SPEAKER_00: By itself.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 11, verse number one says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
SPEAKER_00: How you heard that before?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, you've heard that before?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: And then Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number 3 says, For consider him that him there is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's pray together and let's pray for God to bless this time and anoint our hearts to receive his word and also for our young people at the camp.
SPEAKER_00: Would you join together with me right now, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your blessings to us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for every person that's gathered here.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this opportunity you've given us to join together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you know our hearts and our lives.
SPEAKER_00: You know every person in this place.
SPEAKER_00: You know where they are and what they're experiencing in their lives this moment.
SPEAKER_00: Even those joining us online today, we pray that you would speak to our hearts, speak to our lives, touch us by your power, your grace, your strength.
SPEAKER_00: Let your word be planted in our hearts and produce fruit in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Let your anointing be upon us to speak and to hear and to receive.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we pray for our young people and all the staff that will be working together at the youth camp.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray that your blessings, your grace, your covering would rest upon them.
SPEAKER_00: But we also pray, God, that you would touch those young people, touch their hearts, give them a great moment with you, a moment where their relationship with you is strengthened and blessed as they prepare for the coming school year and their lives going forward, that you would just direct them, speak to them, help them by your power.
SPEAKER_00: Let this be a moment where uh they remember their entire lives, being in your presence and your power.
SPEAKER_00: Bless the staff, bless everyone who's working, let your grace and covering rest upon them.
SPEAKER_00: We pray, Jesus, in your name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: We often refer to the scriptures and uh we refer to that faith that's uh as a grain of a mustard seed that moves mountains.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes uh we need our faith to grow in something more than that.
SPEAKER_00: We need our faith to be something more determined, something more tenacious.
SPEAKER_00: And so today I want to speak to you for a few minutes what I've entitled Tenacious Faith.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 17, verse 20, Jesus said uh as he spoke to his disciples in response to their questions, the latter part of that verse says, If you have faith, as a grain of a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible with you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And and we have uh probably, if you've uh been a Christian any length of time, you've sort of held on to that verse and you've embraced that verse and and and used it to be an encouragement to you.
SPEAKER_00: But but we also experience life, and sometimes the mountains don't move as quickly as we want them to.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the struggle lasts a little longer than we would like.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the answer seems a lot slower getting to us than we want it to be, or what we experience in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we need a tenacious faith, a faith that holds fast, a faith that holds on, a faith that stands firm, not just a momentary faith for the for the particular instance, but we need a faith that stands strong with us.
SPEAKER_00: Jennifer Rothschild, who uh began to lose her sight at 15 years of oldest age, is quoted as saying it this way it's when you're unwilling to quit, when you have an unshakable trust and a loyal love for him, tenacious faith, and when you're refusing to quit, when you're refusing to let go, when you're refusing to give up.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we talk about in America, we talk about, oh, why don't we see as many miracles as we do in other places?
SPEAKER_00: And I think part of the problem with that is that we have lots of options.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if God doesn't answer this, then I'll do this.
SPEAKER_00: If God doesn't uh if God doesn't make me better, if God doesn't heal me, then I'll go through this program and I'll do this health uh uh routine and I'll have this series of uh uh of tests and then they'll tell me what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so we sort of have these alternatives.
SPEAKER_00: If if God doesn't provide the financial need I need, then I'm gonna I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna sell something, I'm gonna uh work extra, I'm gonna do something else.
SPEAKER_00: So what I'm saying is, I'm not saying any of that is bad.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying is sometimes we don't have the kind of faith we need because we have other options.
SPEAKER_00: Or at least in our minds we do.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we have other opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: And and and so I think sometimes in other parts of the world, those options don't exist.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes if God doesn't heal them, there isn't really much else they can do.
SPEAKER_00: If God doesn't provide for them, there's really not much more they can do for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: And so if God doesn't provide, there's a desperation in their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: There's a a dependency on God that nobody has to tell them to be dependent on God.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have any other options.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh and so sometimes in those situations, people pursue God a lot more than we do.
SPEAKER_00: If we're not careful as modern-day American Christians, we'll mention our need to God and then we'll set about resolving it.
SPEAKER_00: None of that was in my notes, so I better get back to my notes.
SPEAKER_00: But it is the nature, it is our human nature, and it is sort of where we live.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is sort of uh kind of thankful we live in a in a culture that has a lot of opportunities for us, and and and so that's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I'm afraid that sometimes our faith is not very strong.
SPEAKER_00: Our faith is sort of temporary, it's short-lived, it doesn't kind of persist that we're gonna walk by faith because we start looking at the other options.
SPEAKER_00: But we need a tenacious faith.
SPEAKER_00: We need a faith that will stand strong, that will refuse to quit, will not let go, will not give up.
SPEAKER_00: We believe in God, we're not gonna turn away, we're gonna expect that God will answer.
SPEAKER_00: God will work in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: A tenacious faith refuses to be intimidated.
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew chapter 15, the Bible tells a story of the Canaanite woman who came to Jesus with a need.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Now that alone tells you something, not only the desperation of where she was, but a little glimpse of the circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: And it would be easy in those kind of situations to be intimidated, embarrassed by the need itself.
SPEAKER_00: But a tenacious faith is not embarrassed by the need.
SPEAKER_00: It's not intimidated by the need, it's not set aside by the gravity of the need or the personal nature of the need, but a tenacious faith said I know that he can help me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna go to him unafraid, unabashedly, and I'm gonna present my need to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so she's asking.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says Jesus didn't say a word to her, didn't respond to her, and uh and I could preach on that the rest of the day, but I won't.
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes it feels like God didn't hear us.
SPEAKER_00: And so the disciples, in that pause of Jesus answering her question, in that moment of silence by Jesus, the disciples stepped in and said, She's bothering us.
SPEAKER_00: She's following us.
SPEAKER_00: Can can can Lord, can you just rebuke her and tell her to go away?
SPEAKER_00: You know, they had an answer, and their answer was stop bothering us.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't fix the need, it wasn't heal the child, it was just push her out and let's put her out on the outside somewhere so she's not disturbing us.
SPEAKER_00: They were very spiritual, of course, like us.
SPEAKER_00: But that did not stop her.
SPEAKER_00: She kept asking.
SPEAKER_00: She kept staying there, she kept exercising a tenacious faith that didn't cause her to walk away.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus responded by saying, I'm not sent to the but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And her response to that was he didn't say no.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say no.
SPEAKER_00: He said what the custom was, he said what the expectation was.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples wanted to send me away, but he didn't say no.
SPEAKER_00: And there might not, in your view today, there might not be much hope in that, but to her, because she had tenacious faith, that was, hey, he didn't say no.
SPEAKER_00: I still can pursue him, I can still bring my need to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so instead, she began to worship him, saying, Lord help me.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus doubled down.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus wasn't being offensive or mean to her, Jesus was teaching his disciples something here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew what kind of faith this woman had, and she he wasn't trying to uh to be mean to her, he was trying to show his disciples something that was important because at this particular moment they're up far north and and from Israel, they're they're they're kind of entire in Sidon.
SPEAKER_00: They're not really in the Israel area right now, and these uh disciples, Jewish people, they're uncomfortable in this surrounding.
SPEAKER_00: And this woman comes and she's clearly not Jewish, and so Jesus sort of doubles down and he said, It's not right, it's not meat, it says in the King James, it's not right to take the children's bread and to cast it to the dogs.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what she said?
SPEAKER_00: I still didn't hear a no.
SPEAKER_00: There was still there was no, there was no, he didn't say no.
SPEAKER_00: There was no no in that answer.
SPEAKER_00: That didn't bother her a bit.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, she said, Well, the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table.
SPEAKER_00: She had this tenacious faith that moved her out of the intimidation, out of the embarrassment, out of the awkwardness of the situation.
SPEAKER_00: None of that prevented her from pursuing God.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, she kept pursuing, she kept seeking after him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus' response was, Oh woman, great is thy faith.
SPEAKER_00: Great is thy faith.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I read the stories of the disciples, he's often telling the disciples, Where is your faith?
SPEAKER_00: You have such little faith.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, over and over again, read it in the New Testament, in the exchanges with the disciples, he tells them over and over again, you only have a little bit of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And he looked at this woman and says, Great is thy faith.
SPEAKER_00: Be it unto thee as you desire it.
SPEAKER_00: And from that moment her daughter was healed, was made whole.
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't afraid to be intimidated, she wasn't embarrassed by the terribleness of the need, she wasn't intimidated by the social protocols, she wasn't intimidated by the religious traditions.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus taught his disciples that in spite of all of that, in spite of all their ideas, that a person can come with a tenacious faith and press through all of that and can still receive an answer for their need.
SPEAKER_00: She was driven by the need of her daughter and by her conviction that Jesus could heal her.
SPEAKER_00: And she did not let any of the circumstances intimidate her, but she exercised that tenacious faith.
SPEAKER_00: Tenacious faith stands firm even when we're misunderstood.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Samuel chapter number one, the Bible tells the story of the beginning of Samuel, and it starts with his mother.
SPEAKER_00: Her name is Hannah.
SPEAKER_00: She was so desiring a child from the Lord, and yet she was barren.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes to the temple and she's praying to God, oh Lord of hosts, she said, if you will indeed look on the afflictions of your handmaid and remember me and not forget me, that I will give the child you give me back to you to serve you all the days of your life.
SPEAKER_00: She makes a commitment for her child.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible describes the scene.
SPEAKER_00: Hannah is so overwhelmed, she is so passionate, she is so much pouring her heart out to God that she was speaking in her heart, she was speaking in her mind, in her mind the words were there, but on the outside, only her mouth was moving and no words were coming out.
SPEAKER_00: And Eli, the priest that was in charge of things, had had marked her.
SPEAKER_00: And then he he came to her and thought she was drunk and said, How long will you be drunk?
SPEAKER_00: He misunderstood entirely.
SPEAKER_00: Now he should have had a little bit of perception of what was going on, but instead he just automatically assumed that if she was behaving this way, she must have been drinking, she must have been drunk to behave in this way.
SPEAKER_00: He misunderstood and misinterpreted that entirely.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, in response, when she's denying that, she said, it was out of the abundance of my grief, out of the abundance of my heart, that I was, that I'm pursuing God.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you that sometimes when you pursue God with a tenacious faith, other people may not understand that.
SPEAKER_00: They may not understand.
SPEAKER_00: They can interpret that behavior in all kinds of ways through the lens of their own thoughts and their own minds.
SPEAKER_00: They may think it's way over the top.
SPEAKER_00: They may think it's too dramatic.
SPEAKER_00: They may think something that's not.
SPEAKER_00: They may think you don't believe even.
SPEAKER_00: They may think you're such anguished that you don't trust God anymore.
SPEAKER_00: They may think that you're having really, there's some problems in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are afraid to come and pray because they're afraid that somebody else is going to look at them and assume something about them.
SPEAKER_00: Let me put something straight here.
SPEAKER_00: If we see you and we assume that you have sin, we are correct.
SPEAKER_00: If you see us and assume that we have sin, you are correct.
SPEAKER_00: Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: So you shouldn't really be worried about that.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Because my point is we're all in the same boat.
SPEAKER_00: So don't let the enemy intimidate you and cause your faith to subside and be afraid to step forward because you're afraid how somebody might perceive it.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, step out on that faith and that confidence in God.
SPEAKER_00: Be like Hannah that will just pour yourself into it, shut out everything else, and with a longing heart and a trusting heart of faith, you'll let your heart touch the heart of God because you have a faith that is not gonna let go.
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna stop, it's not gonna step back, it's not gonna end.
SPEAKER_00: You have a tenacious faith that says, no, I believe that you can answer my prayer, and I'm not gonna stop pursuing you, I'm not gonna stop seeking you, I'm gonna keep on pouring my heart out to you, I'm gonna keep on believing, and and and I'm not gonna worry about what somebody else might think about it.
SPEAKER_00: That tenaceous faith just doesn't quit.
SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't give up.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis chapter 32, the Bible tells us a story that probably most of you know about Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob had he had left home as a young man after stealing his brother's birthright and blessing.
SPEAKER_00: He had left in fear and anguish of what might happen to him and fled to Laban's house.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's back.
SPEAKER_00: He's back near his homeland.
SPEAKER_00: He's on his way back.
SPEAKER_00: He's uh he's an older man now, he's uh he's more mature now, he's experienced some things now, and so he's he's back in this place.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that he was left alone and he wrestled with a man until the break in the day.
SPEAKER_00: We might call that an angel, something that God is is revealing to him.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jacob saw that, when the angel saw that he wasn't prevailing against Jacob, the angel touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled.
SPEAKER_00: So you need to get that picture just to get the image of what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: He is, he is, he's been wrestling, and now he's got his hip out of joint because of what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: And the and the and the angel says, Let me go, for the day breaks.
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob's response was, I will not let you go unless you bless me.
SPEAKER_00: I will not let you go until you bless me.
SPEAKER_00: And he refused to let go.
SPEAKER_00: At this point, I don't know how much wrestling's going on.
SPEAKER_00: He's got a hip out of joint, he's got pain, but he's not gonna let go.
SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna let go.
SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna, he had a faith that was tenacious enough that no matter what the circumstance or what it looked like or what anybody else would think, he's not gonna let this go.
SPEAKER_00: He wrestled all night through the pain, through the struggle.
SPEAKER_00: I refuse to let go.
SPEAKER_00: When the angel demanded, he was more insistent.
SPEAKER_00: I will not let go until you bless me.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to I want to make clear something to you this morning, lest you think that's a blessing of things.
SPEAKER_00: A blessing of material things.
SPEAKER_00: You need to understand the circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he had stolen his brother's birthright, he had stolen the blessing as a young man.
SPEAKER_00: And now he had, after twenty something years from then, he was, he had endured uh the uh deceitfulness of his father-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: He had uh, in spite of all that, God had tremendously blessed him with earthly things.
SPEAKER_00: He had wives and children and cattle and servants.
SPEAKER_00: He had more than he could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_00: More than he even thought of when God first made that promise to him as he left the first time and fled from his father's house.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's wealthy, he's older, he's wiser, he's mature.
SPEAKER_00: And the blessing that he seeks is not more stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to be clear because sometimes we only put blessings in the box of bank accounts and possessions.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the blessing Jacob was seeking.
SPEAKER_00: He had that already.
SPEAKER_00: God had already given him that.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, there's something else.
SPEAKER_00: There's something else I want from God.
SPEAKER_00: There's something more I want from God.
SPEAKER_00: And I want I want a transformation.
SPEAKER_00: I want a connection with God.
SPEAKER_00: I want, I want a change of identity.
SPEAKER_00: I want I want a fulfillment of that first promise.
SPEAKER_00: Because when God met him on his way to leaving his father's house, and God did this miraculous, I wish I had time to go through it, but I don't have time.
SPEAKER_00: The whole story in Genesis chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, Jacob vowed a vow, and he said, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way as I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothes to put on, so that I may come again to my father's house in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Then shall the Lord be my God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he said.
SPEAKER_00: If God will do these things for me, then he will be my God, which is very backwards.
SPEAKER_00: And just the way Jacob thought at this point in his life.
SPEAKER_00: It was about what I can get, what I can receive.
SPEAKER_00: And so he had set up a stone, he had put a marker, he had put a historical marker, and said, This is the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: And of everything you give me, I'll give a tenth.
SPEAKER_00: See, he's on this bargain with God, you know.
SPEAKER_00: He's bargaining with God.
SPEAKER_00: But God has kept his end of the bargain.
SPEAKER_00: And he's coming back now, 20-something years later, he's he's got all these things.
SPEAKER_00: He's been blessed.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's saying, bless me, but he's not saying, bless me, give me more stuff.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, bless me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know God.
SPEAKER_00: I want a personal relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I want something that's gonna transform me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm different from what I'm used to be, but there's still more I want from God.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I want it so much that I'm not gonna let go until God gives it to me.
SPEAKER_00: There's no amount of wealth, there's no amount of stuff, there's no amount of position, there's no amount of power, there's none of those things that's gonna equal this blessing.
SPEAKER_00: This blessing is greater than all of those.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to have something that transforms my life, that changes my heart and changes who I am, changes my approach.
SPEAKER_00: It's not worked like it should.
SPEAKER_00: He had a tenacious faith, a tenacious faith.
SPEAKER_00: And that faith brought him in harmony and in standing with God because the promise that he received was a transformation.
SPEAKER_00: The angel said, Your name is no longer Jacob, but Israel, no longer the supplanter, no, no longer the con man, but now you're gonna be a prince of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jacob wanted more than anything else at this point.
SPEAKER_00: He had matured away from the stuff and said, there's something greater than the stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I want standing with God.
SPEAKER_00: I want the standing with God, and God gave that to him because he was tenacious in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Tenacious faith seizes that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And wow, we are so uh we are so American that it's very hard for us to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Because we we we want what we want, and if we can't get it today, we'll get it tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: You know, because there's plenty, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty.
SPEAKER_00: We can't get we'll, you know, so oftentimes we're we don't have a faith that says, this is the moment.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna step out there and get it.
SPEAKER_00: We think, well, you know, I'll get it next week.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'll get it next month.
SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll get what God wants for me, you know, next time I come to church.
SPEAKER_00: I'll get it at some other point in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes we're very passive, stuff starts spinning through our minds, like lunch.
SPEAKER_00: Obligations, stuff going on.
SPEAKER_00: I love our kids.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad we have kids.
SPEAKER_00: The kid starts doing something and we're completely distracted, we forget what God wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: Just real stuff, and they'll say, Well, it's okay, I'll do it later.
SPEAKER_00: I'll do it later.
SPEAKER_00: But a tenacious faith says if this is the moment God wants to do something, I'm gonna stay right here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna keep persisting right here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna keep saying, God, let it be done in me right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I don't want to miss that moment.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to miss that time.
SPEAKER_00: In Mark chapter 10, the Bible tells the story.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus and his disciples left out of Jericho, there was a lot of people on the roadsides, and Bartimaeus was there.
SPEAKER_00: He sat by the highway begging.
SPEAKER_00: He's not in town in a residential street, he's out on the highway where there's lots of people passing by.
SPEAKER_00: And this crowd comes by until he finds out it's Jesus, he's hit the jackpot.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, he was a beggar.
SPEAKER_00: He's used to begging.
SPEAKER_00: When you're gonna beg, you gotta you gotta have some strategy.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, you see it on the street corners right here.
SPEAKER_00: They have strategy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just random, there's a strategy on how to get the best results.
SPEAKER_00: He's been begging all of his life, he he has strategy.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a slam on him.
SPEAKER_00: What would you think he would have?
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people passing by on the highway.
SPEAKER_00: It's a big day for some reason.
SPEAKER_00: They're all gathering out here.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta get myself in position because this is gonna be a good day for my pocketbook.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get some money today.
SPEAKER_00: And then he finds out that they're not just gathering for something else, that there's not just a parade going on, that it's not just a moment uh uh of fun going on, but he finds out that Jesus is coming by.
SPEAKER_00: And that transforms the entire moment.
SPEAKER_00: This is something that may never happen again.
SPEAKER_00: I may never get this moment again.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he was blind.
SPEAKER_00: This is not in our day and time.
SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna be able to travel to some faraway city to see Jesus again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is here now, and he's not gonna let this moment pass him by.
SPEAKER_00: And so he began to cry out.
SPEAKER_00: He began to make some noise.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
SPEAKER_00: Now I don't know if he had any context about where Jesus was at the moment.
SPEAKER_00: He could probably be in tune with the noise of the crowd enough to know something, uh, but I don't know exactly what he understood.
SPEAKER_00: But he understood one thing.
SPEAKER_00: He had enough tenacious faith to say, now's my time, now's my moment, and I'm not gonna let it pass.
SPEAKER_00: And some people around him, you know he's a well, he's that beggar that's out here all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And so what do they say?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, be quiet.
SPEAKER_00: Be quiet, you're making a disturbance.
SPEAKER_00: You're making a disturbance.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I can just imagine it's just my imagination, so you can say he's got that all wrong.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: We won't be offended, I won't be offended, we won't have a theological discussion about it, you know, any of those things.
SPEAKER_00: It's just just my my imagination.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying he's he's along this street, he's waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And and he starts making the noise.
SPEAKER_00: And those that don't want him to interrupt, well, they do they start lining up in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's block him out.
SPEAKER_00: Let's put him in the back.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep him quiet.
SPEAKER_00: Shh.
SPEAKER_00: Be quiet.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna block him out.
SPEAKER_00: We want to see Jesus, but he's just a bother.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that when they did that to him, that he cried out.
SPEAKER_00: That he cried out.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, in the King James translation, which is the one I like best, because I'm old, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's accurate.
SPEAKER_00: He said, the Bible says he cried out the more a great deal.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just say cried out more.
SPEAKER_00: He cried out the more a great deal.
SPEAKER_00: He just kept on crying out.
SPEAKER_00: It did not, it didn't do anything but light a fire under his faith.
SPEAKER_00: If he's coming to come by and they know he's gonna come by and they want me to be quiet, I gotta be louder.
SPEAKER_00: I can't miss the moment, I can't miss the opportunity, I can't miss what God wants to do in my.
SPEAKER_00: I know he can heal me.
SPEAKER_00: I believe he can heal me, I believe he will.
SPEAKER_00: If I can just get his attention, that the faith began to it didn't get it pushed down and tamped out.
SPEAKER_00: No, he raised his voice even more and began to cry out in faith, and Jesus heard him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus heard him and sent for him.
SPEAKER_00: And sent for him to be brought to him.
SPEAKER_00: I think that would have been a beautiful sight to see.
SPEAKER_00: You know, all these people are wanting to see Jesus, they're lining up, they're all wanting to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Be quiet, stay in the back, don't bother us.
SPEAKER_00: And and they're here wanting to see Jesus, and Jesus says, go get him.
SPEAKER_00: Bring him here.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody else gets this invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody else gets this moment.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know of anything else that happened in the crowd that day.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know of any other miracles that happened for anybody else that day.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know anything else that went on.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing else is recorded about anything else happening that day or in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: All that's recorded is Jesus said, Go get him.
SPEAKER_00: Go get him.
SPEAKER_00: He's crying out.
SPEAKER_00: He sent for him.
SPEAKER_00: And even then, again, you can interpret the scriptures however you want.
SPEAKER_00: You can disagree.
SPEAKER_00: But again, in the Bible it says, They said to Barnabas, be of good comfort, rise, he calls for you.
SPEAKER_00: This is how I take it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Enough.
SPEAKER_00: He's calling for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go see him.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, it's like, we're not gonna help you.
SPEAKER_00: Would you just go quietly?
SPEAKER_00: It's not like, oh, let us take you to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No, he said, get up and go see him.
SPEAKER_00: He's blind.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm again, this is just, you know, you can look at the story and say, but this is human nature.
SPEAKER_00: All right, fine.
SPEAKER_00: Let him go.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says he is he is so believing that Jesus is gonna do something.
SPEAKER_00: When he gets up, he takes his beggar clothes and throws.
SPEAKER_00: You know, beggars have to have the right clothes, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know, you if you look like me, you're not gonna get anything on the street corner.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna get, you know, there's a special garment you need to wear.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh, he's calling.
SPEAKER_00: This is my moment, this is my time.
SPEAKER_00: He's calling for me.
SPEAKER_00: He leaves the garments right there, and he goes to Jesus and he says to Jesus, what do you want from me?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight.
SPEAKER_00: He was not, he was not passive about it.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, Well, you know, uh I've been here for a while, and it, you know, if you would mind if you'd like, if you could.
SPEAKER_00: I'd really like to see, and maybe good enough to have glasses or something, just kind of improve my sight a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, he says, Lord, I want to receive my sight.
SPEAKER_00: I want to receive my sight.
SPEAKER_00: His his faith welled forward.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I want to receive my sight because of that.
SPEAKER_00: Barnamaeus received his sight.
SPEAKER_00: He did not give up.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you that a tenacious faith requires us to be active.
SPEAKER_00: Be active, not passive.
SPEAKER_00: We need to energize our faith with action.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 2, verse 26 says, For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
SPEAKER_00: If you have faith, it should compel you to step up and do something, to act, to step out in faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you to step out in faith, to have a tenacious faith.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Ask and it shall be given you.
SPEAKER_00: Seek and you shall find.
SPEAKER_00: Knock and it shall be open to you.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone that asks, receives.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone that seeks, finds.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone that knocks, it shall be open.
SPEAKER_00: There's something for you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Ask, seek, knock, step forward, put some action into it.
SPEAKER_00: Put your faith into action.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to go back to the scriptures we started from today.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews chapter number 11, the story, the topic of faith is launched.
SPEAKER_00: Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the introduction to this chapter of Hebrews chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: And the rest of the chapter is is a, how can I say it, is a parade of witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: A parade of examples that are passed by the reader to say, faith, faith, faith, faith, faith.
SPEAKER_00: And every one of them, the persons acted in faith.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't just sit in faith, they acted in faith.
SPEAKER_00: They activated their faith.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't just think about it for a moment and let it pass by.
SPEAKER_00: No, they committed to it and they began to act on the faith.
SPEAKER_00: They began to step forward into God's plan, into God's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: You read the stories, not everybody's story turned out the greatest in our minds.
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody's story was the greatest in our minds.
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody's story is the story we want.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them were persecuted for it, too.
SPEAKER_00: But they still stepped out in faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's about acting in faith, it's about walking in the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so this whole parade of examples is given to us as we read Hebrews chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: And then, and then in conclusion of this topic on faith, in chapter 12, at the beginning of chapter 12, it says, Wherefore, because of all that, because of all you've heard, seeing that we are so compassed, we're surrounded with so many witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: Again, King James says it wonderfully, so great a cloud of witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just imagine a big cloud of witnesses surrounding you of how faith works in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Let us lay aside every weight and sin which easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Now, look, he's had all these examples, the writer of Hebrews, and now he's given you the last example.
SPEAKER_00: The last example is the example of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let anything hold you back, don't let anything weigh you down, don't let anything buffet you, but instead keep walking in faith and look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_00: He accomplished the mission for which he came because he went in faith and confidence of what was to be.
SPEAKER_00: For consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himself.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says, Lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
SPEAKER_00: All these examples are so you won't be weary and faint in your minds, so that you won't give up, so you won't throw in the towel, so you won't have a faith that just lasts for a moment, but so that you will have a faith that is tenacious, that is powerful, that keeps on pressing forward, that keeps on seeking to obtain what God wants to give us.
SPEAKER_00: And how God wants to work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I need to close.
SPEAKER_00: I can feel you closing.
SPEAKER_00: And I need to close.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 14, verse 12 through 14 says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Jesus speaking, he that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go into my Father.
SPEAKER_00: And greater works.
SPEAKER_00: That greater works is not bigger works, it's more works.
SPEAKER_00: You're even gonna do more than this.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't, Jesus is saying, This isn't the end, this is the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just the start and finish.
SPEAKER_00: This is just the start.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna keep on happening.
SPEAKER_00: If you keep believing, these things are gonna keep happening, these healings are gonna keep happening, these victories are gonna keep happening, these deliveries are gonna keep happening.
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna stop here.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be greater works, it's gonna continue to happen.
SPEAKER_00: While I'm gonna be gone in person in the flesh, that's not the end.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna keep on happening.
SPEAKER_00: And whatsoever you ask in my name, that will I do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And if you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.
SPEAKER_00: Tenacious faith rises above fear, it overcomes obstacles, it sees beyond the present, it embraces the promises of God, and it strengthens our confidence.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm here today to sit, say, let faith arise.
SPEAKER_00: Let faith arise in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let faith be strengthened in your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be weary, don't be, don't, don't, don't, don't be uh without strength.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't don't let yourself be be weary and and and burdened and and and give up and lose heart and be faint in your minds.
SPEAKER_00: I I know that's the uh human nature in us, especially if we start looking at our own abilities, but don't let that happen.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, step out in faith, step out in expectation, let faith arise in your heart, let that fire be ignited in your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand with me?
SPEAKER_00: I'm here today to challenge you.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy would like for you to just be passive.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy would like for you to just say, Well, I prayed two minutes and so that does it.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, nothing happened like I thought it would, so that's all I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the enemy would like.
SPEAKER_00: But God uh has the power and the strength to do what you need in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You just need a tenacious faith that says, no, I'm gonna go further than that, I'm gonna push more than that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna step out in faith and confidence.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna let the circumstances intimidate me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna let the surroundings intimidate me, but I'm gonna stand in faith.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be passive about it, but I'm gonna stand strong.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna give up, I'm not gonna step back.
SPEAKER_00: This is my moment that God wants to do something in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I will stand in faith and confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Let that fire be ignited.
SPEAKER_00: I may be young, I may be inexperienced, but I have faith in God, and God will guide me.
SPEAKER_00: I may be older, I may be slower, but my faith in God will sustain me.
SPEAKER_00: I may have a need, but my faith in God is greater than my need.
SPEAKER_00: I may have failed, I may have messed up, I may have made some bad mistakes in my life, I may even have sinned, but my faith in God is greater than my failure.
SPEAKER_00: I may have health needs, I may be sick, I may be weak, I may be fragile, but my faith is greater than my sickness.
SPEAKER_00: My faith is bigger than my sickness.
SPEAKER_00: My faith is better than the illness I may be experiencing.
SPEAKER_00: Let that faith get a hold of your hearts today.
SPEAKER_00: Let that faith get a hold of your souls today.
SPEAKER_00: Let something stir in you and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I I know, I believe, I trust in God.
SPEAKER_00: I know he can heal, I know he can deliver, I know he can make new, I know he can fill me with his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I know he can work about it.
SPEAKER_00: I believe it, and I'm not gonna just uh be passive about it, but I'm gonna stand with a tenacious, with a not quit faith and say, This is what I believe, this is how I'm standing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not moving from this foundation of faith in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And something about that kind of faith that draws the attention in the heart of God as we step out in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that God wants to do something in your life?
SPEAKER_00: You believe God wants to do, you believe God wants to do a miracle in your life, you believe God wants to fill you, you believe God wants to help you.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe that, I want you to just step out in faith today and say, I believe in God, I trust in you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm willing to step out in a faith and a confidence.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks about it, doesn't matter whatever anybody else does, but I'm gonna step out in faith and expectation in you today that you're gonna do something great, miraculous, powerful in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna command you, I'm not gonna demand from you, I'm just gonna trust in you, I'm gonna come before you in faith and confidence and expectation today for God to do something out of life.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God can do something right now in this house if you lift your heart with a tenacious faith, if you cry out to God with a strong and tenacious faith and expectation.