Can You Believe God More — Westlake Bible Fellowship

0:00 Opening and Thanksgiving

You know there's that little, phrase that, saying that, you probably are all familiar with absence makes the heart grow fonder. Right? And, we'd we'd like to just express that. We're we're very fond of you folks. We we appreciate the body here at Westlake Bible Fellowship.

The relationships that we have and the the care that you show and the love you show to us. Thank you for the prayers that you've been giving on behalf of our family as we've experienced the loss of my sister, a 41 year old death that the Lord's been gracious. She knew the Lord as her savior. And so that's why I just want to express our thanks for for the way you've prayed on our behalf. We're happy to be here today and great that we have an opportunity to share the the scripture together to share this time to to look at the scriptures and as was it Daniel or that made reference to our our study today.

We'll be continuing in John But before we go to John, if you would please turn to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three as we would like to make this an introductory verse to our study today. And we're going to be looking at the very last verse in the chapters. Ephesians chapter three verse 21. If you want to make your way there, let's pause for a word of prayer as as we begin.

Our heavenly father, we get... We give thanks today. We're thankful for the lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful for the relationship that that we can have with with Christ as our savior. We're thankful for the scripture and we recognize and say again as to how much of a help it is to us.

And we experience so many different things in this life. The joys of the life, the hardship of the life, the hurt, the different trials, the different pleasures and just such a variety of experiences that we have that we can look at the word, we hold a a precious resource and we know it's helpful for us. We want to spend time in the word this morning. We give thanks for the book of John and the lessons that we see in it. Father, we're reminded that the scriptures revealed to us about Christ revealed to us about the god head.

They they revealed to us about our self and so there's many things to learn about god and and ourself. And as we we learn these things and then we we understand the concept of being reconciled to a holy God. We understand the concept and try to put into practice about being in walk or in step with the holy God. And so we we pray just now as we commit ourselves to thee to to study the scripture this morning. We pray that we'd be sensitive to the leading of the holy spirit and we would draw out the truths that you would have us apply to our own life.

And so father, we we pray this now in Jesus Christ name, amen. Amen. I've asked you to turn to Ephesians chapter three and look at verse 21 if you would. I need to supplement a little well, a word for the pronoun that you see him. This is referring to God the Father.

Unto him, God the Father, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. And so we have this concept. We we we often refer to the trinity, right? Of god the father, god the son, god the holy spirit. And in this particular verse, it's making reference to the glory being to glory being given to the father but that glory to be brought to the father through the lord Jesus Christ And the reason I make mention of that is we're gonna see glory in the study of John.

You're gonna see this... The glory of the lord Jesus Christ being revealed, and you'll notice that the glory as it is revealed in Christ points back to the father. And and that the whole Godhead is working together and and that the spirit's pointing to Christ, Christ pointing to the father, and we see many examples of that in scripture. So turn back to John. My understanding as you have been in John, you...

Which would have been two weeks ago that we would have dealt with John chapter four and one of the main portions there, one of the main things that happens in John chapter four is this Jesus goes through Samaria, meets this woman at the well. Right? And so that has happened. And we're going to make a little connection to to that today. There's a little, there's another miracle that occurs in John chapter four.

We're going to look at that and then lord willing make some path into John chapter five as we as we have opportunity. So, John chapter four and let's just read the portion that we hope to cover today. We'll get that locked in our head and we'll make a connection with the previous events of four and go from there. Sound good? Yes.

5:34 Jesus in Cana and the Nobleman's Son

When this nobleman heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him and besought him with with that he would come down and heal his son for his son was at the very point of death. Verse 48, when Jesus said unto him, except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The nobleman said unto him, speaking back to Jesus, sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, go thy way thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him and he went his way.

And as he was going his way down, his servants met him and told him saying, thy son liveth. Then the man inquired of them, what hour began he to amend? And they said unto him, yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So, the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, thy son live it and himself believed and his whole house. This again, the second miracle that Jesus did when he was come out of Judea into Galilee.

And that concludes chapter four. So there are some events that other gospels record for us that kind of happen in between here, But for the sake of the study, we'll we'll continue on with chapter with chapter five. We have another miracle that occurs. Let's look at what happens. After this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

I mean, chapter five and verse two. Now, at Jerusalem by the by the sheep market, a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk of blind, of halt, of of withered, waiting for the moving of the water. Notice the variety of of the of the conditions that you have there. Verse four, and an angel went down at a certain season in the pool and troubled the water.

Whosoever then would be first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatever disease that they had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him lie there and knew that he had been there a long time in that case, he said unto him, wilt thou be made whole? Jesus asked that question. Verse seven is his response.

The evident man answered him, sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me in the pool but while I am coming, another step is down before me. Jesus said unto him, rise, take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked and on the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, is it it is the Sabbath day, it is not lawful for you to carry your bed. He answered and said unto them that he answered or he answered them, he that hath made me whole, the same said unto me, up my...

Take up thy bed and walk. And they asked him, what man is this which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk? And he that was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away and a multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said unto him, behold, thou art made whole, go sin no more, lest a worse thing would come unto thee. The man departed and and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole.

And therefore, did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. And we'll pause right there as we have these two accounts, we've got two situations that happened. Now, back at the... Let's go back for a minute back to the lady at the at the well. Remember, as she became...

10:08 The Samaritan Woman's Testimony

We see we see this here. Verse 42 says, and said unto the woman, this is the... These are the people that have come and and heard this woman's testimony. They've heard Christ teach now. He spent two days with them there.

And so he he says, these people say, now we believe. Not because of your saying, the woman's saying, for we have heard it ourselves. We have heard him ourselves and know that this indeed is the Christ, the savior of the world. I think that's important to grab hold of the fact that when these people spent time with Jesus, remember, they didn't know who Jesus was. He's walking through Samaria.

He is a Jew. He's going through there. This lady that met him at the well, she didn't say, oh, hey, Jesus. How are you doing? What do you...

What brings you to town? She was just meeting him. Right? And so now these people come and they hear and they... Some believe on Jesus and they come to this conclusion.

You are the Christ, the savior of the world. So that's important for us to make this connection as we continue in looking at the chapter. So, verse 46 in the same chapter four. So Jesus came again into Canaan Of Galilee where he had made water wine. Would someone like to raise their hand and tell me what was the occasion that Jesus made the water wine?

I said raise your hand. Raise your hand. Alright. George? A wedding.

A wedding. Right? Jesus made water wine at the wedding and it was his first miracle. Right? Go back to chapter two and verse 11 please.

I want to make another connection here to tie these things together. This is a benefit of doing a consecutive study through a through a book. So, I want you to notice two results of this first miracle. This being or chapter two verse 11, this the beginning of miracles did Jesus in Canaan Of Galilee and manifest forth his glory and his disciples believed on him. Okay?

So, now I understand not everybody that's hand was raised got a chance to answer that last question. Here's a new question. Hands raised if you'd like to answer. What were the two results of this first miracle? Dave?

Alright. So catch that right? God's glory is being shown and we we recognize in this first miracle that he showed glory in the fact that he had power over physical things to change ordinary water into sweet wine, the best wine that these people had tasted to say like why did you save the best wine until last, right? So he had physical power to do that. Extraordinary power.

Things that you and I could not do right? Divine power we might say. And it showed forth his glory. Now what do we start off with in Ephesians chapter three verse 21? Whenever Jesus shows his glory what's happening?

It's gonna... It's it's giving glory to the father. Right? And so this is this is what's... Is taking place here.

Mister Bingham said the second thing it did, caused his disciples disciples to believe on him. And I'm gonna broaden that and say that anytime Christ... Well, in this first miracle, when he did this miracle, it showed his glory, it validated it validated his glory. Right? And then it caused some of his disciples to believe on him.

And we're gonna broaden this to say that when Jesus would perform a miracle, we wanna look at these two miracles we just read about today, and we wanna see if that's true. Are these miracles gonna reveal his glory? And are are these miracles gonna cause other people to believe on him? And so as we examine the miracles going through the life of Christ, I'll let you be the judge and and determine, are those things consistent? Are those things both taking place as as we evaluate Christ's action?

Okay. So, we we've got... Go back to chapter four. We've we've laid we've laid some groundwork here and we are tracking with what's going on. Oh, let's see.

15:18 Characters in the Nobleman's Story

So, Denzel. One is the nobleman. Okay. We've got we've got the nobleman, another character that we see. This is just in '46 to the end of the chapter there, chapter four.

Anita was your hand raised? Oh, you're scratching your head. Alright. The little boy. The little boy is sick.

Then who is our featured? Jesus, right? Okay, we got Jesus. Now let me ask you this. Okay, this is a good teenager question.

All right? So, if you're, if we're, do we have teens in here? Surely we do. Yes, we have some teens around here. All right.

So if you're a teenager, 13 to 19, alright. 13 to 19, tell me what... Now this is not a trick question, okay. So don't perceive this as a trick question. But I want you to think about this.

What do we know about Jesus at this point in his earthly ministry? Okay. Tell me what you know about Jesus so far. We got the three main characters, Jesus, the nobleman, and the sick son... The the son, the nobleman's son.

What do we know about Jesus so far? Come on. Come on. What's the first letter you said? Oh, well, I mean, J for Jesus.

What do we know about him? So, like, what okay, let me ask you this. Alright, I'll broaden it out. I'll just broaden it to the group. Teens, you all go home.

You're going have some homework because of this now. Alright? What's your name? Bryce. Your last name is Bryce, right?

What is it? Yeah. Yeah. What's your first name? Sam.

Sam. Alright. Yeah. Okay. He's already demonstrated.

How many miracles though has he done so far? One. Has he ever has he ever raised anybody from the dead or brought anybody back from life or demonstrated power? Right? No.

Not yet. So what we know about him is that he has demonstrated power over the physical realm like changing water into wine, but we don't... We... You don't know that, hey, somebody if if I come to Jesus as a sick person that he's going to bring healing. You don't know that yet.

Right? Because it hadn't happened. And and this... Now you might suspect it. You might go back and you can look at some old testament prophets and see that god worked through a prophet to heal somebody.

But right now, Jesus is early on the scene. You don't know much about him. Anything else that you know about Jesus that you want to share? The the group. Devin.

Okay. Right. Yep. He had he was discreet about that. Even the portion we read that whenever there was a crowd, he kind of withdrew from the crowd and so, yeah.

So, Abby? I was thinking Jesus' mother wanted to his son, her son to show himself, you know. Right. Opportunity. Right.

And Jesus said, the hour hasn't come. That's right. Yeah. Good. Yep.

So, we Tammy? Alright. Recognizing that's coming clear and Jesus action, these earlier actions as we're, I mean, we're only in chapter four, right? I mean, we're this so is one point we want to catch is that the fact that Jesus is early on in his earthly ministry. Now we might expand that a little bit and think about like some of these people probably remember when Jesus was 12.

Do have any 12 year olds in here? Mary, how old are you? 11. 11. Close to a 12 year old.

Do you remember what happened to Jesus when he was 12 years old? He stayed in the temple with the third man. That's right. And he amazed the leaders. Right?

So he's got some kind of a... Like, people probably remember that that he could he could sit with the scribes and and the pharisees and the religious leaders and and they were very impressed by his knowledge and so here, you know, people are starting to form around him. He's starting earthly ministry. He's starting to teach. He's performed one miracle that we know of in the book of John.

20:18 Who is the Nobleman?

He has a sixth son. Right? He's a father. We could say that. He is a father.

I'll just tell you that the the nobleman, you know, meant that he was probably, well, a man, a distinguished man, probably in in a man of of position. So we don't but the point well anything else that anybody wants to recognize about the nobleman? Denzel? Okay. He's come a long way.

Right. He's arcane in. Yeah. So it's about from where his distance he traveled was probably about 20 to 30 miles or so to speak. What's 20 to 30 miles from here?

How many miles is it to your house Jake? About 20 to 30 miles. So how would you like to walk that? No. And so this is the distance his father is traveling.

Mainly primary mode of transportation would have been foot travel. Not very many people had the horse and buggy type thing or the chariot at that point. It was more military reserve. But so either way on horseback or on foot, you're looking at a significant distance to overcome. And so this nobleman, we don't know a whole lot about him.

And that's okay. We don't even know his name. Right? Because the way you're reading the narrative is just a certain nobleman and then it's he, it's just pronouns. We don't know the son's name.

Right? We just... All we know about the son is that he was sick. But that's that's okay. We do know that this nobleman was a father.

I think that's the key the key thing we want to pick out right there. You know, as we look at the scripture, the scripture reveals things about God, about about him himself. And we're already picking up some things that God's got power over the physical. We're we're picking up as we look through here. We just left Jesus, the woman at the well.

He had he took time. He was a god of love. He was a god that wanted to reconcile mankind to himself. The people recognized after talking to him for two days in Samaria that this would be the savior of the world. So, see all these things that we're gaining about the knowledge of who Jesus is and so, now something that is another thing that we maybe don't think about as much.

You know the Bible tells us a lot about ourselves. You know we're all in the scripture. Right? For God so loved the world, we can look at it that way. And we we know that we're recipient of God's love.

And... But then the Bible also tells us... I mean, we look at different things like the book of Romans and it describes, you know, that we are... There are none righteous. No, not one.

And and that we look at we look at people in the bible and we can very much identify with them. Right? So when we look at David, we're like, oh, yeah. I... Yeah.

I do that. Man, I've I've I've done that before. We look at Peter and we say, we got this stereotype like this guy is loose lips, Peter. What's he going to say? And we say, oh, yes, that's kind of like I do sometimes.

Or I always say, yeah, my husband is like that, you know, or you know that kind of thing. So we learn about ourselves and look into these people. How many are fathers in here? Right? We got a father.

What are we going learn about ourselves in this? Who's had a child ready to die? And you can you can start to say, okay, what do we know about the nobleman? We know that he was a father with a son that was sick unto death, getting ready to die. And so that should that should send a little communication to us that says, hey, you know what?

Denzel used the word desperate. Maybe he was desperate. But who of us wouldn't walk 20 miles to see our son or daughter recovered? Right? What the love of a parent for a child.

This this guy, this nobleman, he comes to Jesus and and I, you know what, we want to recognize what we we we read it already. We've read what happens. This guy comes. He says, Jesus, please come, heal my son. As we experience life, I I don't know if you ever...

Do you ever do you ever kind of like you would never knowingly do this. I mean, I I know most of you in this room and I I know that Jennifer Ming would never say God's my genie. I wanna rub on my bible and I want God to do this for me. She wouldn't say that right? I wouldn't expect her to say that.

But do you ever feel like you kind of get in that trap almost? Like God do this for me, God just do this for me and it's like we are taking our genie in the bottle and we are rubbing that and we don't intend it, don't like purposely think this is what I'm going to do. But sometimes we are like that. And we evaluate these situations that come on us in life and we're like a lot of times we just get spun for a, knocked for a loop. George, I don't know your situation.

What was the situation with your child? Her daughter was in the hospital for a month with some infection. Okay. How old? Six.

Six years old. She recovered? Mhmm. Yeah. Alright.

Praise the lord. I know a little bit more about your situation, Wayne. Tell... Remind us. We lost a son at three days old.

Three days old. All right. So if I just take these two examples, right, that we have here. George and Lisa are praying for their daughter at six years old. They're praying, they're calling out to God, they're desperate right?

27:34 Does God always heal when we ask?

Does God always heal when we ask for healing? Wayne and Debbie's situation, son three years old, probably praying in a similar fashion, asking the Lord to... Three days old. Three days three days old. Asking the Lord to heal.

Asking the Lord to spare. The Lord chose not to to to answer that prayer in that way. This this causes us problems in our daily Christian walk. These are things we we say, can I reconcile this? Is this fair?

This causes people to look at Christianity and say, you're God? Like what do you... I mean what's what sense does this make? I'm not here to say like, okay, here here's how you figure that out. But as we're looking at this passage and we we come to this passage and we we look and we see Jesus there, We see that this this this father is come and ask a question.

Please heal my son. He's at the point of death. Jesus says to them, he he says to the man and there's a crowd around. Okay? There's...

And he's saying to all the people, you will not believe unless you see a sign. Let me ask you a question. Back... Go back to the woman at the well. What sign did Jesus do to for that woman?

Mister David? Wonder what she was like. Okay. Give her a disagree. Right?

Good. Yep. But did he dazzle her? I mean that probably impressed her very much. I mean she he...

You're right. He get... But he didn't perform a miracle of like... He didn't change that water that she brought up into a diet coke, you know. And say hey, let me tell you about something that's coming up in the future you're really going to like, you know.

But but he talked to her, he communicated truth to her. By the way, he is the truth. Right? He communicated truth to her about herself. He knew her.

He showed her love. He showed her acceptance. She gave her a a path, a way to be reconciled to God that she had never known before. And the men and the other people from the town that came, they come to that conclusion that we read about in verse 42. He is the Christ.

Indeed, he is the Christ. He is the savior of the world. They didn't bring a... He didn't dazzle them. Right?

And this is where this kind of connects with that whole thing about you know is God a genie in a bottle or is God does he have to perform some kind of miracle for me to believe who he he said he was? Do I have to do something to get something in return? I mean, we get it all wrong because we're we're us. You know, mean, we we just we we hear what Jesus said except you see signs and wonders you will not believe. We do know from this instance now and then going in in the other places in scripture that we see that God knows our heart.

Jesus knows our heart. As as he... Maybe he knew that was going to be a stumbling block for this man. His fur... Jesus' first response is, will except you believe, you will not see signs and wonders you will not believe.

The nobleman said, come, sir, come down, ere my child dies. And then Jesus gives them a response again, go your way, thy son liveth. So, let me ask you this question and this is not meant to be a trick question, but you do have to think about it. Did Jesus do what the nobleman asked? Okay.

Don's shaking his head no. Would you like to elaborate? All right. Well, he said come down and he didn't do that. He did what the nobleman wanted.

So we get introduced with a different scenario here, don't we? In the sense of like, ultimately, the dad was happy. Right? I mean, son was healed. But he didn't do it in the way, not that this guy...

The nobleman didn't put any demands on it, on Jesus. Right? He didn't say, look, he he wasn't demanding he had to do a particular way, but he thought it would be done in a particular way. And so we we thought... We have that kind of a a situation, don't we?

Whatever we're in prayer about, sometimes we think God should handle it in a particular way. He should do it in a particular way. I I thought about the example of another nobleman we see in scripture. He's back in the Old Testament. In fact, if you want you don't have to turn there now, but maybe at a different time just to make a reference.

33:32 Naaman's Leprosy and Elisha's Instructions

Well his he's got this little Israelite captive girl. Bible trivia. Anybody know her name? That was a trick question. Okay.

It's it's not in there. Little maid. Alright? Little maid is all the scripture says that that this little girl that's there and so she tells them say, look, the god of my people could heal this leprosy. Why don't you go seek out the king of Israel and ask for the prophet, god's prophet to come?

And so they... The the king of of Syria. Right? It was Assyria or Syria, I think is where... Yeah.

And so the king of Syria writes a letter to Israelite king, and we won't go into all that. The king responded poorly. That was bad testimony that that the Israelite king responded poorly. But word did get to Elisha, and and he says, yeah. Call call Naaman over and send him over to my tent.

You know, send him on down. We'll take care of him. So Naaman had in his mind what he thought needed to happen, how he needed to be approached, how he needed to be treated. The guy's got leprosy. Right?

And so Elisha sends his servant, first mistake in Naaman's mind. Right? And then he tells him go dip seven times in the Jordan. Second mistake. Naaman doesn't like that idea.

And so he's like you know forget this I'm not doing this. This not the way I wanted it done. And so there he is with his leprosy, right? And so we have, hey, we've got an old an old testament example. Now, we're looking at this new testament example.

That nobleman could have said, Jesus, hey, you don't come to my house, you know, I'm not... You know, it's just not gonna work. I mean, I I just don't want it to be that way. You know? He's like, he could have put demands on God as to how he was gonna do that thing.

Ain't it true? Like, we we we hear... We we think, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved? Surely, there's gotta be something more. Surely there's got to be another way.

Surely there's got to be a way to give me some recognition. I mean some effort, some things that I can do. No. That's that's not in the game plan. Right?

The nobleman gives us a good example in the fact that Jesus said, go thy way and don't you probably think that like Jesus saw his faith already. He knew this guy had faith. The nobleman gives us a good example of the fact that he came to the right place. He came to Jesus. He made his request.

It was a sincere request. No strings attached. Heal my son. You know, come down please and heal my son. Jesus says, go your way, your son's healed.

And the man the man believes. The man... Well, let's let's read it how it how it says it in the verses. Verse 50, and the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him and he went his way. And then we have this confirmation, you know, well, let me let me just make this point.

Don't get worried. We won't try to cover the whole other miracle too. Alright? We'll see how far we get in this. But let...

Let's make this point. The man heard Christ's words. He heard Jesus' word and he believed. He believed. And so we want to follow that example.

We want to hear what Christ says and believe. He believed the the word that Jesus has spoken unto him and he went his way. Then, as he goes, he he does validate or verify, hey, when did this happen? This is just another confirmation. A man knows that it was Jesus that healed him.

He healed him from afar. And so now, verse 53 says, the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, thy son liveth. He himself believed and his whole house and so now this this miracle has occurred that Jesus would heal from a distance, right? And so, not only did he demonstrate that he had power over this disease, whatever it was, this fever that was taking this young boy's life, but he had ability to heal him from a distance, from a significant distance, right? Doctor.

Ming was going to do an adjustment, know she couldn't adjust somebody in Westlake from the farmhouse. Right? I mean, she's good, but just not quite that good. Right? And so we're seeing we're seeing things about about the Lord Jesus Christ and he's revealing more of himself.

39:32 Did Christ show forth his glory?

I mean, we could really... You you think about the fact... Wouldn't you like to bend with that group that got called back to the well there in in chapter four in in Samaria? That they started listening to the same things that Jesus spoke and started interacting with them. And they came to this conclusion, you are surely the Christ, the savior of the world.

This nobleman, we don't know if he had he had ever met Jesus before or not. Maybe he was at the marriage feast in Canaan. We don't we don't know. Maybe he he was there and he saw that and he's like, hey, this guy can change water into wine. Maybe he can help my son.

Jesus is Jesus takes time to hear the man, right? He gets an audience with Jesus. We think about how hard it is to try to get an audience with the person where, you know, a man of prestige or a man of fame or whatever. Jesus takes time to hear the man, to understand the man, to understand his request. Jesus is willing to do what the man asked.

And so... And he and he just says simply, go your way, your your your son lives. Your son lives. That was that was what he told him. He didn't have to explain it to him.

He didn't have to tell him to, you know, go home and dip seven times in in the Jordan or do anything different. He said, just go. Your son has been healed. And so, yes, his glory has been shown. It's been shown over the power of sickness, the power of death.

It's been shown over the power of distance. And then did it cause others to believe on him? And we see that answered very clearly in verse 53. The man believed and then his household believed are the ones that are recorded for us. And so as we we track through and we see these these miracles, we see these things happen, we see that those two things are true and I believe you'll find them true in in the other miracles that you examine as well.

It would show forth god's glory and would cause others to believe on him. Now, want to make this one kind of tie something together here as we as we close and we end our time. Can you can you believe more than what you do now? Can you believe in God more than what you do now? That's one question to consider.

The other is, do you know everything there is to know about you? As we look at this miracle today, we we looked at why I apologize for not getting to both of them, but as we look at this one miracle, we found out some things about God. And as we examine God's actions, we examine the Lord Jesus Christ action, I would I would say that perhaps as we learn more about him, we can believe more. Right? We can believe more.

As we as we see God's glory, as we see God's greatness, as we see God's power, we can believe more. Wayne and Debbie lost a child at three days old. Here is the the challenge, the the maturity, the the experience to believe God more. George and Lisa had a child survive. Wayne and Debbie had a child die.

Can both still be okay? If if we're trusting God, if we're believing in God, we're casting our self on God, our experience is that he is gonna work out for either scenario, life or death, a good result. Can you trust God in the death of a child? That's a challenge and that's when I say can I believe God more? The answer is yes and I've got to because you are going to have situations in life that you are going to have to do another step that is not going to make sense.

Some of you know we had I experienced both of your scenarios, right? And to sit in doctor console room and to have... To say, look, we wanna do this procedure and your son may not live. Can you sign this? That's tough.

That's a new step. Right? I've never been asked to do that before. Can you trust god in that? I just lost a sister, 41 years old.

Right? My parents buried their daughter. It's a new step. They didn't sign up for that. They didn't want that.

Their prayer was that he... She would be healed. That was our prayer. Can we trust God in that? So I asked the the the one question was, can you believe God more?

And you know that's something you have to evaluate on your own self. But look for his glory and trust him. Believe on him just like the nobleman did. See his glory and believe on him. The other question I asked you was, do you know everything there is to know about you?

And your answer to that, I saw many of you shaking your head, no, I don't. You don't know all that's in there. Right? You don't know all about you that there is to know yet. But you're learning.

You know, every day you maybe learn a little something new about yourself. Some things you like, some things you don't like, some things a self improvement class will help and some things they won't. Right? But let me tell you this, God knows all there is to know about you. He loves you.

All that's in you that you don't like and even the things that are in there that you don't even know about yet that you don't like, He loves you. And He says, Come unto Me, all you that labor in a heavy lake. Come to Me. I'm gonna give you rest. I'm gonna forgive your sin.

If you will believe on me, I will take care of you. If you've got a son that's dying, I will take care of you. Cast all your burdens on me. I care for you. God loves you.

He knows everything about you that there is to know about you. And He will care for you. Can you trust that? That's another step of trust. That's another step of faith.

48:09 Prayer and Conclusion

We find each one of ourselves in that category. Many hymn writers have have penned words that are so appropriate. Oh, the love of Jesus. Think about that hymn, that man of Calvary. The other one that says, wonderful, wonderful Jesus.

Father, just help us in our hearts today as we we kind of huddle around John chapter four. As we huddle around and we see Jesus acting and interacting with this this father and his son, help us to to come to the same conclusion that these people did. Surely, this man, indeed he is the Christ. Surely, he is the savior of the world and help us personalize it to know that he is my savior. We pray these things now in Jesus Christ name.

Amen.

Can You Believe God More — John 4-5

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Can You Believe God More — John 4-5

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