September 18, 2025 • 61 mins
This is a declaration of war on the doubt that has you limping between two opinions. Stop being a wave tossed by circumstance and become the mountain. It's time to get anchored! Join Pastor Tim and get your eviction notice. The work is here! The question is: are you? Listen now.
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Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
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Join us LIVE on Facebook:
@ Brothers in the Word
Wed: 6PM (CST)
Sat: 8AM (CST)
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on: Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, Subscribe, and Share
Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Grab your bible, grab a notebook. You are going to
want to take some detailed notes because we are about
to do some serious spiritual construction, or rather deconstruction. Let's
join Pastor Tim as he speaks from James Chapter one,
verse six. The title of our time together is these
(00:21):
Walls of Doubt.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to brothers in the word. My
name is Tim Smith. The city is back up, it's
a musk, and the brothers are outside. Please do me
a favor like love and share. That's the only offering
that I will ever ask you for. I am so glad,
I'm so elated that you have decided to join us
today for this teaching, and I want you to do
(00:43):
me a favor. I need you to just take them moment,
take a deep breath, get comfortable, Silence any notifications, any distractions,
and I need you to lean in for this one.
I don't mean lean in with your ears, but I
mean I want you to lean in with your spirit
because today we are going to have a conversation that
I know has the power to radically alter the trajectory
(01:07):
of your life. Today we are starting a journey together.
I just want to call it a demolition project. We're
talking about these walls of doubt. You know, the walls
that I'm talking about. And I don't want you to
just sit there and pretend like you don't know. You
can tell them people whatever you want, but you and
I know what's going on. These walls, the walls a doubt.
(01:28):
They're not built with bricks of mortar, brick and mortar.
These walls are built from whispered fears that we have
in the back of our mind, past failures, unanswered questions.
They are invisible to the naked eye, but you feel
their weight every single day. And if this wall could talk,
(01:49):
it would say you're not good enough. You'll never measure up.
Remember the last time you try, Remember what happened. You
know it's going to happen again. So this is a
wall that that taunts you. This is a wall that
mocks you. This is a wall that keeps you confined.
This is a wall that keeps you contained and living
beneath the divine purpose that God has for your life.
(02:10):
So today, what we have to do, you and I,
we need to serve an eviction notice on doubt. And
so what we're going to do is we're going to
take a sledgehammer of truth to the wall of doubt.
Grab your Bible, Grab a notebook. I need you to
take detailed notes. Shout out to Shannon, because we're about
to do some serious spiritual construction, or rather I should
(02:32):
say deconstruction. I got to get you a powerword. The
power word for our time together is anchored. Anchored. To
be anchored simply means to be firmly secure. To be
anchored simply means to be fixed, to be stable, especially
in the face of turbulent conditions in your life. So
(02:53):
when you're anchored, you won't be so easily tossed around.
It's a state of you just simply being around it
in a conviction that is stronger than the circumstances that
you are confronted with. So let me give you a
mission before we launch. Your mission, should you choose to
squabble up, is this. I need you to identify the
(03:15):
specific walls of doubt in your own life, and I
want you to begin the process of tearing these walls down.
And you're going to tear these walls down one scripture
at a time. You're going to tear these walls down,
one revelation at a time. So if you got that,
let's go to work. James. Chapter one, verse six. We're
going to take a peek at what our brother James
(03:37):
is writing. If you don't know, James is the brother
of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Matter of fact, James
and you, both of these men write some very powerful
epistles for the New Covenant Church. James is a very
practical young man. The Book of James would be the
equivalent of the Book of Proverbs because it's a very
(03:59):
practical book. It's a very straightforward book. It's a very
honest book. It's a very eat the meat kind of
a book. So James doesn't waste any time. He doesn't
waste any time going through any childlike faith. What James
(04:22):
does is he forces all of us to spiritually mature.
He doesn't leave any wiggle rooms. I need you to
understand this about James and his character. He is a
straight shooter. He doesn't play. So let's look at James.
Chapter one, verse six. That's going to be our anchor
verse for this time together. James says this, he says,
but let him ask in faith with no doubting, For
(04:46):
the one who doubts it's like a wave of the
sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. To
read that warmer time. But let him ask in faith
with no doubting for the one who doubts, like a
wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by
the wind. Now, if you look at the prior verse
(05:06):
to verse six, he's talking about wisdom, and he's telling
us that we can go to God and we can
ask for wisdom. He said, God will give you wisdom liberally.
He will not hold it back from you. He will
give it to you without measure. But then James gives
this verse here in verse six because he lets you
(05:29):
know that there is stipulations to going into God in prayer.
There are stipulations that you and I must look at
because God doesn't deal with us coming to him as
our father in doubt. Imagine if you're a child there's
food in the house, and even though there's food in
(05:51):
the house, they come to you in doubt about wanting
about having the ability to eat the food. So God
doesn't want he doesn't want us to come before him
in doubt about the ability to enjoy the things that
God has for us. Because He is a good father.
So now, brother James, what he's about to do is
he is about to perform surgery on each of us.
(06:12):
But the thing about this particular surgery is that, as
I told you, he's no nonsense. So James is going
to perform the surgery with no anesthesia. And so what
I want us to do is I want us to
dismantle this verse piece by piece. Those of you that
are watching on Facebook, welcome, those of you that are
listening to the podcast. Welcome those of you on Facebook.
(06:33):
Please get active in the chat, comments, questions, whatever you have.
We're here as a family and we're walking this walk together.
Let's look at this first wall. I want you to
take a look at this wall. I want you to touch it.
I want you to lean up against it. Wall number one,
the wall of wavering worship, the wall of wavering worship.
Let's look at the very first part of the verse
(06:54):
in part part A. If you will, he says, but
let him ask in faith. But let him at her
ask in faith. On the surface, that seems simple, just ask,
just believe, easy, right, Let's keep it real. This is
anything but easy, because this isn't about prayer mechanics. What
(07:17):
this is about. It's about the posture of your heart.
The posture of your heart before God. Ask in faith
means approaching God with unshakable conviction in two realities, one
his ability and to his goodness. If you're going to
approach God, you have to have unshakable conviction in those
(07:40):
two realities, one his ability to perform, his ability to do,
and to his goodness. You don't serve an angry God.
God is not angry with you, because I think too
many times we treat God in a very casual kind
of a way. Hey God, if you got a minute,
Hey God, this is me again. Hey, big guy in
(08:02):
the sky. So this asking faith, it demands confident expectation
from you, And I imagine this. Imagine you go to
a Michelin Star restaurant. Think about this. When you go
into the restaurant. Do you storm the kitchen, questioning the
chef's credentials. Do you interrogate him about did he wash
(08:25):
his hands? Do you demand proof of if the ingredients
are fresh? No? You know what you do? You walk
into that restaurant and you sit expectantly, trusting that mastery awaits.
His reputation as a master chef precedes his skill speaks volumes.
His process needs no defense. But here's the gut punch. Family.
(08:51):
We hand strangers our faith on a silver plattern. We
don't ask any questions. Yet we have the nerve the
unmitigated God to approach to God who breathed galaxies into being.
And we clutched doubt like it's a security blanket. We
got backup plans, we got insurance policies. See this wall
(09:14):
of wavering worship, every brick mortared with prayers that sound
more like suggestions than request. If walls could talk, if
walls could testify, this one would whisper, Can God really
handle this? You better do it yourself. You better take
matters into your own own hands. You better keep your
(09:36):
expectations running low. So this is a subtle self reliance,
and it masquerades as spiritual maturity. It's pride dressed in
humility's clothes. Think about that chef. That chef might burn
your soothfla. But the one who numbered every hair on
your head, the one who calls the stars by name,
(09:59):
he's never want to drop the ball. So why do
we approach his throne? TikTok? Why do we approach his throne?
Uncertain when he invites us over in the Book of Hebrews.
I believe it's Hebrews chapter four. He invites us to
boldly come before His throne of grace and mercy to
obtain help in the time of need. Hear me, Asking
(10:22):
in faith means your request is already undergirded by your worship.
And when I say worship, this is what I mean.
It means you believe God is who he says he is,
even before you see if he can do it or not.
That's simple faith. That's the starting line of your faith.
(10:44):
You must believe as the Bible says that He is
a rewarder to those who diligently seek him. That's a
faith that isn't dependent on the outcome. That's a faith
that is dependent on the character of God. It's a
faith that says, God, I don't know how you're going
to do it. I don't know when you're going to
do it, but I know you. I know your track record,
(11:09):
the personal application here for you, and I audit your prayers.
When is the last time you just did an audit
of your prayers? When is the last time you thought
about the prayers that you prayed have you considered any
of your prayers that you prayed today? Have you prayed today?
Are you praying from a place of desperation or are
you praying from a place of declaration because there's a
(11:32):
difference between those two. Are your prayers filled with contingency
clauses and escape routes or are you approaching the throne
of grace with boldness? Not because of who you are,
but because of who He is. Your prayer life is
a direct reflection of your faith level. Wavering worship leads
(11:56):
to wavering results. Wavering prayers lead to wavering results. So
the challenge for you and I is this, before you
ask for anything else, ask God to increase your faith
in his character. Before you go to God and ask
him for anything, Worship him first for his sovereignty. Worship
(12:22):
him for his wisdom, Worship him for his love, Worship
him for his wonders. Because please hear me when I
say this, and you can write this down. You can't
ask from a God you don't trust. When your faith
(12:43):
in God's character is solid, your faith in God's actions
will follow. I have a question for you. What has
your prayer life revealed about your view of God? What
is your prayer life spoke to you about how you
honestly see God? Do you see him like Isaiah and
(13:04):
Isaiah chapter six high and lift it up? Or are
you running from God? Let's make a transition because I
want us to understand first the posture of asking in faith.
Once we understand that, then James immediately gives us the
(13:27):
opposition that will crumble our foundation. Please understand, whatever you
seek to do for God, you are going to face opposition.
And that brings us to our next wall, Wall number two,
the wall of drifting doubt. This is where it gets good.
The verse continues. Look at James Chapter one, verse six.
(13:49):
When to be part of that verse? Now, James says,
with no doubting, And this is the heart of the matter.
This is the wall that blocks the blessing. If you
can't get past this wall, you will not get to
the blessing. James is creating an unambiguous contrast here, and
(14:10):
this is what I mean. You can either ask in
faith or you can entertain doubt. But what you're not
going to do is both. A double minded man, James
is going to say later, is unstable in all of
his ways, not some of his ways. All of his ways.
Jesus even got in on it. He says, no man
(14:32):
having put his hands to the plow and looking back
is fit for the Kingdom of God. We can't have
a mind looking forward and looking back. We can't have
a double minded a double minded perspective of prayer, a
double minded perspective of who God is. And right here,
(14:54):
what comes to my mind and putting this lesson together
was the prophety Lijah. It was almost as if Elijah
raised his hand and he said, I got something I
want to say tonight as well, And this is for
my people in the season of decisions. Right now, you
know who you are. In First Kings chapter eighteen, the
(15:17):
prophet Elijah stands on Mount Carl. He's standing before the
nation of Israel. And for me, Elijah delivers one of
the most epic challenges in the entire Bible. The nation
was in a spiral crisis. The nation was in the
(15:38):
spiritual free fall, much like the modern Church today. But
I digress. The nation of Israel. We're trying to worship
both Yahweh, the God of Israel, and a false God
by the name of bel. They were spiritually double minded.
(15:59):
Double minded man is unstable in all of his ways.
This nation was unstable. And I want you to listen
closely to what the prophet Elijah says to the nation's
found in First Kings, chapter eighteen, verse twenty one. And
Elijah came near to all the people and said, how
long will you go limping between two different opinions? If
(16:25):
the Lord is God cool, follow him. But if they're cool,
then follow him. Get this, And the people did not
answer him a word. Boom, mic drop. Did you catch that?
(16:46):
Elijah said, the nation is limping between two different opinions.
They're limping between two different gods, two different gods that
oppose each other, and two different gods that are not
trying to see eye to eye. Because God said I
am the God, the Lord of all flesh. There's only
(17:08):
one that sits on the throne. So when Elijah says
this living between two different opinions, that's not poetry. It's
actually backing up what James is saying as well, because
James isn't playing with the church. You got one foot
in faith, you got one foot in doubt. And you
(17:30):
know what that makes you, That makes you paralyzed. You're
not moving, You're not moving forward. You're not moving backward.
You're stuck. You're stuck in the spiritual no man's lamb.
You're unstable, you're ineffective, you're spiritually disabled. This wall right here,
the wall of drifting down. It speaks lies with a
(17:51):
silver tongue. This wall says, wat choose, mix a little
Jesus with a little Jezebel, Mix a little worship with
a little worldliness. Mix a little prayer meeting with a
little party scene. So you know what this wall does.
It parts, It pedals a counterfeit gospel. It pedals a
counterfeit gospel of compromise is preaching you can serve two masters.
(18:18):
But remember Jesus dropped this hammer over in Matthew chapter six,
verse twenty four. And Jesus tells us in Matthew six
twenty four, he said it's impossible to serve to God's
And he pulls the God of money. He talks about
him and the God and the king. James says, mammit,
but he's talking about money. This is what I need
(18:40):
you to understand. Your heart is a throne, and somebody's
sitting on that throne right now as you're listening to me.
Somebody is sitting on that throne. If God ain't ruling,
then you've already crowned another king. You're indecision. That is
(19:01):
your decision. How long will you hawk between two opinions?
Elijah's step to Israel with a holy confrontation the whole nation.
He stepped to the whole nation. This wasn't a suggestion.
This was spiritual surgery. Your doubt is a wall. See
the thing. You got to understand. It's easier to limp
(19:25):
than to leap. It's easier to shuffle than to stand.
Having done all the stand, the Bible says stand therefore,
But here's the revelation I want you to get. Doubt
isn't just mental in the context of what we're looking
at in James Chapter one, verse six, doubt is spiritual allegiance.
(19:49):
When you doubt God, you're placing your faith somewhere else.
You may be placing it in your fears, in your past,
in your limitations, in people's opinions, in what you're hearing.
You're bowing to another God. So let's have some real talk.
(20:10):
What's your bail? What's your bil? What opinion got you limping?
Is a culture's opinion is it the bank account's opinion?
Is it insecurities opinion? The lite is not asking for consideration.
You know what he's doing. He's demanding a decision. You
(20:31):
have to choose today who you will serve. You cannot
build a life of purpose on a foundation of Maybe
it's tigning for us to grow up as Christians. The
challenge for you is to stop limping and decide. Yeah,
you might limp yourself into the church, and you limp
yourself right on the back up out of there. But
(20:53):
if God is God, then follow him period. That means
when his word says one thing and your feelings say another,
you follow his word. When his promises seem impossible and
your reality seems overwhelming, guess what, you follow his promises.
(21:13):
Question for you, and I want you to be honest,
and I want you to answer this question. Write it
down in your notes, and I want you to give
an answer to it. Where in your life are you
limping between two opinions? Where in your life are you
limping between two gods? I want you to locate those
(21:38):
two contrasting opinions, and I want you to name them now.
This imagery of being unstable and indecisive it gets even
more vivid. And this is why I love the writing
of James, because James doesn't just tell us not to
doubt and leave it there. No what he's going to do. Now,
(22:01):
He's going to show us exactly what doubt looks like.
He's going to give a powerful metaphor to show you
and I exactly what doubt looks like. And this leads
us to our third wall. And perhaps I feel this
is the most chaotic wall, Wall number three, the wall
of destructive division, the wall of destructive division. Now we're
(22:30):
still in verse six James, Chapter one, Verse six. James
continues his analogy in the second half of that verse.
Look at verse six C for the one for the person,
for the man, for the woman who doubts. It's like
a wave of the sea. I want you to consider this.
(22:52):
We live in Chicago, so we know we got Lake Michigan.
I don't know if you've ever seen the Pacific Ocean
or the Atlantic Ocean or the Gold Whenever I've stood
before a body of water, I just stand there and
just watch it because it's just something about it that
just amazes me to watch a body of water move.
(23:16):
And so James picks a very clear analogy that he's
going to use for us. He's going to school us
on what doubt really looks like. Think about a wave.
You're standing out at the beach, You're looking at the waters,
roll in and roll out. Think about a wave from
(23:37):
this perspective. Though a wave has no will of its own.
A wave has no internal guidance system. Stay with me.
A wave is completely at the mercy of external forces.
This is what he's comparing our doubts to. A wave
(23:58):
doesn't decide weather to go left or weather to go right.
The current and the wind decide for the wave. That
is the very definition of instability. And this is the
spiritual diagnosis of the person who doubts. This is what
(24:19):
James is showing you. You become a product of your environment.
When things are good, your faith is high. When the
storm comes, your faith crashes against the rocks. And what
ends up happening. You become reactive, not proactive. Your spiritual
(24:41):
temperature is set by the climate of your circumstances, not
the conviction of your heart. And if this wall could talk,
this wall would screen for you to panic. The wind
is blowing, the storm is here. God has forgotten about
you you're going under. Oh, this wall is loud, it's
very loud. It's a wall of chaos. It's a wall
(25:03):
of anxiety, it's a wall of emotional whiplash. And this
wall divides your mind, your heart, and your soul. And
this internal division, this civil war of your soul, because
that's what's happening within your soul. You have a civil
war that's taking place. And this, with James's describing, is
(25:28):
capturing another biblical account. And this is for all my
people who feel like you're at war with yourself. You
ever felt that way? Remember what Paul cried out over
in Romas chapter seven. He said, the good that I
would I find another law warring inside of me. So
there's this internal conflict, this internal battle that's raging. You
(25:49):
want to believe God, but you're looking at the doctor's reporting.
You want to believe God, but you're looking at your
bank stack. You want to believe God, but you're looking
at your bills. And there's this internal war that's happening
within you, and it's dividing you, and it's crashing you
against the rocks. Let's go to Mark. Gospel of Mark,
chapter nine, very familiar passage but I want us to
(26:11):
look at it from another lens. So the father brings
his son, who has been tormented by demonic spirit. He
brings his son to nine men, nine disciples, because Jesus, James, Peter,
and John, they're up on the mountain of Transfiguration at
(26:32):
this moment, so nine disciples, and guess what, they can't
help them. They can't heal them, they can't cast out
the demon. They're watching this boy flipping and flopping and
rolling and foaming at the mouth, and the demon is
just throwing him, tossing him to and fro. So the
father sees Jesus. He goes to Jesus and he tells Jesus, look,
(26:57):
I brought my son to your disciples. I brought my
son to church and they couldn't do nothing for him.
What can you do? But I want you to listen
to this from a different perspective this time. I want
you to listen to this wraw, honest and powerful exchange
between his father and Jesus starting in March chapter nine,
(27:19):
verse twenty two through twenty four ESV. Now where we're
picking it up. We're picking it up where the father
is explaining to Jesus exactly what this demon has been
doing to his son. Let's go and it. The demon
has often cast him, the son into fire and into
(27:40):
water to destroy him. Please understand what this man is
going through. And the father says to Jesus, but if
you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
I love the fact that the father is in press
(28:00):
just for the son. The father said, no, this is
affecting me too. I'm going through this too, and Jesus
says to him, watch this. If you can, all things
are possible for the one who believes. Immediately, the father
cried out. He said, I believe, help my unbelief. Do
(28:26):
you see the division in this man. I believe, help
my unbelief. I need all the parents to stop right there.
If you can, That's what the father says to Jesus,
If you can. This father, who is in the struggle
(28:47):
of his life, he comes dragging doubt like chains. He's
watched the disciples fail his child, and now that failure
that he he's witnessed has infected his faith. Sound familiar.
You've tried everything, hospitals, the doctors, the nurses, the counselors,
(29:08):
the programs, the prayers, and your child is still in crisis.
But watch Jesus flip the script on the father. Jesus
in essence tell the father the issue ain't about my power.
The issue is your belief. He holds up a mirror
to this broken father's face boom, and then comes the
(29:34):
realest prayer ever prayed. I believe, but help my unbelief.
The father just got naked before God. He's exposed. The
father is an essence, a walking contradiction, faith and fear
(29:57):
in the same heartbeat. Sound like you, Sound like me.
See believing God can transform your child while secretly researching
military schools to send your child to. Trusting God's promise,
while crying in your car after another parent teacher conference,
declaring healing over your teenager while counting the fresh guards
(30:20):
on their arms. You're not crazy, No, you're human. You're human.
That's what you are. And here's the breakthrough. And what
I respect so much about this man is that he
didn't fake the faith. He didn't fake the faith, he
didn't pretend his doubt didn't exist. See, this is where
he got us beat. He brought his shattered heart to
(30:43):
the only one who could rebuild it. He confessed his
hope and his horror in the same breath. Revelation. Alert, God,
ain't scared of your doubt. God ain't scared about your
doubt about your child. He's not offended when you question
(31:06):
if he can reach your son or your daughter. What
he can't work with is your pretense. Stop acting like
you got it together when you know you're falling apart.
Stop posting blessed and highly favored when you're broken and
barely functioning. Parents, This is your permission slip. Tell God
(31:29):
the truth. Lord, I believe you can save my baby,
but they're getting worse. Help my unbelief. God, I know
you're their father, but I'm terrified. Help my unbelief. That
ain't weakness, No, you know what that is. That's warrior prayer.
(31:50):
God honors that kind of prayer. You're inviting the God
of the universe into your family's ground zero emergency. Oh
the way that father's son, after he said what he
said to Jesus, delivered delivered that day, not this time
next year, delivered that day your child. I need you
(32:13):
to hear me. God's not done. Don't you give up
on your child. Don't you give up on your child.
Your honesty in prayer is your breakthrough for your child.
Your transparency in prayer is your triumph. How do I know?
Because God specializes in impossible children. You're looking at one.
(32:37):
Bring God your fragments and God will build a miracles.
That's all I'm asking you to do. That was especially
for all the parents out there who may be struggling
and going through a season with your child or with
your children. I need you to get that. I need
you to go back listen to that again. Write out
those notes, put it up on your mirror, put it
up on your wall. But you got to stand on this.
(32:58):
You have to stand in the game for your children.
I'm standing in the gap for my children and my grandchildren.
You have to stand in the gap. You can't throw
up your hands, you can't get tired. You can't just
cry and okay, you cried, Okaya, Now we gotta go
to war. When nil Mayah went to go build rebuild
the walls of Jerusalem, you know what he had. He
(33:19):
had shovel and he had sword. Nia mine said, I
wish somebody would run up. And that's what you're going
to have to do. You're going to have to get
in prayer and then you're going to have to get
your sword. What is your sword? The Word of God
got a question for you. What part of your unbelief
have you been trying to hide from God? What part
(33:41):
of your unbelief have you been trying to hide from God?
Because this is real, this is raw. This is where
we have to be honest. You can't slap some money
down on an altar and this is going to go away. No,
you're going to have to travail. You're going to have
to lay out in the floor. But again, I need
(34:02):
you to learn from this Father. Be honest with God.
Be honest with God, and watch God begin to move
some walls out of your life. But wait, there's more.
Because James isn't done with this wave analogy. We got
one more part of this verse. He adds another layer
to it, and that brings us to our final wall,
(34:22):
Wall number four, the Wall of directionless drifting. The Wall
of Directionless Drifting, Verse six concludes. He says that it's
driven and tossed by the wind. So we're still dealing
with the doubter. Not only is the doubter unstable like
(34:44):
a wave. Thanks brother James. If that wasn't enough, but
James also says no, they're also drifting. He says they're
driven and tossed. Now, if you really look at that,
you will see these are two different motions. These are
not the same emotions. Driven implies that you're being pushed
along a course you didn't choose. You ever feel like
(35:06):
the wind was at your back, This is what's happening.
You ever felt like the wind was at your back
in life? Toss implies being thrown up and down, back
and forth. That is what was happening to that father's son.
He was being tossed back and forth. He was being
driven no rhyme or reason. And this is the person
(35:29):
whose life lacks a spiritual anchor. Remember when we began this,
I said the power word is what anchor? Because you're
going to have to learn how to drop your anchor
in the midst of your stone. When you're not anchored,
you're pushed into decisions by pressure and you're tossed out
of them by difficulty. You're driven by the winds of
(35:52):
popular opinion, cultural trends, pure pressure. You're tossed by the
winds of personal tragedy, financial hardship, em emotional turmoil. So
your life has no rudder. What's the purpose of a
rudder on a boat? Direction? You're lacking direction. You're just
all over the place. You're reacting to the last gust
(36:16):
of wind that hits you, the last storm that hits you.
You just react. And if this wall could talk, it
would say, just go with the flow, don't make waves.
Everybody else is doing it. It's too hard to stand
for something. And this is the wall of compromise. This
is the wall of compromise and conformity. It's a life
(36:39):
living on autopilot. And what happens is you drift further
and further and further and further away from God's intended
harbor for your life. You so far off course. And
this is where another powerful verse that I want us
to look at comes into play. And I want this
verse to help us. This is for my people who
(37:01):
are surrounded by voices of fear and negativity, because you
know what it is to have somebody in your ear
and they don't believe God the way you believe God. Yeah,
I want to look at this Mark chapter five. We
touched on this a little bit in our last session
(37:23):
with the woman with the issue of blood. What preceded
her miracle on her breakthrough was this situation right here
in Mark chapter five, there was a Synegod ruler named Jars.
Jars goes to Jesus and he begs Jesus to come
to his home to heal his dying daughter. In fact,
(37:45):
his daughter's twelve years old. So you have these two
miracles happening at the same time. His daughter's twelve. The
woman with the issue of blood has had her issue
to twelve years. So on the way to the house,
because the woman with the issue, look, she jumps the line.
She was not next up. She jumps the line. And
so when she jumps the line, it delays Jesus from
(38:09):
getting to Jervis's house. Because remember Jesus looking in the
crowd trying to find her. There's a crowd of people
thronging him. So once Jesus is finished speaking to the
woman and restoring her daughter, your faith has made you hope.
While that's happening, people approach Jervis, And they approached Jervis
(38:33):
with some horrible news. Look at Mark five, verse thirty
five and thirty six. While he was still there speaking,
that came from the ruler's house, some who said, your
daughter is dead? Why trouble the teacher any further? Get this.
Jesus is eavesdropping on their conversation. He hears what they're telling Jervis,
(38:55):
but overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler
of the synagogue, do not fear, only believe. Boom. Think
about the wind that just slammed Jeres. Think about the
time when you got the most horrible news in your life.
(39:17):
This wasn't a breeze. This was a Category five hurricane,
Category five hurricane of hopelessness. Your daughter is dead. Lead
Jesus Lowe. I want you to feel that. I want
you to put your feet in Jefs's samples, because that
(39:38):
voice of reason its screaming, That voice of reality is mocking.
That voice of shock is paralyzing. He's going through five
stages of grief just standing there. There's a voice of
why that's tormenting this man. There's a voice of finality
that's slamming the door shut Boom. There is a voice
(40:00):
of death declaring victory. This wind right here is designed
to demolish all Faith's engineered to drown all hope. It's
calculated to throw this father into an ocean of despair
and put this man under waves of grief. This wind
(40:22):
was screaming one message. Give up, it's over, go hope,
Leave Jesus alone, Go home. Your daughters did go call
leaks and son, Why are you still bothering him? Well,
watch Jesus. Jesus steps right into this hurricane. He looks
(40:44):
dead in the eye of this storm, and he speaks
directly to the wind, tells Jers don't fear, only believe.
I like that. Jesus becomes Jerr's anchor in the storm.
His words become that anchor for Jarff's storm. He says,
tune out the wind of fear, tune into the wavelength
(41:05):
of faith, and he drops a command. Your daughter's reality
doesn't have to be your reality. Don't let the wind
of what quote unquote they're saying drive you from my
presence or toss you from my promise. Only believe that
should be a t shirt. Only believe that word only
(41:28):
is explosive. He's saying, exclusively, believe, solely trust. Filter out
every competing frequency, silence, every screaming voice. Jervis that's going
on in your head and your heart right now, he says,
anchor your entire existence in my word and my presence.
This is the ultimate defiance against the wind. This is
(41:51):
spiritual rebellion. This is spiritual rebellion against reality. This is
a father of choosing to believe the voice of life
over the voice of depth. And this is faith declaring
war on facts. Because the winds were blowing. You had
a wind that was blowing and said funeral. Jesus said, future.
(42:14):
There was a wind that said it's over. Jesus said,
it's only the beginning. There was a wind that says dead.
And Jesus said, nah, she's just sleeping. If you continue
reading the story. When Jesus makes it to the house,
the mourners are in the house and Jesus like, why
are y'all crying? Why are y'all acting like this? And
they're like, are you serious? And jes said, she's not dead.
(42:35):
She'll asleep, and he laughed. Gu's what he did. He
put they behinds out the house, get out. You know why,
because fear and faith cannot occupy the same space. Fear
and faith in your mind cannot occupy the same space.
So he put them out, took the baby girl's hand
(42:56):
and told her to wake up.
Speaker 3 (42:58):
And that was it.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
See, the word of God has to be your anchor
when the diagnosis comes. Because the diagnosis is coming. The
word of God has to be your frequency when the
phone rings at two am, because it's going to ring
at two am. That's your defiance. When every voice screams
at you, it's impossible, Jesus is saying to you, and
he's saying to me, only believe. The profound insight is
(43:26):
that you have a choice about which winds you will
allow to move you. Fear is a wind, Doubt is
a wind, Negativity is a wind, Worry is a wind.
But faith, that's an anchor. Jesus was telling Jars, and
(43:46):
he's telling you drop the anchor of faith in the
middle of your storm. Storm you're going through right now,
You're going to have to drop your faith anchor. Can't
drop your emotional anchor. You have to drop your faith anchor.
Don't let the circumstances dictate your direction. Let your conviction
in Christ determine your stability. Here's a personal application for you.
(44:11):
I want you to identify the winds that are blowing
in your life right now. What voices are you listening
to that are driving you and tossing you. Is it
the news, is it the critical family member, Is it
the voice of your own past failures? Is it the diagnosis?
But you have to make a conscious choice, as Jesus did,
(44:34):
to overhear those voices, and then you have to tune
into his voice alone. There were different voices that were
talking to Jerris. There was the voice of the reality
of what happened to his daughter, and then there was
the voice of fate, the voice of an anchor that
was speaking to him as well. He chose to believe
the latter voice. Do not fear, only believe. So the
(44:58):
challenge for you and I is this, we have to
practice active belief. We have to practice right now belief.
When the wind of fear blows, you actively declare, God
has not given me the spirit of fear, but of love,
power and of a sound mind. When the wind of
lack blows in your direction, you have to actively declare,
(45:19):
My God will supply all my needs according to His
riches and glory in Christ, Jesus. You must fight the
wind with the word. Family, you must fight the wind
with the word. Remember over in March chapter four. I
believe it starts around verse thirty five. Remember when Jesus
(45:41):
fell asleep on the boat and the storm broke out.
Disciples are losing it. They run down, they wake him up,
and he gets on. He comes up to the top
of the boat, and he spoke to the wind and
the waves. He said, peace be still. What am I saying?
He spoke to the storm? He spoke to the storm.
Do you speak to your storm or do you run
(46:02):
from your storm? Question? For you, which wind right now
has the most influence over your emotions and decisions? Which
one right now? I need you to identify that win,
give that wind a name, and then you're going to
speak a word over So I want to bring all
(46:23):
of this together because we're tearing down these walls of doubt.
That's our goal, that's our assignment. We started with wall
number one, the wall of wavering worship. With that wall,
we realize that our approach to God has to be
rooted in confident faith, faith in his character, not just
(46:43):
a casual request. Then we confronted wall number two, the
wall of drifting doubt. Our brother Elijah showed up, helping
us to see that limping between two opinions it disables
our spiritual lives. And so you and I we have
to make a definitive choice to follow hard after God
(47:06):
and not after bail. Then we moved to Wal number three.
That was the wall of destructive division. Yeah, my favorite wall.
That was the wall where the father of the demon
possessed boy gave us permission to be honest about our
internal battles. Crying out to God, I believe helped my unbelief.
(47:30):
Somebody better take that one right there. And finally we
faced Wal number four, the wall of directionless drifting. And
that's where Jesus commanded to Jerer's do not fear, only believe.
What did that help us to see? It taught us
to anchor ourselves in his word, even in the midst
(47:52):
of difficult winds of circumstances. So now every single one
of these walls found is designed to do one thing,
and one thing only, to keep you from the life
that God has for you. Doubt is a thief. It
stills your peace, it stills your joy, it stills your purpose.
(48:15):
It's stills your future, it stills your sleep, it stills
your appetite. It promises you safety but delivers only stagnation.
And so it builds a prison, and it convinces you
that the prison is a palace. So these walls of doubt,
they're not your inheritance. This is not what God has
for you. Peace is your inheritance. Confidence is your inheritance.
(48:40):
Boldness is your inheritance. Love is your inheritance. A life
that is anchored, steadfast, and unmovable is your inheritance. So
today is a day of decisions for all of us.
It's today that you and I have to decide that
we're going to stop limping. We're going to stop limping
(49:00):
between two different opinions. It's a day to be honest
with God about your doubt and about your unbelief. It's
a day to choose to believe God's word over the
winds of the world. So the demolition of these walls,
it really begins with just a simple choice, a choice
to trust God, to trust him fully, to trust him completely.
(49:25):
Get this without a backup plan. You got to be
all in. Ten toes down. You have to be all
in if you're going to do this. That's how you
got to do it. Can't wait wait till Sunday and
run laps around the church and think that's done something. No,
the devil is sitting outside waiting on you. So here's
your call to action. I want you to identify your wall.
(49:47):
Identify the primary wall of doubt in your life that
made your wall, that thick wall, the one that's blocking
the light of God's Word from coming into your life.
Is it wavering worship? Is it drifting doubt? Is it
destructive division? Is it directionless drifting? Name it? Write it down.
Acknowledging your wall is the very first step to tearing
(50:09):
it down. And so your mission this week, I want
you to find a specific promise in God's word that
speaks directly to that wall. And then I want you
to declare that promise out loud every single day. Okay.
(50:31):
Number two, I want you to pray an honest prayer.
This is what I mean. I want to challenge you
within the next twenty four hour words. I want you
to find a quiet place and I want you to
pray the most honest prayer of your life. Turn off
all the noise, put the phone in a different room,
(50:51):
because there needs to be complete solitude with just you
and God. I want you to steal the words from
the Father in Mark nine. It's okay, he said you can, Lord,
I believe, help my unbelief. This is what I need
you to do. Confess the areas in your life where
your faith is fractured. I want you to invite Jesus
(51:12):
into the very heart of your doubt. Don't edit it,
don't sanitize it. Just be real with him, Just be
honest with him. If we had time, I could take
you to the Psalms. I can show you some of
the most honest psalms ever written. God is not afraid
of your honesty. Cast all your cares on him. That's
(51:34):
what one Peter three eighteen says. Cast all your cares
upon him? Why? Because he cares for you. Next thing
I want you to do is I want you to
anchor someone else. Anchor someone else because you're not in
this fight alone. And this week, I want you to
reach out to one person that you know is struggling
(51:57):
with doubt, and I want you to just share this message.
Don't judge them, don't preach with them, share your struggle,
be an anchor of hope for them. Sometimes the best
way to strengthen our own faith is to help someone
else secure theirs. I can be going through some craziness,
(52:20):
but I promise you the moment it comes time for
me to encourage someone else. I can do it like
flipping a switch my stuff. I can sit it over
there because I know it'll be there. But my point
is this, it doesn't disassemble my faith in God because
I'm going through something. So we have to understand that
(52:47):
there's power in our testimonies. There's power in our struggles.
There's power in our ability to convey and to communicate
someone else the love that God has for them too.
If this teaching has knocked down a wall in your life,
you know what I need from you. I need you
(53:07):
to share it Facebook family, I need you all to
come through for a brother. I need you to comment.
I need you to share it. I need you to
tag people that you know are living behind their wall
of doubt. To my podcast listeners on Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio.
I need you to subscribe, I need you to like,
I need you to follow, and I need you to
(53:29):
share that podcast with your family and friends. New podcast
drops every Thursday morning at nine am. Let's pray. Father,
we honor you, and we bless you, and we thank
you God, God. We thank you for this word. We
thank you God that you have spoken a word that
(53:51):
dismantles our doubt, that destroys our doubt. And so, Father,
even as our brother James says, help us to be
heroes of your word, and not help us to be
doers of your word and not hear us. Only help
us God to live a life of expectation. Help us
to live a life above God anything that we've experienced
so far. God, I thank you that you have fearfully
(54:14):
and wonderfully made us. I thank you God that your
word tells us to lean into You, to trust in
You at all of our heart, and not to lean
to our own understanding in all of our ways. God,
we are instructed to acknowledge you, and you will direct
our path. And so, Father, I pray that you will
direct us out of the storms that we're dealing with
right now. So Father, I pray for the mother who
(54:36):
may be going through challenges with her child, challenges with
her son, challenges with her daughter. I pray for them. God.
I pray for the family. God. I pray Father that
you will bring a word of peace, a word of comfort,
the word of hope. I pray for the fathers God
who may be struggling in their relationships with their children. God,
I pray that you will bring healing. I pray God
(54:57):
that you will bring connection. I pray for Father, that
they will forgive even God as you've forgiven us, Even
as you've forgiven us as far as the east is
from the west. Your word says you remember our sins.
No more so. God, Give us a heart of conviction,
Give us a heart of purpose, give us a heart
of steadfastness. God. We thank you for the examples that
you've given us tonight, God and your word. And I
(55:20):
pray God that this word will become embedded in our
hearts and in our mind and in our spirit. We
cancel out every assignment of the enemy. We cancel out
his decrees, We cancel out his orders. I thank you
God that your spirit will lead us and guide us
into all truth. And so God, even in this digital space, God,
even on this digital platform. Father, I pray that your
(55:42):
word will penetrate God the airwaves and will bring comfort
and bring healing. You will wipe tears God away. God.
I thank you. I pray God that you will give
us a testimony of victory in your name. God, help
us God to hold up a standard in our lives
that you have decreed for all of us. So God,
we bless you, we honor you, we thank you, we
(56:04):
love you, we praise you, and the matchless and the
mighty name of Jesus. Let every heart say, man and
a man listen. Family is always remember, get into the
word of God, and the word of God will get
into you, and we'll see you next time. For to
day my question.
Speaker 4 (56:28):
Peter walking on the water, got the word, receive the word,
hurt the word, and stepped up, agreed with it. The
wind blew, and fear came in, Yes, and doubt came
in it says in Matthew.
Speaker 3 (56:45):
He saw the wind. Yes, sir, he was afraid.
Speaker 4 (56:51):
Then he began a sink, taking our eyes, taking our focus,
taking and not being anchored.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
And what we've heard, what we've accepted, gets.
Speaker 4 (57:04):
Us off, gets us to sink, brings in fear, brings
him doubt. Thankfully for Peter, he grabs him, he's that
close to grabb him. Thankfully for us, we've got the
Holy Spirit. I'm just trying to make sure I got
this right. This is why this is quick.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
I'm glad you preach, you got it, you got it.
Speaker 4 (57:27):
And that's what one and and then and then then
then his question was after he grabbed him and pulled
him back, the only question says, why do you have
a little faith?
Speaker 3 (57:36):
Why did you.
Speaker 2 (57:37):
Doubt we're doing so good?
Speaker 3 (57:42):
And then they get back in the but gone.
Speaker 4 (57:49):
Him, Oh please, I'm sorry from messing up the podcast time.
Speaker 2 (58:02):
That's that's exactly we go through.
Speaker 4 (58:04):
Exactly exactly, It's what we all deal with here now
on this side. And this is these are two perfect
Holy textbook readings on how to handle fearing doubt. The cousins. Yeah,
standing on his word, trusting on his word, loving him
(58:27):
as much as he loved us.
Speaker 3 (58:30):
Okay, just make sure I got it all.
Speaker 2 (58:31):
Right, so good, because Dana get this. The distractions Peter
got distracted. The distractions are going to come. But if
you don't have that single pursuit of I see Jesus,
and I'm gonna keep my eyes on him. See, we
knows the people we started looking off here, what you're on?
What you no? No, no, no, no, no, you're too
close right now. And so when Peter start who knows,
(58:54):
Peter probably started flexing at the other disciple. Yeah, look
at me. He probably started jewing on that beat across
that water and guess what. He took his eyes off
Jesus and he began to sink, and Jesus held him
responsible for that. Peter did something that nobody in history
has ever done. Walked on water. Bro Are you serious
(59:14):
right now? Walk on that water? And that's what God
is calling us to do. He's calling us to walk
on some things that other people are sinking in. But
he's saying, you have the ability to do it, but
you gotta keep your focus on me.
Speaker 4 (59:29):
That's it simple, okay, okay, just want to make sure
I had it.
Speaker 2 (59:38):
I'm sending you my tithes in my offers to Hu.
Speaker 4 (59:41):
Don't you start, don't you? Don't you start anyway? Let
me wrap this up. Family, We thank you for this word.
We thank you God for sharing this brother Tim. We
also want to thank you for those who are on
the Facebook side.
Speaker 3 (59:59):
We had top.
Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
Fans Siameka and Keisha. We had our main man Kyle,
We had Tracy Taylor. We also had Pie Truth come through.
We appreciate you again your assignment. Share this message, Share
this out with someone who has dealt with who is
(01:00:23):
dealing with doubt, fear that when life is life and
like I said on Saturday, it's His word that stands
as our foundation, that stands as our anchor.
Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
Grab hold of this and share it.
Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
And you remember you've got homework assignments in this as well,
So go back and listen to it again. Get to
seeing you one more time, two more times on this
on through the podcast. I want to thank brother David,
Jay and Pops and brother David a each and brother
Sam and brother Oliver, brother Fred, Brother Sam. I am
(01:01:06):
brother Dana, he was brother Tim. We are brothers in
the Word and we do this sharing of God's Word
twice a week Saturdays and ten. And Sam's getting ready
to come up real quick with his promo for what
he's going to be sharing with us this Saturday and
on Wednesdays Wednesday night six pm, Saturday mornings eight am.
Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
Sam
Grab your bible, grab a notebook. You are going to
want to take some detailed notes because we are about
to do some serious spiritual construction, or rather deconstruction. Let's
join Pastor Tim as he speaks from James Chapter one,
verse six. The title of our time together is these
(00:21):
Walls of Doubt.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to brothers in the word. My
name is Tim Smith. The city is back up, it's
a musk, and the brothers are outside. Please do me
a favor like love and share. That's the only offering
that I will ever ask you for. I am so glad,
I'm so elated that you have decided to join us
today for this teaching, and I want you to do
(00:43):
me a favor. I need you to just take them moment,
take a deep breath, get comfortable, Silence any notifications, any distractions,
and I need you to lean in for this one.
I don't mean lean in with your ears, but I
mean I want you to lean in with your spirit
because today we are going to have a conversation that
I know has the power to radically alter the trajectory
(01:07):
of your life. Today we are starting a journey together.
I just want to call it a demolition project. We're
talking about these walls of doubt. You know, the walls
that I'm talking about. And I don't want you to
just sit there and pretend like you don't know. You
can tell them people whatever you want, but you and
I know what's going on. These walls, the walls a doubt.
(01:28):
They're not built with bricks of mortar, brick and mortar.
These walls are built from whispered fears that we have
in the back of our mind, past failures, unanswered questions.
They are invisible to the naked eye, but you feel
their weight every single day. And if this wall could talk,
(01:49):
it would say you're not good enough. You'll never measure up.
Remember the last time you try, Remember what happened. You
know it's going to happen again. So this is a
wall that that taunts you. This is a wall that
mocks you. This is a wall that keeps you confined.
This is a wall that keeps you contained and living
beneath the divine purpose that God has for your life.
(02:10):
So today, what we have to do, you and I,
we need to serve an eviction notice on doubt. And
so what we're going to do is we're going to
take a sledgehammer of truth to the wall of doubt.
Grab your Bible, Grab a notebook. I need you to
take detailed notes. Shout out to Shannon, because we're about
to do some serious spiritual construction, or rather I should
(02:32):
say deconstruction. I got to get you a powerword. The
power word for our time together is anchored. Anchored. To
be anchored simply means to be firmly secure. To be
anchored simply means to be fixed, to be stable, especially
in the face of turbulent conditions in your life. So
(02:53):
when you're anchored, you won't be so easily tossed around.
It's a state of you just simply being around it
in a conviction that is stronger than the circumstances that
you are confronted with. So let me give you a
mission before we launch. Your mission, should you choose to
squabble up, is this. I need you to identify the
(03:15):
specific walls of doubt in your own life, and I
want you to begin the process of tearing these walls down.
And you're going to tear these walls down one scripture
at a time. You're going to tear these walls down,
one revelation at a time. So if you got that,
let's go to work. James. Chapter one, verse six. We're
going to take a peek at what our brother James
(03:37):
is writing. If you don't know, James is the brother
of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Matter of fact, James
and you, both of these men write some very powerful
epistles for the New Covenant Church. James is a very
practical young man. The Book of James would be the
equivalent of the Book of Proverbs because it's a very
(03:59):
practical book. It's a very straightforward book. It's a very
honest book. It's a very eat the meat kind of
a book. So James doesn't waste any time. He doesn't
waste any time going through any childlike faith. What James
(04:22):
does is he forces all of us to spiritually mature.
He doesn't leave any wiggle rooms. I need you to
understand this about James and his character. He is a
straight shooter. He doesn't play. So let's look at James.
Chapter one, verse six. That's going to be our anchor
verse for this time together. James says this, he says,
but let him ask in faith with no doubting, For
(04:46):
the one who doubts it's like a wave of the
sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. To
read that warmer time. But let him ask in faith
with no doubting for the one who doubts, like a
wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by
the wind. Now, if you look at the prior verse
(05:06):
to verse six, he's talking about wisdom, and he's telling
us that we can go to God and we can
ask for wisdom. He said, God will give you wisdom liberally.
He will not hold it back from you. He will
give it to you without measure. But then James gives
this verse here in verse six because he lets you
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know that there is stipulations to going into God in prayer.
There are stipulations that you and I must look at
because God doesn't deal with us coming to him as
our father in doubt. Imagine if you're a child there's
food in the house, and even though there's food in
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the house, they come to you in doubt about wanting
about having the ability to eat the food. So God
doesn't want he doesn't want us to come before him
in doubt about the ability to enjoy the things that
God has for us. Because He is a good father.
So now, brother James, what he's about to do is
he is about to perform surgery on each of us.
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But the thing about this particular surgery is that, as
I told you, he's no nonsense. So James is going
to perform the surgery with no anesthesia. And so what
I want us to do is I want us to
dismantle this verse piece by piece. Those of you that
are watching on Facebook, welcome, those of you that are
listening to the podcast. Welcome those of you on Facebook.
(06:33):
Please get active in the chat, comments, questions, whatever you have.
We're here as a family and we're walking this walk together.
Let's look at this first wall. I want you to
take a look at this wall. I want you to touch it.
I want you to lean up against it. Wall number one,
the wall of wavering worship, the wall of wavering worship.
Let's look at the very first part of the verse
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in part part A. If you will, he says, but
let him ask in faith. But let him at her
ask in faith. On the surface, that seems simple, just ask,
just believe, easy, right, Let's keep it real. This is
anything but easy, because this isn't about prayer mechanics. What
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this is about. It's about the posture of your heart.
The posture of your heart before God. Ask in faith
means approaching God with unshakable conviction in two realities, one
his ability and to his goodness. If you're going to
approach God, you have to have unshakable conviction in those
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two realities, one his ability to perform, his ability to do,
and to his goodness. You don't serve an angry God.
God is not angry with you, because I think too
many times we treat God in a very casual kind
of a way. Hey God, if you got a minute,
Hey God, this is me again. Hey, big guy in
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the sky. So this asking faith, it demands confident expectation
from you, And I imagine this. Imagine you go to
a Michelin Star restaurant. Think about this. When you go
into the restaurant. Do you storm the kitchen, questioning the
chef's credentials. Do you interrogate him about did he wash
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his hands? Do you demand proof of if the ingredients
are fresh? No? You know what you do? You walk
into that restaurant and you sit expectantly, trusting that mastery awaits.
His reputation as a master chef precedes his skill speaks volumes.
His process needs no defense. But here's the gut punch. Family.
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We hand strangers our faith on a silver plattern. We
don't ask any questions. Yet we have the nerve the
unmitigated God to approach to God who breathed galaxies into being.
And we clutched doubt like it's a security blanket. We
got backup plans, we got insurance policies. See this wall
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of wavering worship, every brick mortared with prayers that sound
more like suggestions than request. If walls could talk, if
walls could testify, this one would whisper, Can God really
handle this? You better do it yourself. You better take
matters into your own own hands. You better keep your
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expectations running low. So this is a subtle self reliance,
and it masquerades as spiritual maturity. It's pride dressed in
humility's clothes. Think about that chef. That chef might burn
your soothfla. But the one who numbered every hair on
your head, the one who calls the stars by name,
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he's never want to drop the ball. So why do
we approach his throne? TikTok? Why do we approach his throne?
Uncertain when he invites us over in the Book of Hebrews.
I believe it's Hebrews chapter four. He invites us to
boldly come before His throne of grace and mercy to
obtain help in the time of need. Hear me, Asking
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in faith means your request is already undergirded by your worship.
And when I say worship, this is what I mean.
It means you believe God is who he says he is,
even before you see if he can do it or not.
That's simple faith. That's the starting line of your faith.
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You must believe as the Bible says that He is
a rewarder to those who diligently seek him. That's a
faith that isn't dependent on the outcome. That's a faith
that is dependent on the character of God. It's a
faith that says, God, I don't know how you're going
to do it. I don't know when you're going to
do it, but I know you. I know your track record,
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the personal application here for you, and I audit your prayers.
When is the last time you just did an audit
of your prayers? When is the last time you thought
about the prayers that you prayed have you considered any
of your prayers that you prayed today? Have you prayed today?
Are you praying from a place of desperation or are
you praying from a place of declaration because there's a
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difference between those two. Are your prayers filled with contingency
clauses and escape routes or are you approaching the throne
of grace with boldness? Not because of who you are,
but because of who He is. Your prayer life is
a direct reflection of your faith level. Wavering worship leads
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to wavering results. Wavering prayers lead to wavering results. So
the challenge for you and I is this, before you
ask for anything else, ask God to increase your faith
in his character. Before you go to God and ask
him for anything, Worship him first for his sovereignty. Worship
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him for his wisdom, Worship him for his love, Worship
him for his wonders. Because please hear me when I
say this, and you can write this down. You can't
ask from a God you don't trust. When your faith
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in God's character is solid, your faith in God's actions
will follow. I have a question for you. What has
your prayer life revealed about your view of God? What
is your prayer life spoke to you about how you
honestly see God? Do you see him like Isaiah and
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Isaiah chapter six high and lift it up? Or are
you running from God? Let's make a transition because I
want us to understand first the posture of asking in faith.
Once we understand that, then James immediately gives us the
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opposition that will crumble our foundation. Please understand, whatever you
seek to do for God, you are going to face opposition.
And that brings us to our next wall, Wall number two,
the wall of drifting doubt. This is where it gets good.
The verse continues. Look at James Chapter one, verse six.
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When to be part of that verse? Now, James says,
with no doubting, And this is the heart of the matter.
This is the wall that blocks the blessing. If you
can't get past this wall, you will not get to
the blessing. James is creating an unambiguous contrast here, and
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this is what I mean. You can either ask in
faith or you can entertain doubt. But what you're not
going to do is both. A double minded man, James
is going to say later, is unstable in all of
his ways, not some of his ways. All of his ways.
Jesus even got in on it. He says, no man
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having put his hands to the plow and looking back
is fit for the Kingdom of God. We can't have
a mind looking forward and looking back. We can't have
a double minded a double minded perspective of prayer, a
double minded perspective of who God is. And right here,
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what comes to my mind and putting this lesson together
was the prophety Lijah. It was almost as if Elijah
raised his hand and he said, I got something I
want to say tonight as well, And this is for
my people in the season of decisions. Right now, you
know who you are. In First Kings chapter eighteen, the
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prophet Elijah stands on Mount Carl. He's standing before the
nation of Israel. And for me, Elijah delivers one of
the most epic challenges in the entire Bible. The nation
was in a spiral crisis. The nation was in the
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spiritual free fall, much like the modern Church today. But
I digress. The nation of Israel. We're trying to worship
both Yahweh, the God of Israel, and a false God
by the name of bel. They were spiritually double minded.
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Double minded man is unstable in all of his ways.
This nation was unstable. And I want you to listen
closely to what the prophet Elijah says to the nation's
found in First Kings, chapter eighteen, verse twenty one. And
Elijah came near to all the people and said, how
long will you go limping between two different opinions? If
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the Lord is God cool, follow him. But if they're cool,
then follow him. Get this, And the people did not
answer him a word. Boom, mic drop. Did you catch that?
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Elijah said, the nation is limping between two different opinions.
They're limping between two different gods, two different gods that
oppose each other, and two different gods that are not
trying to see eye to eye. Because God said I
am the God, the Lord of all flesh. There's only
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one that sits on the throne. So when Elijah says
this living between two different opinions, that's not poetry. It's
actually backing up what James is saying as well, because
James isn't playing with the church. You got one foot
in faith, you got one foot in doubt. And you
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know what that makes you, That makes you paralyzed. You're
not moving, You're not moving forward. You're not moving backward.
You're stuck. You're stuck in the spiritual no man's lamb.
You're unstable, you're ineffective, you're spiritually disabled. This wall right here,
the wall of drifting down. It speaks lies with a
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silver tongue. This wall says, wat choose, mix a little
Jesus with a little Jezebel, Mix a little worship with
a little worldliness. Mix a little prayer meeting with a
little party scene. So you know what this wall does.
It parts, It pedals a counterfeit gospel. It pedals a
counterfeit gospel of compromise is preaching you can serve two masters.
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But remember Jesus dropped this hammer over in Matthew chapter six,
verse twenty four. And Jesus tells us in Matthew six
twenty four, he said it's impossible to serve to God's
And he pulls the God of money. He talks about
him and the God and the king. James says, mammit,
but he's talking about money. This is what I need
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you to understand. Your heart is a throne, and somebody's
sitting on that throne right now as you're listening to me.
Somebody is sitting on that throne. If God ain't ruling,
then you've already crowned another king. You're indecision. That is
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your decision. How long will you hawk between two opinions?
Elijah's step to Israel with a holy confrontation the whole nation.
He stepped to the whole nation. This wasn't a suggestion.
This was spiritual surgery. Your doubt is a wall. See
the thing. You got to understand. It's easier to limp
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than to leap. It's easier to shuffle than to stand.
Having done all the stand, the Bible says stand therefore,
But here's the revelation I want you to get. Doubt
isn't just mental in the context of what we're looking
at in James Chapter one, verse six, doubt is spiritual allegiance.
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When you doubt God, you're placing your faith somewhere else.
You may be placing it in your fears, in your past,
in your limitations, in people's opinions, in what you're hearing.
You're bowing to another God. So let's have some real talk.
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What's your bail? What's your bil? What opinion got you limping?
Is a culture's opinion is it the bank account's opinion?
Is it insecurities opinion? The lite is not asking for consideration.
You know what he's doing. He's demanding a decision. You
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have to choose today who you will serve. You cannot
build a life of purpose on a foundation of Maybe
it's tigning for us to grow up as Christians. The
challenge for you is to stop limping and decide. Yeah,
you might limp yourself into the church, and you limp
yourself right on the back up out of there. But
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if God is God, then follow him period. That means
when his word says one thing and your feelings say another,
you follow his word. When his promises seem impossible and
your reality seems overwhelming, guess what, you follow his promises.
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Question for you, and I want you to be honest,
and I want you to answer this question. Write it
down in your notes, and I want you to give
an answer to it. Where in your life are you
limping between two opinions? Where in your life are you
limping between two gods? I want you to locate those
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two contrasting opinions, and I want you to name them now.
This imagery of being unstable and indecisive it gets even
more vivid. And this is why I love the writing
of James, because James doesn't just tell us not to
doubt and leave it there. No what he's going to do. Now,
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He's going to show us exactly what doubt looks like.
He's going to give a powerful metaphor to show you
and I exactly what doubt looks like. And this leads
us to our third wall. And perhaps I feel this
is the most chaotic wall, Wall number three, the wall
of destructive division, the wall of destructive division. Now we're
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still in verse six James, Chapter one, Verse six. James
continues his analogy in the second half of that verse.
Look at verse six C for the one for the person,
for the man, for the woman who doubts. It's like
a wave of the sea. I want you to consider this.
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We live in Chicago, so we know we got Lake Michigan.
I don't know if you've ever seen the Pacific Ocean
or the Atlantic Ocean or the Gold Whenever I've stood
before a body of water, I just stand there and
just watch it because it's just something about it that
just amazes me to watch a body of water move.
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And so James picks a very clear analogy that he's
going to use for us. He's going to school us
on what doubt really looks like. Think about a wave.
You're standing out at the beach, You're looking at the waters,
roll in and roll out. Think about a wave from
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this perspective. Though a wave has no will of its own.
A wave has no internal guidance system. Stay with me.
A wave is completely at the mercy of external forces.
This is what he's comparing our doubts to. A wave
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doesn't decide weather to go left or weather to go right.
The current and the wind decide for the wave. That
is the very definition of instability. And this is the
spiritual diagnosis of the person who doubts. This is what
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James is showing you. You become a product of your environment.
When things are good, your faith is high. When the
storm comes, your faith crashes against the rocks. And what
ends up happening. You become reactive, not proactive. Your spiritual
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temperature is set by the climate of your circumstances, not
the conviction of your heart. And if this wall could talk,
this wall would screen for you to panic. The wind
is blowing, the storm is here. God has forgotten about
you you're going under. Oh, this wall is loud, it's
very loud. It's a wall of chaos. It's a wall
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of anxiety, it's a wall of emotional whiplash. And this
wall divides your mind, your heart, and your soul. And
this internal division, this civil war of your soul, because
that's what's happening within your soul. You have a civil
war that's taking place. And this, with James's describing, is
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capturing another biblical account. And this is for all my
people who feel like you're at war with yourself. You
ever felt that way? Remember what Paul cried out over
in Romas chapter seven. He said, the good that I
would I find another law warring inside of me. So
there's this internal conflict, this internal battle that's raging. You
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want to believe God, but you're looking at the doctor's reporting.
You want to believe God, but you're looking at your
bank stack. You want to believe God, but you're looking
at your bills. And there's this internal war that's happening
within you, and it's dividing you, and it's crashing you
against the rocks. Let's go to Mark. Gospel of Mark,
chapter nine, very familiar passage but I want us to
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look at it from another lens. So the father brings
his son, who has been tormented by demonic spirit. He
brings his son to nine men, nine disciples, because Jesus, James, Peter,
and John, they're up on the mountain of Transfiguration at
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this moment, so nine disciples, and guess what, they can't
help them. They can't heal them, they can't cast out
the demon. They're watching this boy flipping and flopping and
rolling and foaming at the mouth, and the demon is
just throwing him, tossing him to and fro. So the
father sees Jesus. He goes to Jesus and he tells Jesus, look,
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I brought my son to your disciples. I brought my
son to church and they couldn't do nothing for him.
What can you do? But I want you to listen
to this from a different perspective this time. I want
you to listen to this wraw, honest and powerful exchange
between his father and Jesus starting in March chapter nine,
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verse twenty two through twenty four ESV. Now where we're
picking it up. We're picking it up where the father
is explaining to Jesus exactly what this demon has been
doing to his son. Let's go and it. The demon
has often cast him, the son into fire and into
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water to destroy him. Please understand what this man is
going through. And the father says to Jesus, but if
you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
I love the fact that the father is in press
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just for the son. The father said, no, this is
affecting me too. I'm going through this too, and Jesus
says to him, watch this. If you can, all things
are possible for the one who believes. Immediately, the father
cried out. He said, I believe, help my unbelief. Do
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you see the division in this man. I believe, help
my unbelief. I need all the parents to stop right there.
If you can, That's what the father says to Jesus,
If you can. This father, who is in the struggle
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of his life, he comes dragging doubt like chains. He's
watched the disciples fail his child, and now that failure
that he he's witnessed has infected his faith. Sound familiar.
You've tried everything, hospitals, the doctors, the nurses, the counselors,
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the programs, the prayers, and your child is still in crisis.
But watch Jesus flip the script on the father. Jesus
in essence tell the father the issue ain't about my power.
The issue is your belief. He holds up a mirror
to this broken father's face boom, and then comes the
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realest prayer ever prayed. I believe, but help my unbelief.
The father just got naked before God. He's exposed. The
father is an essence, a walking contradiction, faith and fear
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in the same heartbeat. Sound like you, Sound like me.
See believing God can transform your child while secretly researching
military schools to send your child to. Trusting God's promise,
while crying in your car after another parent teacher conference,
declaring healing over your teenager while counting the fresh guards
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on their arms. You're not crazy, No, you're human. You're human.
That's what you are. And here's the breakthrough. And what
I respect so much about this man is that he
didn't fake the faith. He didn't fake the faith, he
didn't pretend his doubt didn't exist. See, this is where
he got us beat. He brought his shattered heart to
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the only one who could rebuild it. He confessed his
hope and his horror in the same breath. Revelation. Alert, God,
ain't scared of your doubt. God ain't scared about your
doubt about your child. He's not offended when you question
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if he can reach your son or your daughter. What
he can't work with is your pretense. Stop acting like
you got it together when you know you're falling apart.
Stop posting blessed and highly favored when you're broken and
barely functioning. Parents, This is your permission slip. Tell God
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the truth. Lord, I believe you can save my baby,
but they're getting worse. Help my unbelief. God, I know
you're their father, but I'm terrified. Help my unbelief. That
ain't weakness, No, you know what that is. That's warrior prayer.
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God honors that kind of prayer. You're inviting the God
of the universe into your family's ground zero emergency. Oh
the way that father's son, after he said what he
said to Jesus, delivered delivered that day, not this time
next year, delivered that day your child. I need you
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to hear me. God's not done. Don't you give up
on your child. Don't you give up on your child.
Your honesty in prayer is your breakthrough for your child.
Your transparency in prayer is your triumph. How do I know?
Because God specializes in impossible children. You're looking at one.
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Bring God your fragments and God will build a miracles.
That's all I'm asking you to do. That was especially
for all the parents out there who may be struggling
and going through a season with your child or with
your children. I need you to get that. I need
you to go back listen to that again. Write out
those notes, put it up on your mirror, put it
up on your wall. But you got to stand on this.
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You have to stand in the game for your children.
I'm standing in the gap for my children and my grandchildren.
You have to stand in the gap. You can't throw
up your hands, you can't get tired. You can't just
cry and okay, you cried, Okaya, Now we gotta go
to war. When nil Mayah went to go build rebuild
the walls of Jerusalem, you know what he had. He
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had shovel and he had sword. Nia mine said, I
wish somebody would run up. And that's what you're going
to have to do. You're going to have to get
in prayer and then you're going to have to get
your sword. What is your sword? The Word of God
got a question for you. What part of your unbelief
have you been trying to hide from God? What part
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of your unbelief have you been trying to hide from God?
Because this is real, this is raw. This is where
we have to be honest. You can't slap some money
down on an altar and this is going to go away. No,
you're going to have to travail. You're going to have
to lay out in the floor. But again, I need
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you to learn from this Father. Be honest with God.
Be honest with God, and watch God begin to move
some walls out of your life. But wait, there's more.
Because James isn't done with this wave analogy. We got
one more part of this verse. He adds another layer
to it, and that brings us to our final wall,
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Wall number four, the Wall of directionless drifting. The Wall
of Directionless Drifting, Verse six concludes. He says that it's
driven and tossed by the wind. So we're still dealing
with the doubter. Not only is the doubter unstable like
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a wave. Thanks brother James. If that wasn't enough, but
James also says no, they're also drifting. He says they're
driven and tossed. Now, if you really look at that,
you will see these are two different motions. These are
not the same emotions. Driven implies that you're being pushed
along a course you didn't choose. You ever feel like
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the wind was at your back, This is what's happening.
You ever felt like the wind was at your back
in life? Toss implies being thrown up and down, back
and forth. That is what was happening to that father's son.
He was being tossed back and forth. He was being
driven no rhyme or reason. And this is the person
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whose life lacks a spiritual anchor. Remember when we began this,
I said the power word is what anchor? Because you're
going to have to learn how to drop your anchor
in the midst of your stone. When you're not anchored,
you're pushed into decisions by pressure and you're tossed out
of them by difficulty. You're driven by the winds of
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popular opinion, cultural trends, pure pressure. You're tossed by the
winds of personal tragedy, financial hardship, em emotional turmoil. So
your life has no rudder. What's the purpose of a
rudder on a boat? Direction? You're lacking direction. You're just
all over the place. You're reacting to the last gust
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of wind that hits you, the last storm that hits you.
You just react. And if this wall could talk, it
would say, just go with the flow, don't make waves.
Everybody else is doing it. It's too hard to stand
for something. And this is the wall of compromise. This
is the wall of compromise and conformity. It's a life
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living on autopilot. And what happens is you drift further
and further and further and further away from God's intended
harbor for your life. You so far off course. And
this is where another powerful verse that I want us
to look at comes into play. And I want this
verse to help us. This is for my people who
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are surrounded by voices of fear and negativity, because you
know what it is to have somebody in your ear
and they don't believe God the way you believe God. Yeah,
I want to look at this Mark chapter five. We
touched on this a little bit in our last session
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with the woman with the issue of blood. What preceded
her miracle on her breakthrough was this situation right here
in Mark chapter five, there was a Synegod ruler named Jars.
Jars goes to Jesus and he begs Jesus to come
to his home to heal his dying daughter. In fact,
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his daughter's twelve years old. So you have these two
miracles happening at the same time. His daughter's twelve. The
woman with the issue of blood has had her issue
to twelve years. So on the way to the house,
because the woman with the issue, look, she jumps the line.
She was not next up. She jumps the line. And
so when she jumps the line, it delays Jesus from
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getting to Jervis's house. Because remember Jesus looking in the
crowd trying to find her. There's a crowd of people
thronging him. So once Jesus is finished speaking to the
woman and restoring her daughter, your faith has made you hope.
While that's happening, people approach Jervis, And they approached Jervis
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with some horrible news. Look at Mark five, verse thirty
five and thirty six. While he was still there speaking,
that came from the ruler's house, some who said, your
daughter is dead? Why trouble the teacher any further? Get this.
Jesus is eavesdropping on their conversation. He hears what they're telling Jervis,
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but overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler
of the synagogue, do not fear, only believe. Boom. Think
about the wind that just slammed Jeres. Think about the
time when you got the most horrible news in your life.
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This wasn't a breeze. This was a Category five hurricane,
Category five hurricane of hopelessness. Your daughter is dead. Lead
Jesus Lowe. I want you to feel that. I want
you to put your feet in Jefs's samples, because that
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voice of reason its screaming, That voice of reality is mocking.
That voice of shock is paralyzing. He's going through five
stages of grief just standing there. There's a voice of
why that's tormenting this man. There's a voice of finality
that's slamming the door shut Boom. There is a voice
(40:00):
of death declaring victory. This wind right here is designed
to demolish all Faith's engineered to drown all hope. It's
calculated to throw this father into an ocean of despair
and put this man under waves of grief. This wind
(40:22):
was screaming one message. Give up, it's over, go hope,
Leave Jesus alone, Go home. Your daughters did go call
leaks and son, Why are you still bothering him? Well,
watch Jesus. Jesus steps right into this hurricane. He looks
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dead in the eye of this storm, and he speaks
directly to the wind, tells Jers don't fear, only believe.
I like that. Jesus becomes Jerr's anchor in the storm.
His words become that anchor for Jarff's storm. He says,
tune out the wind of fear, tune into the wavelength
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of faith, and he drops a command. Your daughter's reality
doesn't have to be your reality. Don't let the wind
of what quote unquote they're saying drive you from my
presence or toss you from my promise. Only believe that
should be a t shirt. Only believe that word only
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is explosive. He's saying, exclusively, believe, solely trust. Filter out
every competing frequency, silence, every screaming voice. Jervis that's going
on in your head and your heart right now, he says,
anchor your entire existence in my word and my presence.
This is the ultimate defiance against the wind. This is
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spiritual rebellion. This is spiritual rebellion against reality. This is
a father of choosing to believe the voice of life
over the voice of depth. And this is faith declaring
war on facts. Because the winds were blowing. You had
a wind that was blowing and said funeral. Jesus said, future.
(42:14):
There was a wind that said it's over. Jesus said,
it's only the beginning. There was a wind that says dead.
And Jesus said, nah, she's just sleeping. If you continue
reading the story. When Jesus makes it to the house,
the mourners are in the house and Jesus like, why
are y'all crying? Why are y'all acting like this? And
they're like, are you serious? And jes said, she's not dead.
(42:35):
She'll asleep, and he laughed. Gu's what he did. He
put they behinds out the house, get out. You know why,
because fear and faith cannot occupy the same space. Fear
and faith in your mind cannot occupy the same space.
So he put them out, took the baby girl's hand
(42:56):
and told her to wake up.
Speaker 3 (42:58):
And that was it.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
See, the word of God has to be your anchor
when the diagnosis comes. Because the diagnosis is coming. The
word of God has to be your frequency when the
phone rings at two am, because it's going to ring
at two am. That's your defiance. When every voice screams
at you, it's impossible, Jesus is saying to you, and
he's saying to me, only believe. The profound insight is
(43:26):
that you have a choice about which winds you will
allow to move you. Fear is a wind, Doubt is
a wind, Negativity is a wind, Worry is a wind.
But faith, that's an anchor. Jesus was telling Jars, and
(43:46):
he's telling you drop the anchor of faith in the
middle of your storm. Storm you're going through right now,
You're going to have to drop your faith anchor. Can't
drop your emotional anchor. You have to drop your faith anchor.
Don't let the circumstances dictate your direction. Let your conviction
in Christ determine your stability. Here's a personal application for you.
(44:11):
I want you to identify the winds that are blowing
in your life right now. What voices are you listening
to that are driving you and tossing you. Is it
the news, is it the critical family member, Is it
the voice of your own past failures? Is it the diagnosis?
But you have to make a conscious choice, as Jesus did,
(44:34):
to overhear those voices, and then you have to tune
into his voice alone. There were different voices that were
talking to Jerris. There was the voice of the reality
of what happened to his daughter, and then there was
the voice of fate, the voice of an anchor that
was speaking to him as well. He chose to believe
the latter voice. Do not fear, only believe. So the
(44:58):
challenge for you and I is this, we have to
practice active belief. We have to practice right now belief.
When the wind of fear blows, you actively declare, God
has not given me the spirit of fear, but of love,
power and of a sound mind. When the wind of
lack blows in your direction, you have to actively declare,
(45:19):
My God will supply all my needs according to His
riches and glory in Christ, Jesus. You must fight the
wind with the word. Family, you must fight the wind
with the word. Remember over in March chapter four. I
believe it starts around verse thirty five. Remember when Jesus
(45:41):
fell asleep on the boat and the storm broke out.
Disciples are losing it. They run down, they wake him up,
and he gets on. He comes up to the top
of the boat, and he spoke to the wind and
the waves. He said, peace be still. What am I saying?
He spoke to the storm? He spoke to the storm.
Do you speak to your storm or do you run
(46:02):
from your storm? Question? For you, which wind right now
has the most influence over your emotions and decisions? Which
one right now? I need you to identify that win,
give that wind a name, and then you're going to
speak a word over So I want to bring all
(46:23):
of this together because we're tearing down these walls of doubt.
That's our goal, that's our assignment. We started with wall
number one, the wall of wavering worship. With that wall,
we realize that our approach to God has to be
rooted in confident faith, faith in his character, not just
(46:43):
a casual request. Then we confronted wall number two, the
wall of drifting doubt. Our brother Elijah showed up, helping
us to see that limping between two opinions it disables
our spiritual lives. And so you and I we have
to make a definitive choice to follow hard after God
(47:06):
and not after bail. Then we moved to Wal number three.
That was the wall of destructive division. Yeah, my favorite wall.
That was the wall where the father of the demon
possessed boy gave us permission to be honest about our
internal battles. Crying out to God, I believe helped my unbelief.
(47:30):
Somebody better take that one right there. And finally we
faced Wal number four, the wall of directionless drifting. And
that's where Jesus commanded to Jerer's do not fear, only believe.
What did that help us to see? It taught us
to anchor ourselves in his word, even in the midst
(47:52):
of difficult winds of circumstances. So now every single one
of these walls found is designed to do one thing,
and one thing only, to keep you from the life
that God has for you. Doubt is a thief. It
stills your peace, it stills your joy, it stills your purpose.
(48:15):
It's stills your future, it stills your sleep, it stills
your appetite. It promises you safety but delivers only stagnation.
And so it builds a prison, and it convinces you
that the prison is a palace. So these walls of doubt,
they're not your inheritance. This is not what God has
for you. Peace is your inheritance. Confidence is your inheritance.
(48:40):
Boldness is your inheritance. Love is your inheritance. A life
that is anchored, steadfast, and unmovable is your inheritance. So
today is a day of decisions for all of us.
It's today that you and I have to decide that
we're going to stop limping. We're going to stop limping
(49:00):
between two different opinions. It's a day to be honest
with God about your doubt and about your unbelief. It's
a day to choose to believe God's word over the
winds of the world. So the demolition of these walls,
it really begins with just a simple choice, a choice
to trust God, to trust him fully, to trust him completely.
(49:25):
Get this without a backup plan. You got to be
all in. Ten toes down. You have to be all
in if you're going to do this. That's how you
got to do it. Can't wait wait till Sunday and
run laps around the church and think that's done something. No,
the devil is sitting outside waiting on you. So here's
your call to action. I want you to identify your wall.
(49:47):
Identify the primary wall of doubt in your life that
made your wall, that thick wall, the one that's blocking
the light of God's Word from coming into your life.
Is it wavering worship? Is it drifting doubt? Is it
destructive division? Is it directionless drifting? Name it? Write it down.
Acknowledging your wall is the very first step to tearing
(50:09):
it down. And so your mission this week, I want
you to find a specific promise in God's word that
speaks directly to that wall. And then I want you
to declare that promise out loud every single day. Okay.
(50:31):
Number two, I want you to pray an honest prayer.
This is what I mean. I want to challenge you
within the next twenty four hour words. I want you
to find a quiet place and I want you to
pray the most honest prayer of your life. Turn off
all the noise, put the phone in a different room,
(50:51):
because there needs to be complete solitude with just you
and God. I want you to steal the words from
the Father in Mark nine. It's okay, he said you can, Lord,
I believe, help my unbelief. This is what I need
you to do. Confess the areas in your life where
your faith is fractured. I want you to invite Jesus
(51:12):
into the very heart of your doubt. Don't edit it,
don't sanitize it. Just be real with him, Just be
honest with him. If we had time, I could take
you to the Psalms. I can show you some of
the most honest psalms ever written. God is not afraid
of your honesty. Cast all your cares on him. That's
(51:34):
what one Peter three eighteen says. Cast all your cares
upon him? Why? Because he cares for you. Next thing
I want you to do is I want you to
anchor someone else. Anchor someone else because you're not in
this fight alone. And this week, I want you to
reach out to one person that you know is struggling
(51:57):
with doubt, and I want you to just share this message.
Don't judge them, don't preach with them, share your struggle,
be an anchor of hope for them. Sometimes the best
way to strengthen our own faith is to help someone
else secure theirs. I can be going through some craziness,
(52:20):
but I promise you the moment it comes time for
me to encourage someone else. I can do it like
flipping a switch my stuff. I can sit it over
there because I know it'll be there. But my point
is this, it doesn't disassemble my faith in God because
I'm going through something. So we have to understand that
(52:47):
there's power in our testimonies. There's power in our struggles.
There's power in our ability to convey and to communicate
someone else the love that God has for them too.
If this teaching has knocked down a wall in your life,
you know what I need from you. I need you
(53:07):
to share it Facebook family, I need you all to
come through for a brother. I need you to comment.
I need you to share it. I need you to
tag people that you know are living behind their wall
of doubt. To my podcast listeners on Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio.
I need you to subscribe, I need you to like,
I need you to follow, and I need you to
(53:29):
share that podcast with your family and friends. New podcast
drops every Thursday morning at nine am. Let's pray. Father,
we honor you, and we bless you, and we thank
you God, God. We thank you for this word. We
thank you God that you have spoken a word that
(53:51):
dismantles our doubt, that destroys our doubt. And so, Father,
even as our brother James says, help us to be
heroes of your word, and not help us to be
doers of your word and not hear us. Only help
us God to live a life of expectation. Help us
to live a life above God anything that we've experienced
so far. God, I thank you that you have fearfully
(54:14):
and wonderfully made us. I thank you God that your
word tells us to lean into You, to trust in
You at all of our heart, and not to lean
to our own understanding in all of our ways. God,
we are instructed to acknowledge you, and you will direct
our path. And so, Father, I pray that you will
direct us out of the storms that we're dealing with
right now. So Father, I pray for the mother who
(54:36):
may be going through challenges with her child, challenges with
her son, challenges with her daughter. I pray for them. God.
I pray for the family. God. I pray Father that
you will bring a word of peace, a word of comfort,
the word of hope. I pray for the fathers God
who may be struggling in their relationships with their children. God,
I pray that you will bring healing. I pray God
(54:57):
that you will bring connection. I pray for Father, that
they will forgive even God as you've forgiven us, Even
as you've forgiven us as far as the east is
from the west. Your word says you remember our sins.
No more so. God, Give us a heart of conviction,
Give us a heart of purpose, give us a heart
of steadfastness. God. We thank you for the examples that
you've given us tonight, God and your word. And I
(55:20):
pray God that this word will become embedded in our
hearts and in our mind and in our spirit. We
cancel out every assignment of the enemy. We cancel out
his decrees, We cancel out his orders. I thank you
God that your spirit will lead us and guide us
into all truth. And so God, even in this digital space, God,
even on this digital platform. Father, I pray that your
(55:42):
word will penetrate God the airwaves and will bring comfort
and bring healing. You will wipe tears God away. God.
I thank you. I pray God that you will give
us a testimony of victory in your name. God, help
us God to hold up a standard in our lives
that you have decreed for all of us. So God,
we bless you, we honor you, we thank you, we
(56:04):
love you, we praise you, and the matchless and the
mighty name of Jesus. Let every heart say, man and
a man listen. Family is always remember, get into the
word of God, and the word of God will get
into you, and we'll see you next time. For to
day my question.
Speaker 4 (56:28):
Peter walking on the water, got the word, receive the word,
hurt the word, and stepped up, agreed with it. The
wind blew, and fear came in, Yes, and doubt came
in it says in Matthew.
Speaker 3 (56:45):
He saw the wind. Yes, sir, he was afraid.
Speaker 4 (56:51):
Then he began a sink, taking our eyes, taking our focus,
taking and not being anchored.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
And what we've heard, what we've accepted, gets.
Speaker 4 (57:04):
Us off, gets us to sink, brings in fear, brings
him doubt. Thankfully for Peter, he grabs him, he's that
close to grabb him. Thankfully for us, we've got the
Holy Spirit. I'm just trying to make sure I got
this right. This is why this is quick.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
I'm glad you preach, you got it, you got it.
Speaker 4 (57:27):
And that's what one and and then and then then
then his question was after he grabbed him and pulled
him back, the only question says, why do you have
a little faith?
Speaker 3 (57:36):
Why did you.
Speaker 2 (57:37):
Doubt we're doing so good?
Speaker 3 (57:42):
And then they get back in the but gone.
Speaker 4 (57:49):
Him, Oh please, I'm sorry from messing up the podcast time.
Speaker 2 (58:02):
That's that's exactly we go through.
Speaker 4 (58:04):
Exactly exactly, It's what we all deal with here now
on this side. And this is these are two perfect
Holy textbook readings on how to handle fearing doubt. The cousins. Yeah,
standing on his word, trusting on his word, loving him
(58:27):
as much as he loved us.
Speaker 3 (58:30):
Okay, just make sure I got it all.
Speaker 2 (58:31):
Right, so good, because Dana get this. The distractions Peter
got distracted. The distractions are going to come. But if
you don't have that single pursuit of I see Jesus,
and I'm gonna keep my eyes on him. See, we
knows the people we started looking off here, what you're on?
What you no? No, no, no, no, no, you're too
close right now. And so when Peter start who knows,
(58:54):
Peter probably started flexing at the other disciple. Yeah, look
at me. He probably started jewing on that beat across
that water and guess what. He took his eyes off
Jesus and he began to sink, and Jesus held him
responsible for that. Peter did something that nobody in history
has ever done. Walked on water. Bro Are you serious
(59:14):
right now? Walk on that water? And that's what God
is calling us to do. He's calling us to walk
on some things that other people are sinking in. But
he's saying, you have the ability to do it, but
you gotta keep your focus on me.
Speaker 4 (59:29):
That's it simple, okay, okay, just want to make sure
I had it.
Speaker 2 (59:38):
I'm sending you my tithes in my offers to Hu.
Speaker 4 (59:41):
Don't you start, don't you? Don't you start anyway? Let
me wrap this up. Family, We thank you for this word.
We thank you God for sharing this brother Tim. We
also want to thank you for those who are on
the Facebook side.
Speaker 3 (59:59):
We had top.
Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
Fans Siameka and Keisha. We had our main man Kyle,
We had Tracy Taylor. We also had Pie Truth come through.
We appreciate you again your assignment. Share this message, Share
this out with someone who has dealt with who is
(01:00:23):
dealing with doubt, fear that when life is life and
like I said on Saturday, it's His word that stands
as our foundation, that stands as our anchor.
Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
Grab hold of this and share it.
Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
And you remember you've got homework assignments in this as well,
So go back and listen to it again. Get to
seeing you one more time, two more times on this
on through the podcast. I want to thank brother David,
Jay and Pops and brother David a each and brother
Sam and brother Oliver, brother Fred, Brother Sam. I am
(01:01:06):
brother Dana, he was brother Tim. We are brothers in
the Word and we do this sharing of God's Word
twice a week Saturdays and ten. And Sam's getting ready
to come up real quick with his promo for what
he's going to be sharing with us this Saturday and
on Wednesdays Wednesday night six pm, Saturday mornings eight am.
Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
Sam
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