okay. He's the Father of our faith, isn't he? In Jesus' day, did Jesus seem to make it okay? Yeah, but he's the Son of God. Well he left 11 boys behind that turned into 120 that added 3,000 in one day that added 5,000 a couple of weeks later, they seemed to make it okay. Was their day any different than our day? I don't think so. Listen, we've got to learn how to rule and reign. Pastor Robert last weekend shared with you how in the world do I keep an open heaven above my earth? He said three things. You've got to learn to pray, you've got to learn to give, and you've got to learn to be obedient. If you didn't hear that sermon, I would encourage you. I would encourage you strongly, just stop by the bookstore, get online, get it for free, and listen to what keeps open heavens above your earth. It's important for you to rule and reign. But I've seen something about how to rule and reign on this earth, and I want to share it with you this morning, when I was in Kenya in the first part of June, I saw something while I was there that has radically changed the way I've seen faith. We need to understand something, Jesus said some things about faith that we need to grasp and get a hold of. I want to read to you just a couple of scriptures, don't turn there. If you have your Bible, I do want you to turn to two places. One would be the Hebrews chapter 11, you can't talk about faith, and read out of the faith chapter. Second place I want you to hold is Mark chapter 5. There are three questions I want to answer this morning. What is faith? Where do I get it, or where does faith come from? And what's the difference between faith and belief? So if you're holding Hebrews 11 and Mark 5, we'll get to those in just a moment. I want to read you just a few scriptures and let you know what Jesus said about this word "faith." I'll put them in your sermon notes, so when you go home and read them, and that's the reason we give you those sermon notes so that you don't get one dose, just throw it away. We want you to go home, and I want you to start asking the Holy Spirit. What did you say to me today? And I want you to look up these verses, and I want you to ask Him to impart truth to you. If we are going to learn to rule and reign now, we are going to have to understand what Jesus said. He made some radical statements. We have a hard time comprehending them in our mind. Listen, this is not to be understood by our mind, it's to be received by our Spirit. And your Spirit, man, longs and yearns to hear. Watch what Jesus said about two kingdoms. Look at this verse right here. Verse 28-18 says, "In Jesus came, He's about to lead the earth, He makes a final statement to His disciples." Right before they go back to the upper room, He said, "All authority has been given to me. All power has been given to me in heaven and in earth." That's where I were last week talking about heaven and our earth. Listen, this is the only way to live. How do we get heaven to impart into our earth? But I want you to see this first. Do you see that Jesus has all authority? Your Bible may say all power. Do you see that? Is there anything that He cannot do in heaven or in earth? According to Scripture right there, there's nothing He cannot do. When you are the king, everything in the kingdom obeys you. Is He still the king of heaven? Is He still king of the earth? You see right now, He has all authority, all right? Let's hear what the king said about some earthly matters. A woman came to Him one day, and she didn't say a word to Him. And she's obviously a sinner, and she wasn't invited to the party, but she showed up anyway. She shed some tears, she wiped His feet, she took her hair, she wiped His feet. She kissed His feet. She had known it His feet, and He turns to her. She gets His attention. Watch what He says to her. Then He said to this woman, "Your faith has saved you." You see what our king said, "Your faith has saved you." Did anybody see that? Look at the next verse. Another woman that got His attention one day, this is a woman with the issue of blood. He said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction." Can I ask you a question right here? Are these two different faiths? Is this a different faith? Is the one that He said secondly to the woman with the issue of blood? Is that a harder faith to get than the first faith for salvation? This means yes, this means no. Are these two different faiths? All right? That then shake you a little bit. Let's read what the king said about another situation. He said to his disciples, "Listen, boys, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, "Be pulled up by its roots and planted in the sea, and it would obey you." Is this a different faith than the one we saw in salvation or the one we saw in healing? Listen, I don't know about you, but I've never tried to move trees. My wife wants some trees in our yard, but I'm not surveying your house for them. Why in the world would He say this? The king's talking about something. All right, let's look at another verse. How about this one? You said to his disciples, "Listen, I'm saying something to you, boys, if you had faith as a mustard seed, you would say to this mountain with all the trees on it, and it would, you could say move them here and there, and it would move." Just hold that scripture right there for a second. Why would the king be talking about moving trees? Why would he be talking about moving mountains? I'll tell you one, this last little phrase, and nothing will be impossible for you. I don't know if you think there's some impossible situations in your family. If somebody's in your family tree that you said there's no way, it's impossible for them to get saved. I mean, I've got a few in my family, okay? It's impossible, Lord, for them to get saved. That may be the level where your faith gets to start. It may be the level where you say it's impossible for this body to be healed. I mean, it is just racked with too much stuff. I mean, sickness and disease is all over it. It's impossible. Now, your faith may say, you know, I can go past that, I'm okay with that. But he may say, you know, moving that tree stuff, that bothers me. Or moving the mountains with the trees, I think people at Bail would be really upset if I put that in my backyard, don't you? I mean, you could be skiing next winter in my backyard. Why don't you say that? Because he wants you to know he's still king of all of the earth and all of the heaven. And nothing, the king says nothing, nothing, nada is impossible with me. And if you have the faith that I'm talking about, nothing will be impossible with you. Did you see that in those scriptures? So here's the questions we have to ask. What is this faith that he's talking about? Where does it come from? And what's the difference between that and belief? Turn to Hebrews, chapter 11, let's look at the verse. Let's let the Bible interpret the Bible. Let's don't let our minds begin to tell us what faith is. I know you've probably heard a lot of sermons on faith. I've heard a lot of sermons on faith. I read Hebrews 11, 1 for a long time. I've read it hundreds of times, but when I was in Kenya, I saw something I've never seen before. And I'm going to tell you something, folks. I am never going to get over what I saw. It's that good. So I want you to hear it. Look at Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1. Now faith is, does that sound like a definition to you? Now why would the Holy Spirit, whoever wrote this book, doesn't bother me one way or the other, because it was all inspired by the same spirit. So why would the Holy Spirit put this in Hebrews? Why didn't Jesus give us the definition of faith? Who in Scripture struggled the most with faith? They came out from under the law, into faith, and then they kind of teetered, taught it back and forth. Is this part of the law? Is this part of faith? The Holy Spirit said, "I'm going to give you just that easy definition. I'm going to help my people." So here it is. Hebrews 11 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for." Now I'm no English major. She's sitting on the front pube. "And give me numbers. You give me money. I can count. I can divide. I mean, I'm the numbers guy. She's the English major. But it looks like to me, when I read this verse, this time something changed. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. Could I put a period right there? And that be a complete sentence. See, every time that I've ever read this verse in the past, I thought the first sentence made a statement about faith and the second sentence made a statement about the first sentence. This is two complete sentences about the same subject, faith. Look at it. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. Now faith is the evidence of things not seen. Now your Bible may state a different word there, and I want you to catch it. I want you to listen. I want you to perk up. Because I'm about to tell you something that changed everything that I've ever seen. Watch this. Now your word could be instead of substance, it could be the word assurance. It could be the word realization. It could be the word confirmation. All those mean the same thing. This word faith is actually in Scripture 244 times. What I found to be interesting about it being in Scripture 244 times is that it's not every one time in the book of John. It's in all of the other three gospels and not in the book of John. I don't know if he was sleeping through this lesson or not. But I'm really glad Matthew, Mark, and Luke were paying attention. If you have a theory on that, someday I'd like to hear it because I don't understand it either. But here's what the Bible says. Faith is the substance, assurance, realization, confirmation of something hoped for. What's the second sentence? Now faith is the evidence or the confidence or the conviction or the proof of things not seen. Let me tell you what I heard. It's when you become so persuaded, you become so confident that no matter what you see, no matter what you hear, you won't move. I'm confident. I'm persuaded. That's faith. I give you a little illustration. How many in here know beyond a shadow of a doubt you're going to go to heaven? Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I'm going to go look around the room and hold your hand up high. Majority of us. Okay? How many of you have ever seen heaven? Some of you may have. Paul made the trip. John made the trip. He didn't write about faith, but he made the trip to the other side and came back and told us about it. Because a couple of people last night had seen heaven. Raise your hand. Don't be embarrassed about it because I know people on earth who have seen it. I'd like to make the trip. One lady here. That's great. I want to talk to you at the service. How are you so confident when you said, "I'm going to heaven. I'm there, baby. Count me in." How are you so persuaded? Where did you get that confidence? You can't see it. You've never even heard the sound of heaven. That's faith. Nobody can talk you out of it, can they? Listen, I'm as eternal as I'm ever going to be. I'm 43 years old and I've been eternal for 28 years. You can't even kill me. Oh, you can remove this tent if you want to, but you can't kill me. I'm eternal. I'm as eternal as Jesus. You can't take me out. As a matter of fact, you can kill my body. He can raise it back because you see nothing is impossible with him on earth because he's the king of the earth. He's still Lord of the earth. Listen, I'm going to rule and reign here because he said I could. I don't have to worry about what's happening in the world, how worse and worse and worse it gets. Who cares? I still know the king. And the king says if you're going to operate in this earth, it's going to take one thing and one thing only. You can't substitute it for anything else. It takes faith. It's where you come persuaded. Look at a couple of people in Scripture who became persuaded. This is the story of the centurion. He had an army of 100 people underneath him, soldiers, and he had a servant that was sick. Look at Luke 7-6. You don't have to turn there. Be up on the screen. Then Jesus went with them. He sent out two companies to Jesus, first company sent some of the leaders of the synagogue and said, "Hey, would you go tell Jesus to say this over my servant and he'll be healed?" So they went out and they said to him, "Hey, we got a man. He's really worthy and he's a good guy. He's helped us build a temple and he's a good centurion. He's got a servant. He's sick. Would you come?" And they didn't say what he said. They just said, "Would you come?" He said, "Absolutely." So he's on his way. We pick up the story. Jesus went with them and when he was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him saying, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I'm not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Therefore, watch this." He sent a second company and they said to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I'm not worthy that you should enter my roof. Watch this next day, therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to you myself. But say the word and my servant might be healed." That we said? He said, "Will be healed." You see that? Does it sound like he feels confident? Does it sound like he feels he's persuaded? Jesus always stops for statements like this. That's what he's looking for. The one thing that moves him is faith. And Jesus marveled at his faith. Does he sound persuaded? Absolutely. Listen to the woman with the issue of blood, what she said, "If only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well." She said that to herself. She didn't say that to anybody else. She made a statement to herself, "Listen, you can talk to yourself about faith. Listen, the devil, he doesn't stop talking to you. You need to tell him if he would have said to Satan when he said, "Hak God said," he said. But she didn't say she said, "Well, I don't know." As he said, he might not have said that. He could have said it a different way. Maybe he meant something different. No, God said. And if you'll learn to say what you've already been deposited in your spirit, listen, I'm going to tell you something. Faith is spiritual. It's not of the natural. It's of the supernatural. Faith's imparted. It's not created. Faith is received. It's spiritual. And you know why I know it's spiritual? First Corinthians 12 says it's the gift of the spirit. This gift not operated in the church very much lately. But I'm going to tell you something, it's not going away. I know it's spiritual because in over-in Galatians it tells us the fruit of the spirit is faithfulness. The root word there is faith. It's the same identical word of the faith when it's in the Greek of the 244 times it names it right there. It's a gift of the spirit. It's a fruit of the spirit. It's spiritual. Faith has to be received, it's not anxious, but peaceful. It does not cause us to strive, but it causes us to rest. It's something deposited into our spirit that doesn't make us labor over it, it makes us rest in it. It makes us hold our ground. When everybody else is going the other way, the woman in the issue of blood said I don't care. I'm going to touch the hem of his garment and nobody can stop me. She was convinced. Look at two other guys, Luke 24 verse 17, these are two men on the road to Emmaus. Now listen, let me give you a set of scenes just a little bit. This is after Jesus was crucified, he had been buried. This was the third day. These two old boys had been in with the 11 in the upper room. That particular day, the women had gone down to the tomb. They saw angels, they came back and told them the disciples themselves, couple of them went down there, Peter and John ran down there and they didn't see him, so they came back and reported. These two old boys leave the upper room and are now headed to Emmaus about seven miles away. Let's listen to their conversation. As they're walking and talking, Jesus joins them and they don't know it's him. Watch what they say. Listen to their words because I'm going to tell you something, folks, your mouth will reveal what's in your heart. One of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Watch what they say. Did you hear what the centurion said? He's telling you what's in his heart. Romans 10, 8, 9, and 10 say this, "The word of faith which we preach, if you will confess it with your mouth and believe it in your heart, you shall get what you're asking for." It's a pattern. You ought to write that down. This is a pattern of faith. If you get the word of faith first, it always comes first, faith, hope and love. What's first? Faith loves the greatest, but faith's always first. If you look in 2 Peter, it says add to your faith virtue and it goes through a list of eight things. Faith, virtue, it gets all the way down to love and perseverance and all those kinds of things that are saying there. It's always first. It's never second. Faith comes first, confession comes second, belief in the heart comes third and then you get what you want. That's a pattern. If you want to know how it works in this kingdom, that's the pattern. It's in the scripture. Everywhere you look, if you'll read that pattern into the stories that we read, you will hear faith always imparted first. You don't get to the end result without going to the first base. You don't make it home without going to first. Faith's on first. What's with these boys? Listen to what their conversation. Jesus joins and listens to them talk for a minute and he says in verse 17, "Hey, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk in or sad? What's their countenance look like? Not too happy about it, are they?" Well, listen to what they say, "Then one whose name was Cleo." I don't care what the other Bible says, but my name's Cleo here. And he said to him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem not known the things which happened here these days?" And Jesus says, "What things?" He wants to know what's in their heart. What's this? He said, "What things?" So they said to him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty indeed and word before God and all the people." Does it sound like they have the truth? It sounds me like they know the truth. And how the chief priests and the rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified. Man, they got all their facts really straight. What's this? But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. It sounded like they were confident. Can I tell you something about hope? Hope will never move anything. You can hope all you want. It's not going to save you and it won't heal you. Hope won't move a tree out of your yard either. Hope won't move any mountain. You can hope all you want. You know why you hope won't do anything? Because Jesus said hope not yet. He said, "Faith's it. Faith is a substance to things hoped for. Faith creates hope. But hope only goes by what it sees." Watch this. Catch this. If you don't hear anything else I say you better catch this. Hope goes by what it sees. When it's good, hope rises. When it's bad, hope falls. Do you hear that? When it's good, your hope rises and you say, "Man, God's on the throne." When it's bad, hope falls and you say, "Well, I guess God's not going to do it. It must be a liar." Can I tell you what these boys should have said? They had the opportunity that day to say it. They should have said, "What do you mean? You don't know what's happening in Israel? Let me tell you what's happening with you. Oh my gosh. You're the probably the only son. We've been looking for you. He's the Messiah. I mean, the women went down to the tomb today. He wasn't there. And then they saw angels and they came back to report. We all shouted and I couldn't, but we, I mean, it was the most incredible thing. He's the Messiah. We're going down to Emmaus to find some brothers down there to bring them back. This is the most exciting thing. He's the Messiah. We found him. He's here. He's the King. Whew! But that said, yes, he's not the one. He sure was hoping he was. Man, gosh, dog dang it. You know what Jesus' response to them was, why he's so slow to believe, slow of heart to believe. Is anything impossible with him? Stop going by what you see. Faith doesn't ever go by what it sees. It goes by what it knows. So where does this faith come from? Romans 10, 17 says, "Faith comes by hearing." Hearing by the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing. Everybody say, "Hearing." Hearing by the Word of God. Who is the Word of God? John 1, 14 says, "Jesus," he says, "He was the Word and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." He's the Word. Hebrews 12, 2 says this, "Jesus is the author, the finisher of our faith." Hearing by the Word of God. A centurion in verse 7 of Luke said that a centurion's servant who was dear to him was sick and ready to die, I told you the story. So when he heard about Jesus, he heard something. Look at your name and say, "Man, that centurion heard something." Say it to him, "Hey, go and tell him." That centurion heard something. Whatever he heard, deposited him a confidence, posited him a persuasion. He became so persuaded, he said, "Elders, go out there and find Jesus and tell him to speak a Word." When he got closer, he said, "Hey, whoa, whoa, I'm not worthy you come into my house." He said, "Don't come to my house, just say the Word." Whatever he heard, deposited him in his spirit and he confessed that Jesus marveled at it. That's fake. Look at the woman at the issue of blood said. Verse 25 of Mark said this, "Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years. Bad deal. No fun." And it had suffered many things from many physicians. She spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse, terrible condition. But when she heard about Jesus, see folks, I'm not messing with you today. I'm telling you the truth, scripture interprets scripture. You need something in your life today, you need a Word from Jesus. He says one word for me changes everything. It takes the impossible to the possible because he's king and Lord above both heaven and earth. He's changed, but he will not move on hope, you can hope all you want. He didn't say if you had hope, he didn't move that mountain, he said if you had faith, how does hearing come? Hearing can come in several different ways. Matthew 16-15 says this, remember when the Lord said to the disciples, "Hey guys, who do the world say I am?" Some say you're Elijah, some say you're a prophet, some say you're a teacher, "Who do you say I am?" And Peter chimed up and said, "Hey, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said to him right here, Matthew said, "Peter, you didn't get this from flesh and blood. You got this by my Father. It was revealed to you by my Father." Peter heard something and he said it with boldness, he said it with confidence, he said it with a persuasion because that's real faith. Hearing can come in several different ways. Listen, this body can't contain the power of God, it can't contain the very presence of God. Therefore, flesh and blood can be the agent that Jesus uses to reveal things. It can come through the foolishness of preaching. You actually could get a deposit from heaven today through the foolishness of preaching. But it's not going to be understanding with your mind, it's going to come through your spirit. You can get this kind of hearing, this kind of faith, it can be departed to you or imparted to you with just sharing and talking with a friend. Had a friend of mine call a couple of years ago, he just got a report from his son that he had three bad spots on his hip, they knew it was cancer. The night before we had been in his home or a friend's home for a life group, you got to be in a life group because this kind of stuff happens. When we were in the life group, we talked about some things that we saw in scripture. We had one of the most powerful prayer meetings we had ever had in that entire life group. He calls me the next day and he's emotionally disturbed on the phone. It didn't take me long to figure out something was not right. He asked me one question, he said, "I just got a report about my son, it's not good, it's terrible. Can you pray like you prayed last night?" I said, "Absolutely, I heard something." We prayed over his son. They went and had an MRI and the doctor said, "Now, where were those spots again? Did you bring us a different son? The spots have disappeared, why?" Face present. When face present, it moves things. Three months ago, it woke up in the middle of the night, hearing my wife in the bathroom throwing up. I called out your baby, "Are you okay?" She said, "No, I'm about to die." I said, "Well, I'm sorry to hear that." I get out of bed and I go lay my hands on her and I said, "Lord, what is this?" I hear in a second, now it wasn't an audible voice, even though God can speak audibly. I know men today and women today who've heard the audible voice of God. If that bothers you, I'm sorry. God is not mute. He can still speak today. When I laid my hands on her and prayer, see in prayer, you can hear things. Pastor Robert said last week, and it's a two-way conversation. It's not just one way, two-way. When I laid my hands on her, I said, "Lord, what is this?" Mark 16 shot through my mind. They shall drink anything deadly and it will by no means hurt them. I looked at her and said, "Oh, baby, this is food poisoning." She said, "Yes, that's what it is." I said, "Well, praise God." She said, "What is impossible with us is possible with him so you don't have to be sick no more." She said, "Go for it." So I did what Mark 16 said you can do. You can lay hands on the sick and they get well. I reviewed food poisoning over and I said, "You can drink anything deadly and it won't harm us." Now, to your mind, that's as bad as stupid as you can get. If there are children in here, do not ever go home and use that word. To the mind, it makes a zero sense. I got through praying, I went back and laid in the bed. I was confident. I was assured. I was persuaded. In a few minutes, she came and laid my side and I said, "How are you doing there? Good looking?" She said, "Man, just a little twin, just a little twin." I said, "Oh, oh, much better from where I was. Oh, just a little twin." I laid my hand on it and said, "Holy Spirit, why don't you finish what you are?" I wake up the next morning and I say, "How are you doing?" She said, "Incredible. I slept like a baby. It is wonderful." How did I get that? I heard something in prayer. The scripture flashed in my mind. That's fine when you meditate on the scripture. I read things and it comes alive to me and it sets me free. Set me free from a 30-year, 30-year mental pattern I could not get free from. It set me free, just like that, reading the scripture. When our second daughter was born, 15 and a half to almost 16 years ago, when she was being born, she stuck in the birth canal, when she was being delivered, her shoulders stuck. The midwife after working diligently to get her set free through the birth canal, he got desperate. She turned to me, not really upset, not really frazzled. She just looked at me and said, "Pray!" I said, "Yes, man." I fell on my face before God and I said, "God, I need your help now." He said, "Good. Stand up and command it to listen in Jesus' name." I did. She did, too. She was born second, I said it. Why? Nothing moves without faith. And faith only comes one way. You've got to hear it. You can hear it in prophecy. You can hear it in the preaching of the Word. You can hear it in reading of the Word. You can hear it in prayer. You can hear it when people give you a word of wisdom. You can hear the audible voice of God. You can hear it many, many ways, but you've got to hear it before you do it. Some people say, "I'm going to believe, I'm going to believe, I'm going to believe, I'm going to believe, I'm going to believe." You're not believing anything. You're not heard. But here's the problem. Most preachers won't tell you this, but I'm going to tell you this this morning. Here's the problem. We only tell you stories that instantaneously happen before us. We don't tell you the stories that we pray about and we don't see anything because we want to stir you up in the area of faith. I've been watching preachers for a long time. I know how they operate. Now that I am one of them, I want you to know the other side. There's a difference between faith and belief, and here's the difference. When it doesn't instantaneously happen before your eyes, what do you do then? I'm going to show you what you do. Mark chapter 5 of you are holding that place. Let's go there and we'll finish up with this verse. Mark 5 tells us of a story of a man named Jairus. He's a ruler of one of the synagogues. Watch this story. It's powerful. It's going to show you the difference between faith and belief. We've heard something. We've prayed. We didn't see anything. Watch what happens. Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, verse 22 says, "When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and he begged him earnestly and listened to his confession." Remember what we talked about, the confession of faith? Listen to what he says, "My little daughter lies at the point of death," trouble. He's got an impossible situation that he needs somebody that has possibility to change it. She's laying at the point of death. Watch this. Lay your hands on her that she may be healed. Does that sound confident? He may be healed? That doesn't sound real confident to me. I don't know how you read, but when I read, I interpret that as he, not for sure. Watch what he says, though. He had stopped right there. If the period had been right there, I think Jesus would have questioned him. But he didn't stop right there and he said, "She may be healed and she will live." Did you hear that? You hear the difference in his voice? You hear the difference of confidence? He will live. Hear what his confession is? It's coming out of his heart now. This is his mouth speaking, telling you what's in his heart. And Jesus said, "That's faith. I'm going with that, boy." So Jesus went with him and a great multitude followed him and they were just wronging. Watch it. A woman with the issue of blood comes along and she touches the hem of his garment. Guess what? He stops again for what? Be real faith, the stuff that they hear, and he stops and gyros is probably going, "Oh, my gosh, what are you doing? Stop me. Come on, man. What is your problem? I need some help here." I mean, he still stops for faith on the way. Then what's this? Verse 35 picks up the story. While he's still speaking to the woman, some came from the ruler's house, the synagogue, the same house that he lived in. Now this is the ruler's house. This is the one who's already confessed faith. He gets somebody from his household coming. Listen to what they say, "Why trouble the teacher any further? What we dreaded is already happened. Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher? What we dreaded has already happened." Sound like they're confident? Or they sound like they were going off hope? Now they're what they saw in their hope has died. Therefore, they can't believe anymore. What does Jesus turn when this ... I want to just give you a little side note here. You notice she, whoever this person was, man or woman, or could have been his wife, could have been her friend. I don't know. Somebody in his household, they said, "Why trouble the teacher?" I just want you to make a side note here. Teacher. You notice you use the word teacher? You start looking up that word in Scripture. Every time somebody used the word teacher, Nicodemus used teacher, the rich young ruler used teacher. This person uses teacher. They got no thing from Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus sat on the road and he said, "Hey, who's going by?" He said, "Jesus, Jesus, Son of David." Now, can I ask you this? Where did blind Bartimaeus get that? It was revealed to him by the Spirit. Nobody calls Jesus Lord unless it's revealed by the Spirit. It's what 1 Corinthians 12, 3 says. He got a revelation. They said, "Shut up, blind Bartimaeus." He said, "You're nuts. I'm going to go berserk. If you didn't like that, you're not about to like what I'm about to do." He went ballistic. Why? Because he had heard something. He called out. And Jesus said, "What do you want me to do?" He said, "I might receive my sight." He said, "Do you believe that I'm able to do this?" "Lord!" "Yes!" I believe. He said, "According to your faith, be it unto you." He heard something. But Jesus turns to Jairus and says, "Jairus," look at verse 36, "As soon as Jesus heard the Word, he's listening to all the words that are spoken, whether they're of faith or they're not of faith." He turns, all the words that were spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue. He said to him, "Jairus. Do not be afraid. Only have faith." Is that what he said? "Read your Bible." "Do not be afraid. Only believe." He didn't say, "Have faith." He already listened for faith. Now he must believe what he's already heard. "Did it get worse before it got better?" "Yes, it did." And many of our situations, we get a word from God. It gets worse before it gets better. And the Lord wants to know will you believe what you've already heard, even in the midst when nobody else will stand with you. My wife for years had to stand alone in our house. That jerk she was talking about was me about 12 years ago. Angry, bitter, full of rage. And she had to stand alone, but she heard something and she wouldn't move. Praise God, she married a new man. There's a woman I heard a story about several years ago. When she married, when she was an unbeliever, her husband was an unbeliever, she got saved during the marriage. She prayed for several years. They were married 40 years. She prayed for several years for him to get saved. He was a traveling salesman. And while he was out on a trip, he was killed in the car accident. At the funeral, her best friend said to her, "Honey, I'm really sorry that your husband never got saved." And she said, "Oh, no, he did." And she said, "He did. I never saw him come to church. When did he get saved?" She says, "I don't know. I just know he did." This is where people say, "You're a little looney." But she would move. She said, "I don't know when he did, but I know he did." She's like, "Well, bless your heart. You're just under distress, and, you know, it's a terrible thing." She said, "I don't care what you say." He did. One month later, she gets a phone call from a man in another state, and he says to her, "Is your husband in?" She says, "No, I'm sorry to inform you. He passed away." "Oh, I am really sorry to hear that. Do you mind if I inquire about when he passed away?" She said, "No, I don't mind telling you at all." He told her to the date and said, "Ma'am, I really don't want to be a nosy or anything, but I know you don't know me, but did he call you that day?" She said, "No, I never heard from him." He said, "Well, then I have a story to tell you." She said, "Well, I'd be glad to hear it." I said, "I was sitting in my high-rise office building doing what I do all the time, Monday through Friday, tending to my own business, the Holy Spirit moved on me to do something I've never done before. I've never done since." She moved on me to go hitchhike on the highway outside my office building, and your husband picked me up. I led him to the Lord, and he couldn't wait to call you, and within 30 minutes he was dead. She had faith imparted, but she had belief she was never going to let go, because she knew that she knew that she knew she had heard something. One of the questions Jesus asked when he said it's all done, he said, "When I come back to the earth, will I find faith?" My question to you today is, "Will he find faith in you?" "Will he?" I'm going to ask you to bow your heads. Would you ask the Holy Spirit right now, "What are you saying to me through this message?" What are you saying to me? Some of you have faith imparted to you. You've just struggled with believing it, because you've had circumstances that have risen up against what you've heard. Just on contrary, when you prayed, you didn't see an instantaneous result, and you've had to stand. And some of you have had to stand alone for a long time, and the Lord wants you to know he's heard your cry. He's seen the faith in your heart. He's watched your confession, and he will answer speedily. Faith never, never goes out of his sight. He knows when it's present. Can I encourage you today to hold on? If you've got a situation in your family, or your marriage, or your finances, or one of your children, at work, wherever, and you need some kind of deposit, would you cry out to him? I need some help down here. I need to know what you say about this. He wants to make a deposit of faith in your heart. Father, we come to you today. We thank you for what you're doing in our midst. We thank you, God, that you said, "Without faith, it's impossible to please you, but with faith, all things are possible. With this kind of faith, all things are possible." Father, I thank you that today, there's no situation that we're facing, no person in this building is facing any situation that's impossible. With man, it may be impossible, but with you, it's not impossible. It's very possible. And we receive today that you want to make an impartation to us in faith, and that we can stand and believe what you said no matter what we see. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]