SPEAKER_01: Don and Carol.
SPEAKER_01: Don and Carol Hewlin.
SPEAKER_01: Don is one of our stewards here, which is a deacon here at The Road.
SPEAKER_01: And Carol, and when I first heard Don and Carol's story, the story of what Carol's been through in her life and how Carol and Don met, I felt like it would be something that we all need to hear.
SPEAKER_01: And so I asked Don and Carol to share.
SPEAKER_01: Let's welcome Don and Carol.
SPEAKER_02: Well, as Pastor Steve said, he asked us to share the special way that the Lord brought Don and me together.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna tell you my story first.
SPEAKER_02: When I met Don, I was a widow with a two-year-old son, Sean.
SPEAKER_02: I had been married for seven years to a marine helicopter pilot Bill Niceel.
SPEAKER_02: His life was cut short when he became the last casualty of the Vietnam War.
SPEAKER_02: At the time, Bill was stationed in Okinawa, and Sean and I were able to join him.
SPEAKER_02: Shortly after we arrived, Bill received unexpected orders to an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.
SPEAKER_02: The day before Bill left was very hard on both of us.
SPEAKER_02: Although I had trusted Jesus as my savior and Lord as a teenager, my reaction to this change in plans was not to trust the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't want Bill to leave.
SPEAKER_02: And I was angry at God.
SPEAKER_02: Through that night, I was miserable because I couldn't get past my own will.
SPEAKER_02: Finally, in the morning hours, the Lord's love won over my anger.
SPEAKER_02: And I opened my heart and I prayed, Lord, Bill isn't mine, he's yours.
SPEAKER_02: You're the one to decide where he's to go and what he's to do.
SPEAKER_02: I trust your perfect plan for all of us.
SPEAKER_02: It was in that moment that the icy anger just melted away, and I was filled with God's love and peace.
SPEAKER_02: At the time, I thought that Bill would only be gone for a few days.
SPEAKER_02: But the days of Bill's absence turned into weeks.
SPEAKER_02: And then one morning I was awakened at the at a knock at my door.
SPEAKER_02: And it was Bill's commanding officer.
SPEAKER_02: As we sat in the living room, he explained that there had been an accident the night before.
SPEAKER_02: Bill had been flying all day, helping in the war evacuation.
SPEAKER_02: It was nine at night, and Bill radioed the ship to prepare for landing.
SPEAKER_02: As he approached the carrier, he was waved off due to other aircraft and people on the landing deck.
SPEAKER_02: As he recircled, the aircraft ran out of fuel and his helicopter crashed into the sea.
SPEAKER_02: It was April 29th, 1975.
SPEAKER_02: The last day of the Vietnam War.
SPEAKER_02: And Bill was lost at sea.
SPEAKER_02: Ordinarily, that would be the end of the story.
SPEAKER_02: But knowing God makes a difference in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: The peace that the Lord had given me that last night before Bill left was still in my heart.
SPEAKER_02: You know, all of us experience the unexpected events that bring pain into our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Only the Lord can give us the peace that keeps us through all situations.
SPEAKER_02: Often we don't understand the whys of why things happen to us.
SPEAKER_02: But he will give us his peace when we ask him.
SPEAKER_02: After the commander left my home that morning, I thought about some verses that I had read just the day before from Psalms 139, 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_02: If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me and your strength will support me.
SPEAKER_02: I realized then that God wanted me to know that He was in control and that He would continue to take care of Sean and me.
SPEAKER_02: Bill's memorial service was held on May 4, 1975.
SPEAKER_02: And over the coming months, God's love was shown to me in countless ways.
SPEAKER_02: I turned to the Lord in big and small ways.
SPEAKER_02: And he was always faithful to meet our needs.
SPEAKER_02: About a year and a half after Bill's death, the Lord had a big surprise for me and Sean.
SPEAKER_02: He brought Don Hewlin into our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And Don's gonna tell you the rest of the story.
SPEAKER_00: My dad was on staff with J.
SPEAKER_00: Vernon McGee in Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may have heard of him.
SPEAKER_00: At the age of five, I told my dad I wanted to receive Christ as my savior.
SPEAKER_00: And he guided me through a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And I asked Jesus into my life.
SPEAKER_00: At ten years of age, I rededicated my life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But during my college years, I got totally awake from my Christian roots.
SPEAKER_00: Excessive drinking, foul mouth, pretty much anything I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00: After several years of this lifestyle, I realized the world had nothing to offer.
SPEAKER_00: I knew I needed to start going back to church because that's where I needed to be.
SPEAKER_00: A couple of months after I was back at church, I asked God to forgive me of my sins, and I surrendered myself to him anew and gave him total control of my life.
SPEAKER_00: That day was May 4th, 1975.
SPEAKER_00: Several months later, one Bible verse continued to come to mind.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 34, excuse me, Psalm 37, 4.
SPEAKER_00: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I needed a reliable car.
SPEAKER_00: I needed a job, and I asked God for a godly wife.
SPEAKER_00: I also sensed very strongly that the woman God had for me might already have children.
SPEAKER_00: This was before Carol and I had even met.
SPEAKER_00: Shortly after our marriage, I adopted Sean, and God had answered every one of my prayers.
SPEAKER_00: I had a teaching job, I had a reliable car, but most importantly, a godly woman who just happened to have a young son.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, when we go through tragedies, then we will.
SPEAKER_01: And we go through times where everything we depended on is broken or destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: Trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Something that Carol didn't talk a lot about here is just all the friends she had.
SPEAKER_01: She came back from Okinawa and she had a precious church family.
SPEAKER_01: That Sunday school class really surrounded her.
SPEAKER_01: And we need each other, folks.
SPEAKER_01: It's a misnomer, and it's also very American, but it's not biblical to think that it's just going to be me and Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's Jesus and the family of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's Jesus and relationships and friends.
SPEAKER_01: You need good friends.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what the church is here for.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we need each other.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Carol, thank you, and and Don, thank you, because your one thing we talked about was how there were so many opportunities to make wrong choices in both of your stories.
SPEAKER_01: But you kept pushing through the forest of worries and maybe even the forest of fear.
SPEAKER_01: And God was doing that over here with Don.
SPEAKER_01: God's doing this over here with Carol.
SPEAKER_01: And then He begins to move your lives together.
SPEAKER_01: So, young people, may that be an encouragement to you too.
SPEAKER_01: You know, some of you know my story with Liz.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, I'm from Georgia, and she's from California, so the only place we could have met is in China.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and so as you trust God, God's got a special person for you.
SPEAKER_01: He and He's even got a special job for you.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are unemployed, some of you are looking for work, or you're underemployed.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the perfect place for you yet.
SPEAKER_01: Keep pressing in and trusting God and then getting others into your life that can also pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the deal, and we'll talk about this now, and that is that sometimes we just don't have the faith, but others do.
SPEAKER_01: And their faith carries us through until we have the faith.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we need.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we need each other.
SPEAKER_01: So tonight I want to talk about being a faith builder, and this is how I would give you a title.
SPEAKER_01: We're in uh we're in Mark chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Faith Builder Supplements for Spiritual Energy.
SPEAKER_01: Supplements for spiritual energy.
SPEAKER_01: And for the next few weeks, though there'll be some interludes of breakage there because of the um coming discipleship seminar next weekend, and then I'll be also on a hunting trip the next weekend, so you can pray for a really big bull to come into my crosshairs.
SPEAKER_01: Um for all of you that that that are environmentalist or struggle with that, I will say this that last week I shot two trees.
SPEAKER_01: Um two bulls came running through the field on the opening day, and as they did, me, the crack shot that I am, the kind of this this line of Davy Crockett that runs in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: Um, as they ran through, I I shot an aspen.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And then as it continued to run, I shot another aspen.
SPEAKER_01: So I've often thought that what I need on my wall is a mounted aspen branch that looks like antlers.
SPEAKER_01: Um but I want to call it faith builders, supplements for spiritual energy, because I take supplements.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm now at that age now where I need supplements.
SPEAKER_01: Um of you you ask your spouse, you may need supplements because you're driving everybody crazy around you, or you're lacking energy.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe faith is like that, and so I'm gonna give you over the next few weeks when I'm speaking, this what I think are some of the key supplements for building your faith, because this is really the theme of Mark chapter four and Mark chapter five.
SPEAKER_01: For you that are new to the road or new to my teaching.
SPEAKER_01: I go chapter by chapter and verse by verse, but as we go through, in the in this case, what we're calling the messy gospel, gospel of Mark, the gospel of Mark, the theme is the messy gospel, we will hit these themes and then I will take off for maybe a week or two on a particular area.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the area of faith.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna get to work on that.
SPEAKER_01: We've been looking at the last few weeks, what I see is four major areas that Jesus tests his disciples on in the arena of faith.
SPEAKER_01: The first was dilemmas of life, the second was demons, the third was disease, and the fourth was death.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say those again.
SPEAKER_01: You will go through church dilemmas of life or circumstances that are counter to your faith.
SPEAKER_01: It will try to destroy your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, demons.
SPEAKER_01: Demons attack.
SPEAKER_01: Demons are real.
SPEAKER_01: The fourth dimension is very real, and the more you walk in the spirit, you might as well expect demons to attack.
SPEAKER_01: I've been in haunted houses, cast out hundreds of demons, and in the life of Jesus, he never met a demon that he liked.
SPEAKER_01: And so demons will attack you, and as you do, you got to know how to wage warfare.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where we're gonna talk about building our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, disease.
SPEAKER_01: Not all disease is from God.
SPEAKER_01: Not all disease are diseases that you're even supposed to have.
SPEAKER_01: There's actually diseases and sicknesses that you have got to claim your ground as a believer.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they're actually, they actually come from demons.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus, in several situations in the Gospels, cast out a disease.
SPEAKER_01: He said, be healed, but the actual exclamatory there in the Greek or the Aramaic is one of the same, the same force and the same command as when Jesus was casting out a demon.
SPEAKER_01: And so demons sometimes come disguised in diseases.
SPEAKER_01: Now, am I saying every disease is demonic?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying some are, though.
SPEAKER_01: Some are.
SPEAKER_01: And then fourthly, death.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus comes, we looked at it last week, and he comes to a young girl, Jarius' daughter, and he raises her up after she had died.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we talked about faith busters.
SPEAKER_01: Here's faith busters.
SPEAKER_01: The two major faith busters that we see in Mark chapter 5, this was last week, is fear and taking and carrying offenses.
SPEAKER_01: Fear and taking and carrying offenses.
SPEAKER_01: If you're carrying offenses, listen up, if you're carrying offenses against your parents, if you're carrying offenses for people that have stabbed you in the back or lied about you or stolen something from you and hurt you, you gotta deal with that.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not gonna go into all of that right now, but I'm gonna tell you, if you don't deal with it, it will bust your faith.
SPEAKER_01: It will bust your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are spiritually quadriplegic right now because you're carrying offenses from 25 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta release it at some point.
SPEAKER_01: Mom and dad, listen, none of you had Jesus as your dad.
SPEAKER_01: And none of you had the Virgin Mary as your mother.
SPEAKER_01: And so all of us have been hurt, and sometimes we need to actually go back and we need to deal with that with our parents, and we need to, and we need to seek forgiveness, and it's a process, and sometimes it's a long process.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us need counseling in that area.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in counseling.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in spirit-filled, word-rooted counseling.
SPEAKER_01: Counseling's great.
SPEAKER_01: I see a counselor right now.
SPEAKER_01: I call him a spiritual guide, and I'm not Native American.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Um what I mean by that is I believe we all need a spiritual guide.
SPEAKER_01: I do.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not, that's not new age.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just talking about someone who spiritually guides you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so we need that in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: That can be someone who's discipling you.
SPEAKER_01: That can be someone who's mentoring you, that can be someone that you sit around the fire with and hang out with and you share your heart with.
SPEAKER_01: We need that.
SPEAKER_01: That's why this is a church built on building wholehearted disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We all need that.
SPEAKER_01: And I had that as a new believer when I was at Georgia and just gotten saved.
SPEAKER_01: There's a guy there with Campus Crusade who just was, I think he was kind of assigned to me.
SPEAKER_01: Help him.
SPEAKER_01: And so he was assigned to me by one of the staff, and he met with me, and for like two years, he discipled me.
SPEAKER_01: He was a spiritual guide in my life.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't just a friend, he was also a spiritual leader in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's how we grow in our faith.
SPEAKER_01: It really is.
SPEAKER_01: And so we need to know how to not just recognize these problems in our life, but how to build up our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys hear what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: It's the same, to me, it's very similar to nutrition.
SPEAKER_01: Most in the medical field know how to treat some symptoms of an illness with a prescription of some sort or some wisdom that they might give you.
SPEAKER_01: But what we have a lot of times in homeopathics is instead of diagnosing the problem, we build up our immune system.
SPEAKER_01: We build up our antibodies by good nutrition.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're talking about, the next few.
SPEAKER_01: What is good spiritual nutrition that builds up our faith?
SPEAKER_01: Daily spiritual vitamins that boost our spiritual immune system.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthening our spiritual antibodies, developing, listen, spiritual muscles.
SPEAKER_01: Developing spiritual muscles, and this is really important, building a strong heart.
SPEAKER_01: Building a strong heart.
SPEAKER_01: The evangelical church in America is awesome at building a strong mind.
SPEAKER_01: There are people in our churches today, and there's people in this room right now, you understand all of the principles of the Christian life, but you're six inches away from the kingdom of God because you don't have a born-again heart.
SPEAKER_01: You understand that God's tape measure doesn't go around how big your head is, it goes around how big your heart is.
SPEAKER_01: It said of David, here is a man who is after my own head.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I mean heart.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens, men and women, is we don't build up our hearts, especially men.
SPEAKER_01: Men, you have to build up your heart.
SPEAKER_01: So we're talking about heart therapy.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about building up wholeheartedness that comes through worship, it comes through the word, it comes through relationships.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the deal: you have, listen, every one of us in this room that are born again, that have a personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship with Jesus Christ, you have what it takes.
SPEAKER_01: You have what it takes within you.
SPEAKER_01: Not by some kind of manly pull up our bootstraps, I'm gonna do this for God mentality.
SPEAKER_01: No, through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Through the work of Jesus, through the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, you have what it takes to be someone who God can use.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just look at a few passages.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Mark chapter 4, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: And we've been on this now for weeks, but let's I'm gonna read it again.
SPEAKER_01: Mark 4, 20.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's kind of the theme of what we've been talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think God kind of revolutionized my heart going through Mark when I hit verse 20 of chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: I probably pray this not every day, but it a couple times a week.
SPEAKER_01: God, I want that.
SPEAKER_01: But these are the ones who are sown on good ground.
SPEAKER_01: Those who hear the word accept it.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's a faith, that's a faith step.
SPEAKER_01: They hear it, they accept it, and then they bear fruit, it says, 30fold, 60fold, hundredfold.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, that's what we want in the road.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you young people have got to get at an early age.
SPEAKER_01: And this isn't just talking about religion or spirituality.
SPEAKER_01: This is talking about every area of your life.
SPEAKER_01: I believe it's talking about economics.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's talking about physicality.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's talking about your mind.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's talking about some of you are computer analysts, some of you are mechanics, some of you are builders.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to flourish 30, 60, and a hundred times better than what you're naturally gifted at.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody go like this if you understand what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: All right, it's true.
SPEAKER_01: It's true.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you moms, some of you moms are just at the end of your rope, and God wants to give you a 30-fold increase of energy and wisdom and knowledge and strength as a mom.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you men have reached what your boss would say is the end of the road.
SPEAKER_01: You're at that age now where they're gonna cast you out and they're looking for younger guys.
SPEAKER_01: They can pay less, and they don't care about your experience, and they don't care what you've done in the past, and God wants to take you to another.
SPEAKER_01: Level.
SPEAKER_01: But you have got to grow in faith.
SPEAKER_01: Because God, like I've said before, fear is to the devil what faith is to God.
SPEAKER_01: Fear is to the devil what faith is to God.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at chapter 5, verse 34.
SPEAKER_01: So Mark 5, 34.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to her, This is the woman who had been having a hemorrhage, been bleeding for 12 long years, and been to every doctor and used every remedy that they had.
SPEAKER_01: Daughter, your faith has made you well.
SPEAKER_01: Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.
SPEAKER_01: So here she's tried everything.
SPEAKER_01: She's gone to the hospital, she's been to the ER, she's been to the best doctors.
SPEAKER_01: It said she's used up everything she has financially.
SPEAKER_01: And remember, this is in a Jewish system, and she's gone to probably priest, she's probably gone to exorcists.
SPEAKER_01: Who knows?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe went to shamans.
SPEAKER_01: She's tried everything, and it's her faith to fight her way through the crowd, even being unclean.
SPEAKER_01: She gets healed.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Your faith healed you.
SPEAKER_01: Then look at verse 36, just two verses later.
SPEAKER_01: This is when Jarius's daughter has died, and everybody says, Well, don't bother the teacher, don't bother the teacher.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Do not be afraid, only believe.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid, only believe.
SPEAKER_01: Are you aware that the overwhelming majority of what you see on TV, the commercials that we watch, the movies that we pay money to see, what you hear from our culture, what you read in the books and the magazines, is poisoning your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Did you realize that?
SPEAKER_01: That the vast majority of your time spent in front of the TV set, even watching the news, is poisoning your faith.
SPEAKER_01: And that Satan wants nothing more than to keep us as believers sick, tired, depressed, frustrated, and mad.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm talking about good believers, I'm talking about good people that we just get frustrated with everything around us, even if it's what the enemy is doing, instead of turning that around and beginning to nurture our faith, strengthen our faith, and do something about it.
SPEAKER_01: Have any of you ever said, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired?
SPEAKER_01: Alright, I think it's a good word.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what we're gonna do tonight.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look at one point.
SPEAKER_01: All we're gonna look at one point.
SPEAKER_01: It's the most important point.
SPEAKER_01: In my opinion, it's the most important point of all of the remedies, of all the supplements.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta take this pill.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta take the blue pill.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is the blue pill.
SPEAKER_01: All right, here's the blue pill.
SPEAKER_01: Number one.
SPEAKER_01: Write it down.
SPEAKER_01: Rhema word supplement.
SPEAKER_01: Rhema is R-H-E-M-A.
SPEAKER_01: Rhema word supplement.
SPEAKER_01: I believe if Jesus were here right now and he's called the great physician, and we said Jesus was the most important thing to grow in our faith, he would write out there, probably in Aramaic, he'd write, Rhema word supplement, and he'd hand that out to every one of us.
SPEAKER_01: That would be the remedy.
SPEAKER_01: That's the supplement.
SPEAKER_01: That's the listen, that's the vitamin C of faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's the vitamin C of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 1.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 1, right in the middle.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 1.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 1 is the great prosperity passage.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of prosperity preachers out there that have a lot of interesting passages they use.
SPEAKER_01: But if I were to say, how do we prosper?
SPEAKER_01: I say Psalm 1 is key.
SPEAKER_01: This is a key passage.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 1, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seed of the scornful.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: His delight is in the law of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That means the word of God, the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: And in his law or the scriptures, he meditates day and night.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does, he prospers.
SPEAKER_01: Hello, that's a fantastic promise.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you touch is gonna be prosper if you're doing this.
SPEAKER_01: If we're meditating in God's word, God's going to place the roots of our life according to the living water of his scriptures, such that you can breathe and you can eat and you can drink from God's word.
SPEAKER_01: So how does that work?
SPEAKER_01: Well, look at this.
SPEAKER_01: John 15.
SPEAKER_01: Listen up.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to turn there.
SPEAKER_01: Look at John 15.
SPEAKER_01: If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa! You kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.
SPEAKER_01: That's red in my Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That's red of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Not Paul's opinion, not Timothy's tenure, not James' opinion.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, it's in the red.
SPEAKER_01: He said in the red, he said, if you'll abide in me and my words will abide in you, you can start asking stuff and I will answer your prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 4.12.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody turn to Hebrews 4.12.
SPEAKER_01: I know we're doing a little bit of Bible roulette here, but which is not normal, but I feel like it's important.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 4.12.
SPEAKER_01: So go all the way almost to Revelation to the right.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 4.12.
SPEAKER_01: For the word of God, and I want you to circle or highlight, whether you've got an iPad or you've got a physical Bible in your hand, I want you to underline, highlight, or circle word here.
SPEAKER_01: For the word of God is living and powerful.
SPEAKER_01: And then under powerful, I want you to write to the side on your margins, I want you to write energy.
SPEAKER_01: E-N-E-R-G-E.
SPEAKER_01: E-N-E-R-G-A.
SPEAKER_01: You know that that Greek word is where we get the word energy.
SPEAKER_01: So for the word of God is living in energy and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Now that word, word, underline or circle, word.
SPEAKER_01: There's two Greek words that we find for word.
SPEAKER_01: This one is logos.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to write logos over on the side.
SPEAKER_01: Logos is most commonly used for word in the word of God, the logos of God, which indicates, listen, an expression of a complete idea.
SPEAKER_01: It is used of all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: So listen up.
SPEAKER_01: That's the logos.
SPEAKER_01: The logos, the living, active, growing, dynamic, said word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Put that in.
SPEAKER_01: Said word of God in past tense.
SPEAKER_01: It's the said word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word of God that has been said, containing within it the life-changing promises and stories that do build our faith.
SPEAKER_01: They absolutely do.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, it says here, the logos of God pierces your heart.
SPEAKER_01: It pierces at the depth, listen, this is important, the intentions of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, guys, it is possible to be reading the logos of God and not be convicted.
SPEAKER_01: It is possible to be reading the logos of God and it does nothing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there are professors all over this country that teach the Bible for literature or historical or maybe to make fun of it.
SPEAKER_01: But they read it, but they're reading the logos of God.
SPEAKER_01: It can't penetrate because they're not open by faith to the powerful energy of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: So you can read it.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the said word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the starting point in God's word that's this supplement that we need for building faith.
SPEAKER_01: But there's something more.
SPEAKER_01: There's something more that we miss.
SPEAKER_01: Now turn, go to the left of where you're at and go to Romans 10.17.
SPEAKER_01: Turn left.
SPEAKER_01: Go to Romans 10.17.
SPEAKER_01: And you might do what I've done, all these passages, you might line them all up and put like next to Romans 10.17, but Hebrews 4.12, put Psalm 1.
SPEAKER_01: You could also put Joshua 1, 7 through 9.
SPEAKER_01: That's another good one.
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to have time for.
SPEAKER_01: You could put John 15, 4, stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: You could put those over on the side of each one.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 10.17.
SPEAKER_01: So then faith, here we go now.
SPEAKER_01: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to circle word here, and over to the side I want you to write Rhema.
SPEAKER_01: R-H-E-M-A.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Rhema for word.
SPEAKER_01: This is the other word.
SPEAKER_01: So we got logos, which is the said word of God, the sayings of the word of God, all of Scripture, the total meaning of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Rhema is different.
SPEAKER_01: Rhema is, listen, it's the saying word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the said word of God, it's the saying word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is when God, you're reading the Logos, and it becomes the Rhema when God speaks to your heart about something in your life that's specifically to you.
SPEAKER_01: That's Rhema.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, that's what builds faith.
SPEAKER_01: But you can't get the rhema if you don't do the logos.
SPEAKER_01: And so you go, well, man, Steve, every time I read God's word, it just gets boring.
SPEAKER_01: I have the most boring Bible study life of anybody in this room.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I think I get paid to have a boring, quiet time.
SPEAKER_01: Most of my times with the Lord are boring.
SPEAKER_01: They just are.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: You gotta see it almost athletically that when you go into the gym and you work out, it stinks half the time.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, figuratively and literally.
SPEAKER_01: And so you're in there and you're lifting and you're lifting, and it's just hard work, and you hate it, and you and you're thinking about other things, but you just do it, right?
SPEAKER_01: And then sometimes you're in there, and it's like, oh, there's this energy, there's this uh motivation, and and you like what you see in the mirror, and maybe someone says, hey man, you know, you know, you don't look so bad anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I mean that's kind of like a like a physical rhema.
SPEAKER_01: The logos is the is the is the said word of God, but rhema is the saying word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's when it's when words that mean very little to us as we read it suddenly come alive for our situation and our circumstances and our need, and God speaks to us right then.
SPEAKER_01: That's rhema.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what it says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the rhema of God.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, you need Rhema today.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not getting Rhema, you are dead in the water.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care when you got saved or how much anointing you've got or how many times you've fallen over, or how many Benny Hen conferences you've been to.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care how many times you've memorized, you you are you graduated out of Iwana.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you did you did a hundred years of Iwana.
SPEAKER_01: You did a wana one, two, three, all the way up to the 47th point of awana.
SPEAKER_01: You're just you just met, I mean, you got the word.
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't regularly spend time in God's word, your faith will not grow.
SPEAKER_01: I promise you it will not grow.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are atrophying spiritually because you have you have neglected God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't care, I don't care how hard it is, I don't care how many times you come up here to get prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And our ministry team ministers to you, and the Spirit of God shows up, and somebody even has a word of knowledge, they read your mail.
SPEAKER_01: If you go back home tonight, and next week you come back and you haven't spent any time in the word, you will atrophy.
SPEAKER_01: You will just spiritually atrophy, and you will die, and you'll go, why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're neglecting the great supplement of God.
SPEAKER_01: The vitamin C of faith is God's word, and it is supernatural.
SPEAKER_01: It is supernatural.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, we'll read it tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us are gonna get up in the morning, we're gonna read it, and it's gonna be nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a dumb story.
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll read it, and hey, well, I don't know what she's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, just give it, just give it five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Just do if you haven't been in God's word in a while, just give it five, read one chapter.
SPEAKER_01: And then close it up, go do your regular day.
SPEAKER_01: Just do that.
SPEAKER_01: And the next day, just do five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Just read one chapter.
SPEAKER_01: And then the next day, and then the next day, just do that.
SPEAKER_01: And there's gonna be a point.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be a point, and it's gonna, there's gonna be a verse and it's gonna stab you in the heart.
SPEAKER_01: And you're just gonna go, he knows me.
SPEAKER_01: How does he know that?
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna start and you're gonna go, I don't have a journal.
SPEAKER_01: Steve always talks about a journal, I don't have a journal, and you're just gonna write it somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna what you'll do is start using those pages that are here in your Bible, and then at one point you're gonna realize, I should just buy a journal.
SPEAKER_01: And then you're gonna start writing in that journal, and you're gonna get hooked, and five minutes will become eight minutes, and eight minutes will become ten minutes, ten minutes will become fifteen minutes, and then you'll regress and you'll miss like four days because you're on vacation and you're at the beach and you're doing stuff there, and then you're gonna start to feel your faith ebb down, down, and you'll get back into it and it'll start to flow again.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the deal there's inertia in this.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's you can you can miss a few days if you have some momentum.
SPEAKER_01: But when you have no momentum, you can't even miss a few days because you don't have any inertia.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have any, you don't have any momentum.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's like you're just dying inside.
SPEAKER_01: So the so the vitamin C of faith is God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's why he says in Psalm 1 that this guy, there's this guy, he's a man of God, and he says, quit messing around with those people that are not walking with me.
SPEAKER_01: Quit messing around with those people that are opposing me, and and meditate day and night in my word, and it will be like roots of a tree right near the streams of living water, and you will prosper in everything you do.
SPEAKER_01: It means that that tree, the picture here, that tree will bear fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Not exciting, and it's not natural, it's not normal.
SPEAKER_01: I can't even explain it very well.
SPEAKER_01: That's obvious.
SPEAKER_01: It's a supernatural work that God's word does when Logos becomes Rhema, and then you start getting hungry for it.
SPEAKER_01: It says faith.
SPEAKER_01: I love that part.
SPEAKER_01: Faith comes.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Romans 10.17 again.
SPEAKER_01: Faith comes.
SPEAKER_01: That means it wasn't there before.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, I don't have any faith right now.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
SPEAKER_01: That's everybody's story.
SPEAKER_01: Get hungry at night, get hungry in the morning, get hungry midday, you're supposed to get hungry because you're using up your energy, you're using up the last meal.
SPEAKER_01: You're, you know, you've got this span of time, and and and it's like when the kids are at a certain age, it's like 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: And they're hungry again.
SPEAKER_01: And they just they just come through and they just pillage.
SPEAKER_01: They just pillage your kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: And they come and they and they pillage your you know, everything, and and you've got nothing because they're growing, you know, and you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I think that's what God wants in us.
SPEAKER_01: I think He wants growers.
SPEAKER_01: It's like what did the scriptures say that it's like a young baby that's longing for the pure milk of the mother, and now we're ready for solid food.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are still drinking on the milk, and God wants to take you to solid food.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you getting words of knowledge, he wants you to heal the sick, he wants to use you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to be driving down the road and you see uh you see a poor family over here, you see a house that's in channels, and God's gonna speak to you, say, fix that house up for them, would you?
SPEAKER_01: Just fix that up.
SPEAKER_01: And then you're gonna go, well, I don't have the money for that.
SPEAKER_01: I can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm too busy.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: That's solid food.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're ready.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking to you.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta, you, folks, listen, we've gotta, we've gotta hear that voice, and then we test it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about every little squirrely thing that comes up, but as we start to have maturity and we have other believers in our life, they speak into our life, God says things to you.
SPEAKER_01: You start obeying that, and God will give you more.
SPEAKER_01: God will give you more.
SPEAKER_01: And some of us, God can't give us more because we're not obeying what he's already told us to do.
SPEAKER_01: And so we step out by faith, and it really is scary because what does it say?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, faith comes.
SPEAKER_01: Faith, not feelings.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say, so then feelings come.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say, oh, so then, um, so then everyone agrees with me when I have a new idea comes.
SPEAKER_01: No, it says faith comes.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it is for.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes just a little one little idea.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder if God's saying that.
SPEAKER_01: And so we say something like this: we say, Lord, if that's of you, I need you to confirm it.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to confirm it.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to, I need to, I I'm my faith's only here, but Lord, would you confirm it?
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: He'll confirm it.
SPEAKER_01: And somebody will just come along and say, Man, I just had this weird thought, and I kept thinking of you, and they oh no, he does want me to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So faith comes by hearing.
SPEAKER_01: And so we train our ears as we read God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And what's fun about this is that um next Friday and Saturday with Rock Bottomly, he's gonna show us a way to get into God's Word and hear God's word through listening prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be awesome, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_01: And we're all gonna be doing this thing together in our small groups all across the church.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to grow, we're gonna get the opportunity for this to be our manual.
SPEAKER_01: This is our vitamin C.
SPEAKER_01: This will be our supplement in growing in faith.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 119.
SPEAKER_01: It's the last thing you need to look up, and then we're done.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 119, right in the middle, middle, middle of Psalms, middle of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 119.
SPEAKER_01: If you just take your Bible and let it fall open, you'll probably hit the Psalms, and then you'll be really close to 119.
SPEAKER_01: And Psalm 119, the entire Psalm, which is the longest Psalm in the Bible, and in the Psalms, longest chapter in the Bible, um, is all about your heart and the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Your heart and the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: But let me just pick a few here.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: With my whole heart I have sought you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, let me not wonder from your commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sit against you.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: I will run the course of your commandments, for you shall enlarge my heart.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 58.
SPEAKER_01: I entreated your favor with my whole heart, be merciful to me according to your word.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, the logos becomes the Rhema when we seek Him with a whole heart.
SPEAKER_01: When we seek Him with a whole heart, God Sees that.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes he doesn't answer like this.
SPEAKER_01: But as we continue to seek him, young people, if you can get this at an early age, if you can get this in all the dilemmas that come with your young life and all the temptations and all of the foolish stuff that comes your way, you'll be a mighty man and woman of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because you'll have wisdom that will confound your teachers.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how many of you young people in this room wouldn't like to have a word from God that where you're smarter than your teachers?
SPEAKER_01: You can be.
SPEAKER_01: Scriptures say you will confound your teachers because the wisdom of God is greater than the wisdom of this age.
SPEAKER_01: And so remember that.
SPEAKER_01: And don't get pushed around.
SPEAKER_01: Don't get pushed around by people who tell you you can't grow that way.
SPEAKER_01: You can.
SPEAKER_01: You can be used mightily in your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stand.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth now.
SPEAKER_01: And as we worship God, I want to challenge you, encourage you to take your mind off whatever problems or struggles you have and focus on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And focus on his presence here.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to just close your eyes right now.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody just close your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: See his face.
SPEAKER_01: All of us have a different vision of Jesus, but I want you to see the Jesus that, how he's revealed himself to you.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to not think about your issues, your problems right now.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to just focus on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And then let the music come.
SPEAKER_01: Let the music come into your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Let the music speak to your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you don't know how to sing the song perfectly, just let Jesus and His worship flow into your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Receive the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Receive the Word.
SPEAKER_01: And then worship Him.
SPEAKER_01: Worship Him with all of your heart.