SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Trouble is the mother of either fear or faith.
SPEAKER_01: You have a choice.
SPEAKER_01: You have a choice this year.
SPEAKER_01: Trouble are gonna either birth fear or they're gonna birth faith.
SPEAKER_01: You can either be wrapped up and enraptured by and overtaken with fear, or something rises up within you and says, I choose not to be fearful, I'm going after faith.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna trust God in this way.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from pastor teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, Romans 10, 17.
SPEAKER_01: And the theme, the theme of the road in 2020 is a partnership with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: How many have troubles in your life?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you would say there's some big troubles on the horizon in your life?
SPEAKER_01: How are you gonna do that without God?
SPEAKER_01: God wants a partnership.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to be involved in those struggles in our life.
SPEAKER_01: But you gotta want him.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you, but do you want him?
SPEAKER_01: That's a partnership.
SPEAKER_01: He's the senior pastor of this church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not the senior pastor of this church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the small S senior.
SPEAKER_01: Small P pastor, Jesus is the senior pastor of this church.
SPEAKER_01: And so if he came up with the whole idea of this church and it's his vision for this church, and he knows the future, then it's pretty smart on my behalf to partner with him.
SPEAKER_01: Because he wants the best in your lives, he wants the best in my life, he wants the best for your marriage, he wants the best for your singleness, he wants the best for your future, he wants the best job that fits your unique skills.
SPEAKER_01: And nobody knows that better than the one who created you.
SPEAKER_01: So you never lose, you always win by partnering with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what those messages were about.
SPEAKER_01: We looked at John 15, if you weren't here.
SPEAKER_01: We looked about abiding in the vine.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about a partnership in prayer, a partnership in relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Because some of you are frustrated, right?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are feeling depression come on.
SPEAKER_01: You're starting to self-medicate through sex or drugs or alcohol or addictions to work.
SPEAKER_01: You're a workaholic.
SPEAKER_01: That's not healthy.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you want to be healthy?
SPEAKER_01: Health is when we surrender everything to God every day.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen if you believe that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not easy.
SPEAKER_01: I think on a regular basis, if you're not dying to yourself, if you're not crucifying yourself on the cross of not knowing what to do or how to do it, then you're not going to grow.
SPEAKER_01: But opposite of what the world says, God says, crucify yourself on the cross every day.
SPEAKER_01: Surrender to me.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know what to do, but I do.
SPEAKER_01: Open up the word, let me speak to you, give you revelation, and I'll guarantee you one thing, the joy of the Lord will become your strength.
SPEAKER_01: Even if it's just a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: And they had been colored on.
SPEAKER_01: And they were the they were, these were expensive Barbies.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a kid sitting next to the Barbies who doesn't own the Barbies, not their Barbies.
SPEAKER_01: With a pen in the kid's hand.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You did you color the Barbies head with a permanent marker?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I did not.
SPEAKER_01: Are you sure you didn't?
SPEAKER_01: No, I did not.
SPEAKER_01: A little less conviction second time.
SPEAKER_01: So I asked again, a little less third time.
SPEAKER_01: I said, okay, did you just maybe just a little bit?
SPEAKER_01: Just tiny, tiny bit, not a lot, but just a little bit kind of right on their heads.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I did.
SPEAKER_01: So it always, so joy in the Lord begins with a partnership of abiding in Him and surrendering everything to Him.
SPEAKER_01: And it's just a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: It may be just a little bit of joy that you get.
SPEAKER_01: But men and women, start doing it every day.
SPEAKER_01: Buy our journal, which we're sold out right now.
SPEAKER_01: The next week you can buy our journal, our partnering journal that we sold out on.
SPEAKER_01: But start spending time with the Lord and walking with Him on a daily basis, being in His Word, prayer.
SPEAKER_01: If you're married, if you can do it with your spouse, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not really comfortable with that yet, that's fine too.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to talk about faith.
SPEAKER_01: This is my last message on Prepare 2020.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about what I'm calling action faith, which in a way is kind of like it's an oxymoron today because we tend to think of faith intellectually.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: And the word pistis can mean that in Greek.
SPEAKER_01: Pistis.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in something.
SPEAKER_01: And there's two kinds of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And the first is salvation faith.
SPEAKER_01: We're doing baptisms today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited.
SPEAKER_01: I love baptism Sundays.
SPEAKER_01: Because these young people are putting their faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: They're getting saved.
SPEAKER_01: And now they're making an external public proclamation that they want to be a Jesus follower, and that faith now has action to it.
SPEAKER_01: You see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: So, in a way, action, faith, they shouldn't even go together because faith without action is wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_01: So say to your neighbor, faith without action is wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, guys, there's two kinds of faith.
SPEAKER_01: The first, today, is salvation faith.
SPEAKER_01: Pistis, salvation faith.
SPEAKER_01: We put our faith in Christ, and Christ comes into our life.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 10, 9 and 10, we read, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe faith, believe pistis, believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
SPEAKER_01: So that's salvation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to talk about salvation faith today.
SPEAKER_01: Except that if you haven't put your faith in Christ, this would be a really good day to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Be really smart to become a Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you become a Jesus follower, you're not alone anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: You're not alone anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You're not alone in this life anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You have the Spirit of God living within you.
SPEAKER_01: So that's salvation faith.
SPEAKER_01: Second, though, is what I'm calling.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me give you two terms.
SPEAKER_01: One is sanctification faith.
SPEAKER_01: And sanctification is a big word, but it has the idea of growing.
SPEAKER_01: It's the idea of you growing into maturity.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll call it salvation faith.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, sanctification faith, which I'm returning for the purposes today of action faith.
SPEAKER_01: You can't get sanctified.
SPEAKER_01: You can't mature and get transformed and changed in your life without an action faith.
SPEAKER_01: It has to have feet to it, gang.
SPEAKER_01: And too many believers in America have a cerebral faith.
SPEAKER_01: They have an intellectual faith.
SPEAKER_01: But they're about 14, 12 to 14 inches away from action faith.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we don't see transformation in your daily walk with God and your daily walk with people, then you're not growing.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, where we were unforgiving before, and we start to have a little bit of forgiveness now toward those people.
SPEAKER_01: When we've been backstabbed or we've been betrayed, and we all have, and we start to have a little bit of forgiveness, that's sanctification faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's action faith.
SPEAKER_01: Something's happening within you that's now beginning to be expressed without you in a way that people can start to see.
SPEAKER_01: And it might be tiny, it might be small.
SPEAKER_01: When I was a freshman in Georgia and I gave my heart to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The next day, I wanted to witness, I wanted to tell people about my experience with Christ, but my morality hadn't changed yet.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even know exactly what I needed to change.
SPEAKER_01: But as the weeks and the months went by, God, his Spirit, because I was in a partnership with the Holy Spirit, I didn't call it back then, I call it the Spirit-filled life, but through a partnership with the Spirit, I would get this sense in my heart, man, I shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not healthy.
SPEAKER_01: That's not good for my relationships.
SPEAKER_01: That's not good for me as an athlete.
SPEAKER_01: And there was all kinds of ramifications that went with that, but with that, I began to change.
SPEAKER_01: That's action faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's faith that's beginning to work itself through your spiritual bloodstream.
SPEAKER_01: So I know guys that are about my age that take testosterone shots.
SPEAKER_01: They go to a high T center.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure there's no one like that in here.
SPEAKER_01: Because we know biologically that your T, your testosterone, tends to drop as you get older.
SPEAKER_01: Some people take testosterone shots.
SPEAKER_01: And it get, what does it do?
SPEAKER_01: It gets into your bloodstream.
SPEAKER_01: It gives you more energy.
SPEAKER_01: It gives you more strength.
SPEAKER_01: Well, God's Spirit, His Holy Spirit, lives within us, and he wants to start living through the spiritual bloodstream of your life.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to talk about action faith from a story.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: I love this story.
SPEAKER_01: Powerful story of a man who exhibited action faith.
SPEAKER_01: And men and women, when you look at the New Testament, you really get a feel.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, we've been going, we've been doing some topical stuff for the last several months, but start in a in a week or so we're going to go back to Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to start going chapter by chapter and verse by verse through Matthew again.
SPEAKER_01: But I felt like this was a good precursor to going back into Matthew because wherever Jesus goes, and if you're not one who's been through the Bible or you're unfamiliar with aspects of the Bible, start, keep coming here.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're going to go through, I'm going to take you through the gospel of Matthew, and it's going to radicalize your life.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to radicalize your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus, at every front, everywhere he turns, when he sees people of faith, he gets pumped.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't care what your background is.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't care who you slept with the night before.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't care what your job is.
SPEAKER_01: When you see who Jesus is interested in, he doesn't look at any of that.
SPEAKER_01: He looks at the faith that's in their heart.
SPEAKER_01: And he gets excited for those who have action faith.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the story.
SPEAKER_01: This is a story of a man, says he's a nobleman.
SPEAKER_01: Look at John 4, 46.
SPEAKER_01: John 4, 46.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: That was his first miracle.
SPEAKER_01: And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.
SPEAKER_01: So just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: Trouble is the mother of either fear or faith.
SPEAKER_01: You have a choice.
SPEAKER_01: You have a choice this year.
SPEAKER_01: Troubles are going to either birth fear or they're going to birth faith.
SPEAKER_01: Your choice, not God's choice.
SPEAKER_01: Up to you.
SPEAKER_01: You can either be wrapped up and enraptured by and overtaken with fear, or something rises up within you and says, I choose not to be fearful.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going after faith.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to trust God with this thing.
SPEAKER_01: And here's a nobleman.
SPEAKER_01: And he's interesting that he's classified as a nobleman.
SPEAKER_01: This is a man of means.
SPEAKER_01: This is someone who has resources.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what he does in verse 47.
SPEAKER_01: When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and implored, underline, highlight, implored him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, this is trouble.
SPEAKER_01: This is a struggle.
SPEAKER_01: This is at the very core of us as parents.
SPEAKER_01: It's at the very core of any of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Someone you deeply love is about to die.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I think happened.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to read into it a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: I would imagine the nobleman went and whatever the doctors were at that time, or whoever the whatever the potions were at that time that you took.
SPEAKER_01: He had the resources to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing had worked.
SPEAKER_01: And he's heard about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He's heard about what he's been doing all over Galilee and Judea.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's got to find Jesus, and it's 16 miles from Cana to Capernaum.
SPEAKER_01: So he either walked it, he either ran it, he either got on a horse, he had an entourage.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: All I know is 16 miles is a lot further then than 16 miles is today.
SPEAKER_01: He is passionate.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the first point of action faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's asking Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's asking for something.
SPEAKER_01: It's asking.
SPEAKER_01: It's taking your mind off just not just the human elements that are around you, but saying, okay, in spite of this or with this, I'm asking Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, I need you to do something.
SPEAKER_01: That's actionable, proactive, intentional faith.
SPEAKER_01: He's going after Jesus, and almost all the time it's not easy.
SPEAKER_01: Almost every time it's not easy.
SPEAKER_01: In this case, he had to put his entourage together, or he had to be a marathoner, or he had to get his chariots or whatever he had, and he went 16 miles.
SPEAKER_01: It's hilly country.
SPEAKER_01: Roads weren't great back then, and he is after Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He's going after Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And men and women, one of the first things that we learn in how to grow in faith is how to pray, and he's specific.
SPEAKER_01: He's specific.
SPEAKER_01: He wants Jesus and He wants his son healed.
SPEAKER_01: Let me encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: Have a prayer list.
SPEAKER_01: What are the top seven or eight things?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's too many.
SPEAKER_01: What are the top three to seven things that are on your heart this year that you really need God to show up on, that you're praying about?
SPEAKER_01: Keep a prayer list.
SPEAKER_01: Open up your journal and start listening.
SPEAKER_01: And each day, give that to God.
SPEAKER_01: Give that to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's action faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's partnering with the Holy Spirit in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: John says that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, and we know that when he hears us, we have what we've asked of him.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to talk about how you know God's will.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know it's God's will?
SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, if you knew it was God's will without any doubt at all, then probably it's not by faith.
SPEAKER_01: So we don't always know.
SPEAKER_01: And I think one of the keys in prayer, church, is that we're okay with mystery.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta be okay with mystery.
SPEAKER_01: It's really hard for us as Americans.
SPEAKER_01: We want it now and we want it our way.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not always that way, it's not always that easy.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I know is that God always honors faith.
SPEAKER_01: Even when we don't know what or how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: He's asking.
SPEAKER_01: So this guy has no guarantees.
SPEAKER_01: All probably all he has is hearsay about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are here today because somebody invited you and it's based on their hearsay about the road.
SPEAKER_01: Or it's about their hearsay about their son or their daughter getting baptized until you came to be a supporter.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: That's where it always starts.
SPEAKER_01: It always starts with someone we know.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Man, remember last year when I was struggling with depression, man, I got set free.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus broke the power of depression in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I told you like five years ago, we were, my wife and I were on the verge of divorce.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus changed that.
SPEAKER_01: I started going to church.
SPEAKER_01: I started reading God's word.
SPEAKER_01: I started praying.
SPEAKER_01: And look what he's done.
SPEAKER_01: Hearsay.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's testimony, and we all know a testimony is somebody who's been tested.
SPEAKER_01: You get a mony out of your test.
SPEAKER_01: That's a testimony.
SPEAKER_01: We need more monies.
SPEAKER_01: Monies are people who didn't quit.
SPEAKER_01: Asking.
SPEAKER_01: Action faith is asking.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus said to him, and I love this part, it's really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 48.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't sound like a very nice answer from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he probably said, like, you just want signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember the story of the Canaanite woman, the Gentile woman?
SPEAKER_01: She comes and she rushes up to Jesus and she says, she's not a Jew.
SPEAKER_01: And she says, Jesus, um, my daughter's demon-possessed.
SPEAKER_01: Would you come and heal her?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, I don't.
SPEAKER_01: I I just come for the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not interested in you.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, he didn't even answer her.
SPEAKER_01: Then he says it that way to her.
SPEAKER_01: And then you know what she says?
SPEAKER_01: She is.
SPEAKER_01: He basically says, You're a dog.
SPEAKER_01: That's basically what Jesus says to her.
SPEAKER_01: And then she says, Well, even the dogs eat the crumbs off the table.
SPEAKER_01: And then he looks at her.
SPEAKER_01: I can just see Jesus going, ah.
SPEAKER_01: And then he looks at her and he goes, I am, this is your faith has healed your daughter.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that wild?
SPEAKER_01: That's the way Jesus is sometimes when we're asking.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think he's Santa.
SPEAKER_01: I really don't think he's Santa.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just bend over backwards for us.
SPEAKER_01: I think he's pulling out something within us to cause us to get more and more desperate.
SPEAKER_01: Are you desperate to be changed?
SPEAKER_01: Are you desperate for God to answer that prayer?
SPEAKER_01: God will often say no or wait and pull it out of us, so we'll keep going after him.
SPEAKER_01: He's keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.
SPEAKER_01: That's literally what it means in the passage in Greek.
SPEAKER_01: And it shall be given to you.
SPEAKER_01: So he's longing for that.
SPEAKER_01: So it's asking and keep and continuing to ask.
SPEAKER_01: And the and a Canaanite woman, that's in Matthew 15.
SPEAKER_01: That's what happens there.
SPEAKER_01: But then look what happens next.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 49.
SPEAKER_01: The nobleman said to him, Sir, come down before the child dies.
SPEAKER_01: He does not quit.
SPEAKER_01: He keeps asking.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus said to him, This is so cool.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: Go your way, your son lives.
SPEAKER_01: So the man, and this is underlinable material here, star it, highlight it.
SPEAKER_01: So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way asking, secondly, believing.
SPEAKER_01: Believing what God says.
SPEAKER_01: God's going to speak to you.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to me, church.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll keep asking, if you'll keep seeking, God will speak.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, it may not always be exactly what we were hoping for or we wanted, but you'll know that it's God's will, and there's a certain kind of peace and joy that comes from that.
SPEAKER_01: He believed, this guy believed.
SPEAKER_01: Look at that.
SPEAKER_01: Look at it again.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the New King James Version.
SPEAKER_01: Let's say it together.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: It's the best part of the whole story.
SPEAKER_01: Say it together.
SPEAKER_01: So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and he went his way.
SPEAKER_01: He put feet to it.
SPEAKER_01: It says he believed so he could leave.
SPEAKER_01: It's over.
SPEAKER_01: It's done.
SPEAKER_01: He's got it.
SPEAKER_01: He believed, he trusted, he went.
SPEAKER_01: And church, this is the main document.
SPEAKER_01: This is the main manual.
SPEAKER_01: This is the living book of God that he speaks from.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody go like this if you know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: This is, we have the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit primarily speaks from God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: And there's two words for word here.
SPEAKER_01: One is Logos and one is Rhema.
SPEAKER_01: Logos is the written word.
SPEAKER_01: When you're reading God's word as it is, it is the Logos Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: But then as you're reading it, sometimes what God does, and more often than not, He speaks to you.
SPEAKER_01: He highlights something in your life, and you know that's for you.
SPEAKER_01: That's a word for you.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you're asking about.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you're seeking God for.
SPEAKER_01: It's unique for something in your life, and that's Rhema.
SPEAKER_01: God gives Rhema to those that are in Logos.
SPEAKER_01: You can't get Rhema if you're not in Logos.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to be reading the Logos before you can get Rhema.
SPEAKER_01: It's being at the well of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you this Tuesday night that are going to Israel with me, we have an Israel meeting.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be in here.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be streaming it to Georgia from a brother's church.
SPEAKER_01: One of the sites, I'm not sure if it's on the list or not, but one of the sites that could be is Jacob's well.
SPEAKER_01: If we were to go to Jacob's well, you would see a well, and the well still works, and it's actually the well that Jacob got water from, that's logos.
SPEAKER_01: That well is logos.
SPEAKER_01: But if we were to drop that bucket down and grab water from the bottom and pull it up and drink water from Jacob's well because we're thirsty, that's Rhema.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, there's a general understanding of the inspiration of God's word to us, but then there's an inspirational word for you that God wants to use.
SPEAKER_01: That's what happened to this young man.
SPEAKER_01: This nobleman couldn't have gotten the word from Jesus if he stayed in Capernaum.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_01: He got up that morning really early, and he got on his horse, or he got in his chariot, or his wagon, or what, and he got all the way over to Cana to intercept Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And when you get up in the morning and you spend time in God's word, you're going from Capernaum to Cana.
SPEAKER_01: And you're going to meet Jesus there.
SPEAKER_01: And when you meet Jesus there, he's got something uniquely for you almost every day.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: Say that's exciting.
SPEAKER_01: Say, I'm going to get into God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to get into God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: Not very convincing.
SPEAKER_01: I say that again.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to get into God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: Tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: In the morning.
SPEAKER_01: Really early.
SPEAKER_01: I won't go any further than that.
SPEAKER_01: But so action faith is asking, but then it's believing.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 51.
SPEAKER_01: And as he now was going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Your son lives.
SPEAKER_01: Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better, and they said to him, Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, two things here.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, acting.
SPEAKER_01: He believed.
SPEAKER_01: So he he literally believed.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't just say believe.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just an intellectual faith.
SPEAKER_01: He actually believed in his heart, and that's why he could go back and start walking back, or running back, or in a canter, on his horse, or whatever he was.
SPEAKER_01: He's going back, and then there's an intersection with them, and that is acting.
SPEAKER_01: So it's asking, it's believing.
SPEAKER_01: It's then acting on your belief that what God said to you is absolutely true for you.
SPEAKER_01: May not be true for anybody else.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you get don't look around.
SPEAKER_01: Don't look around.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you don't even want to tell certain people about what God's saying to you because it seems wacky.
SPEAKER_01: It seems super weird.
SPEAKER_01: Get your marching orders from Him, not from people.
SPEAKER_01: People mess you up.
SPEAKER_01: People can mess you up.
SPEAKER_01: Even good, God-fearing people can mess you up.
SPEAKER_01: Divorce that woman, divorce that guy, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you've got to stay focused on what God's telling you to do, and then you've got to stay focused even after he's told you what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: So you start, you ask, you believe, then you act, and then you receive.
SPEAKER_01: He received what he was looking for.
SPEAKER_01: He received it from God.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to answer our prayers in miraculous and supernatural ways.
SPEAKER_01: That's his MO.
SPEAKER_01: That's his DNA.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God does.
SPEAKER_01: For heaven's sake, he rose again from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: I think he can probably take some of your problems and rise them from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: That's his business.
SPEAKER_01: That's his MO.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he does.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, dead stuff is what he majors in.
SPEAKER_01: He likes dead stuff.
SPEAKER_01: He does.
SPEAKER_01: He likes dead stuff.
SPEAKER_01: He likes dead people.
SPEAKER_01: He does really good with dead people because they don't talk so much.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you talk too much.
SPEAKER_01: Including yours truly.
SPEAKER_01: Just ask my wife.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about how I talk too much at the couples conference.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure it'll come up.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, guys, the trouble, the problem, death is the mother of either faith or fear.
SPEAKER_01: And if you go with faith, it's not going to be easy.
SPEAKER_01: If you go with fear, it will ruin your life.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody figured out that faith is sort of hard?
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody figured out that life is hard?
SPEAKER_01: So here's the question.
SPEAKER_01: Who do you want to do it with?
SPEAKER_01: Yourself or yourself and God?
SPEAKER_01: So this word faith is interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: This faith that we read about in Scripture has this idea that when we put our faith in Christ, it's the substance.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11 says, it's the substance of things hoped for.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is the substance of things hoped for.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11, 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: Substance is the idea, and I brought it with me, a title deed to one of my vehicles.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to keep this close to my breast during taking off with one of my cars or something.
SPEAKER_01: This is a title deed.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is substance.
SPEAKER_01: It means it's a title deed.
SPEAKER_01: It has the idea of being under something.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is under you.
SPEAKER_01: It's holding up your title deed and saying, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to trust.
SPEAKER_01: I own this.
SPEAKER_01: This is mine.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not going to let demons, and I'm not going to let self-doubt, and I'm not going to let other people steal from me what is God's.
SPEAKER_01: So faith, action, faith is asking, believing, receiving.
SPEAKER_01: And then guess what happens?
SPEAKER_01: What happens in our life, look at that.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: Look what happens in verse 53.
SPEAKER_01: As the Father knew that was the same hour in which Jesus said to him, Your son lives, and he himself believed.
SPEAKER_01: And look at that.
SPEAKER_01: And his whole household.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: People notice your faith, gang.
SPEAKER_01: They do.
SPEAKER_01: They start seeing a difference in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And some people really like it, and some people really don't.
SPEAKER_01: Man, you're so weird now.
SPEAKER_01: Man, you don't party like you used to party.
SPEAKER_01: What's your problem?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm I'm following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's stupid.
SPEAKER_01: Why would you do that?
SPEAKER_01: Man, we're man, we're gonna have so much fun on Friday night.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm having a lot of fun following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I remember those days.
SPEAKER_01: Start to follow Jesus, and some aren't gonna like it.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the test of your certificate of title.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you just have to walk away.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna trust God anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody said this was easy.
SPEAKER_01: But joy is on the other side of your tribulation.
SPEAKER_01: Joy is on the other side of your troubles.
SPEAKER_01: Joy is on the other side of not quitting with your life.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.