Big Believers
Notes
Transcript
Dennis began to fall out a tree and cried out, “Lord, save me, save me!” There was a pause, and then he said, “Never mind, Lord, my pants just got caught on a branch”
Perspective matters! We make sure we’ve got our faith eyes open.
We are right in the middle of a message series called “Fast Forward” in 2024. I started by giving a message to you from Hebrews 6 in which we found that it told us to grow up spiritually and move forward to further understanding of the things of God.
In order to fulfill the purposes of God we must be committed to His will in our lives. Distractions will try to get us off track. We’ve got to be determined to move forward in our walk with the Lord.
I have 6 things that I think we can do that will help us Hit Fast forward in our understanding of God’s purpose for our lives.
We talked about the first thing already:
Be a God Seeker
Be a God Seeker
Jesus told us to seek Him. We talked about asking, seeking, and knocking. Hitting the fast forward button in Seeking Him is when we pray, align with His will by reading His Word, and by walking in the Power of His Spirit!
Here’s the second thing I want to talk about that will help us hit the fast forward button in 2024:
Let’s be
Big Believers
Big Believers
In other words, we need to make sure that we are walking in faith, trusting that God is able to do incredible things through our lives.
I need a volunteer. Let me ask a question: If you where to sit on this stool would it hold you up? How do you know? Why will it hold you up?
We believe in things because we have knowledge about whatever we believe in…We know that a stool will hold us up because that’s what it was made to do and we know from previous experience that it will hold us up.
Now, take a seat, What do we call the action of sitting on something that we BELIEVE will hold us up? We call that faith.
Faith is when we trust in what we believe!
There is a scripture that I want to share this morning that talks about a man who believed in Jesus and by faith he was healed. Actually, it’s the first miracle recorded in the book of Matthew.
Jesus had been teaching on the side of a mountain. He taught about the kingdom of God, anger, marriage, divorce, keeping promises, revenge, love, giving, prayer, worship, heaven, money, worry, judging others, seeking God, and many other things!
As far as sermons go, it was a good one because people were shocked.
28 When Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were surprised at his teaching. 29 He taught them like someone with authority, and not like their teachers of the Law of Moses.
In the crowd that day was a man who heard Jesus’ teaching and recognized that He was more than just a man. He believed that Jesus was the Lord and had the power to heal his body.
Let’s read it together:
1 As Jesus came down the mountain, he was followed by large crowds. 2 Suddenly a man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus. He said, “Lord, you have the power to make me well, if only you wanted to.”
3 Jesus put his hand on the man and said, “I want to! Now you are well.” At once the man’s leprosy disappeared. 4 Jesus told him, “Don’t tell anyone about this, but go and show the priest that you are well. Then take a gift to the temple just as Moses commanded, and everyone will know that you have been healed.”
We can learn so much from this scripture, but I am only going to point out three things that I feel could help you hit the fast forward button for 2024. If you get these things in your heart and apply them to your life then things can change dramatically in your life.
You might be just like the sick man who can to Jesus. You’ve got some problems in your life. No one has been able to help you and you are suffering. I’m telling you that today, the Lord can touch you. He can heal your body, heart, mind, and soul if you believe in Him today.
We Believe because Jesus is Lord
We Believe because Jesus is Lord
2 Suddenly a man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus. He said, “Lord, you have the power to make me well, if only you wanted to.”
“Lord, you have the power to make me well.”
This is an important statement for us to see, because the man came to Jesus acknowledging His authority as Lord.
Since we live in America we don’t use the title of Lord outside of going to the Renaissance festival. (Which I also think is going to be more fun that it really is!)
The dictionary tells us that Lord mean someone who has power, authority, or influence; a master of ruler.
So, what does this sick man say that Jesus was Lord over? He says, “You have POWER to make me well” which means that he BELIEVED that Jesus was had authority over his sickness.
And guess what? He was right! Jesus is the Lord over sickness and disease. But He is Lord over so much more.
Jesus has always existed. He existed before the creation of the universe with his Father and the Holy Spirit (John 8:58). In fact, the universe was spoken into existence by Jesus (John 1:3). Everything in all creation was created by Jesus and for Jesus. Currently, everything in the universe is being held together by Jesus (Col. 1:15-18). He is Lord over all. No person, creature or being can take His ranking or title as Lord. He stands apart and alone from all others. His very nature and work declares that He is Lord over all.
The moment that Jesus healed this man it proved again that He was the Son of God and the Lord of all creation. But that’s not the only time. When the disciples were in a storm on the lake, Jesus simply got up, rebuked the storm, and the storm died down (Mark 4:39)
He showed his dominance over the physical elements. Then, when their boat reached the other side of the lake, they were met by a demonized man. Jesus showed his power over the spiritual creation by casting the demons out of the man, sending them into the pigs. The man was restored and sent as a missionary to the Decapolis region. Jesus crossed back over to the other side of the lake and was met by a crowd. He healed a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and raised a little girl from the dead. Jesus showed that he is Lord over the physical body, over sickness and even death.
We can believe in Jesus because He IS the Lord of all.
Here’s the problem, here’s the thing that can hit the slow motion button on our faith, even with all the proof, we sometimes forget that Jesus is the Lord and we don’t believe.
Let me ask you this, if Jesus is Lord - He has authority over everything, do you need to worry?
Well, let’s back up a couple of chapters and see what Jesus told us:
32 Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. 33 But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.
34 Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.
You see, hitting the fast forward button in faith means that we are going to believe that nothing is outside the control of Jesus. Like the man in our scripture we can ask the question:
“Lord, we know you have authority, if you WANT to then we know you can.”
My girls always want to go out to eat dinner. Now, we don’t go out to eat very often, but they pretty much ask all the time. If we went out to eat everytime they asked, I would have to get a part time job at the resturant that we are going to eat at! But, Kristen and I have the ability and resource to say yes. But sometimes we know things that they don’t know, and we know it’s not always the best thing for us to do, so we say NO.
God won’t always answer our requests the way we want, even though He can! But we must continue to believe for His best!
He actually wants the best for us. How do I know? Well, let’s go back to our scripture.
We Believe because Jesus Touched Us!
We Believe because Jesus Touched Us!
3 Jesus put his hand on the man and said, “I want to! Now you are well.” At once the man’s leprosy disappeared.
Jesus had the authority, the man believed, and Jesus answered his request by healing him.
I like that is says that Jesus wanted to heal him. You know, Jesus wants that best for us too! If you are a follower of Jesus, you can remember back to a time when the Spirit of God was calling you to give your life to the Lord. When you did, you became a new person in Him. Everything changed. It was like the blinders where taken off and you could really see for the first time.
We’ve all had encounters with the Living God. We’ve all had an encounter with Jesus. We’ve seen miracles. Maybe not dramatic ones like a person being healed of leprosy, but I know each one of us has seen a relationship restored. Or a heart that was broken being healed.
Isn’t it interesting that Jesus TOUCHED his sickness? God is not afraid to touch people who are broken. Even sinful people.
God is working in this world. He is touching people. Reaching people.
In fact, He can touch your heart today. If you hear the Word of the Lord today, you can be renewed in your faith. Faith comes when we hear the Bible!
Christianity is spread by people telling their stories of how they encountered Christ. After all, isn’t that what the Bible is? A collection of stories?
God has always worked through people who’ve had an encounter with Him.
If we are going to hit the fast forward button on our faith, we need to remember the faithfulness of God. What has He done for you? Have you been set free from some things? Are you the same person you were before you came to Christ?
The Philippian church had forgotten their humble beginning and their Pastor wrote them a letter reminding them that Jesus had touched them. He encouraged them to believe again.
5 for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. 6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
They had an encounter with Christ and Paul is telling them to push the fast forward button knowing that God who began a good work in them would continue to work in them!
The same is true for us! Keep on going. Believe for bigger and better things! The Lord is LORD of all creation and He’s touched you! He’s chosen you to be His truth teller to the world.
Maybe you’re tired. It could be that you’ve been fighting a hard battle and you’re just pooped. I wish I could tell you to take a breather, but I’m going to tell you the opposite. It’s time to renew yourself in the truth of God’s word and ADVANCE. Push harder, go farther, and believe deeper that God can use your life!
9 Don’t get tired of helping others. You will be rewarded when the time is right, if you don’t give up.
This man with leprosy was healed. Jesus proved that He was the LORD by touching him and the leprosy disappeared.
The man believed before, but NOW I betcha a golden donut that he REALLY believed after he was healed.
What did Jesus tell him to do?
4 Jesus told him, “Don’t tell anyone about this, but go and show the priest that you are well. Then take a gift to the temple just as Moses commanded, and everyone will know that you have been healed.”
He said to GO tell the priests. Not that it was a secret, but at the time Jesus wanted the miracle to be a sign to the religious leaders that the Lord was on earth. There was no record in history before this healing of anyone ever being healed of Leprosy other than Miriam in the Old Testament.
To the priests, this would have been proof that the Messiah had come, that is if they choose to believe.
I’m telling you:
We are big believers because Jesus is Lord and because He has touched us even though we were as unclean as the man with leprosy. Jesus Loved us enough to touch our sinfulness.
So, what is the response of any true believer who wants to hit the fast forward button in their faith?
Big Believers GO!
Big Believers GO!
When we believe that Jesus is the Lord, and we understand that He has chosen us as His own. We know that He’s healed our sinful hearts then we can’t help but to want to tell other and to do the work of the Gospel.
Jesus told us that we are not merely recipients of the good news, but we are bearers of that good news! Our lives have purpose because we are carrying the truth of God to a world who is lost in sin!
12 I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things that I am doing. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father.
Does this verse mean that we need to get some little loaves and fishes and feed more than 5,000 people? Are we supposed to get out there and walk on walk better than Jesus?
No, miracles are important, but over the centuries believers have done even greater things by preaching the good news to many thousands of people.
You may have noticed that I started a TikTok. Before I get to far into my illustration, I wanted to confirm something. Do anyones knowledge, did Jesus have a TikTok account?
No, He sure didn’t. But WE can. I started my TikTok just posting a few videos over the last couple of weeks. I’ve had over 35,000 people watch my messages over the last two weeks! I’ve had unbelievable conversations with people who are struggling to find truth. I had one lady tell me that she was going back to church after watching one of my videos!
I think what Jesus was saying was that we have more OPPORTUNITY now than every before and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to reach the world.
You CAN make a difference! Your life counts to Jesus!
If he cared about an seemingly insignificant leper, then He cares about you too!
It’s time for you to hit the fast forward button in your faith.
You can do that by being a Seeker of God, and by being a Big Believer in Jesus!
I’m excited for the future because I know Jesus has big plans. I’m just going to trust Him. Let’s do it together.