Glorious Way Church

Simple Word Of Faith | James Buntrock

• James Buntrock

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In this teaching, Pastor James Buntrock breaks down “The Simple Word of Faith” as the Bible’s straightforward, everyday way of living—not hype, not “name it and claim it,” but believing God’s Word and speaking in line with it. Using Romans 10, Deuteronomy 30, and Mark 11, he explains that faith is “near you”—in your heart and in your mouth—and that consistent confession (“systematic discourse”) shapes outcomes over time. Through stories like the Shunammite woman’s “It is well,” a dramatic family testimony of supernatural protection after a car accident, and practical examples about how to talk honestly without talking defeat, he shows how faith drives out fear, builds confidence, and produces testimony. The takeaway: facts may be real, but they’re subject to change—so hold fast to God’s promises, keep your believer connected to your speaker, and let the word of faith work in your life.

SPEAKER_00:

If you don't mind lifting up your Bibles, and we'll just make a declaration of faith and prepare ourselves. Say this these words. Say, Heavenly Father, thank you for your holy written word. Holy Spirit, breathe life on this word. Let it come alive to me. My heart is open. It is receptive. I'm ready to receive all that you have for me. And I give you all the praise for it. In Jesus' name. Amen. Y'all can be seated. Thank you, praise and worship team. So, in case you don't know, my name is James Buntrock. I'm one of the pastors here at Glorious Way Church. Pastor gets the night off tonight. And uh it's a it's a scheduled time, so we rotate through the pulpit here from time to time. And uh it's my pleasure to get to bring you uh this message tonight. Pastor leaves instructions for us when we minister. Sometimes the instructions go like this feed the sheep. Feed the sheep. Teach what you take for granted. So it doesn't have to be some uh uh highly researched, very carefully developed over weeks and weeks message that we work so hard on to prepare and and bring you just for tonight. It's not us showing off, but this is just his word tonight. And really, that's the best thing ever. It's his word, and the Holy Spirit will will back it up every time. And so I've got a message for you tonight. It's titled The Simple Word of Faith. And uh I I know that there's a um a variety of opinions out there concerning the word of faith and what that means, and and some people think that the word of faith is just ludicrous and and uh um uh greedy because that you know there's a tendency of the word of faith to be name it and claim it, and and uh really there that is true. You can name it and claim it, but you have to name what's in God's word. If it's not in his word, you can't claim anything outside of his word. And so faith begins where the will of God is known, and his will is written in his word. And when you get outside of that, we wander off into areas of foolishness and presumption. And then it gets weird. But really, the simple word of faith is the basic uh salvation route. It is how we were saved. We were saved by the word of faith. And so we're gonna get into God's word tonight, and we're gonna begin in Romans chapter 10, verse 1. And uh we'll read some of these scriptures here. Romans 10, verse 1, and we'll go down to uh about verse 7. It says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is this that they may be saved. So this is Paul uh preaching here, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. So they're trying to do things on their own by works. Verse 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And so he was the end of the law for those who believe. For those who don't believe, I guess they're still stuck with the law, even though Christ has fulfilled the law in its entirety on our behalf. Verse 5, for Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law. The man who does those things shall live by them. And so if you're going to try to live by the law, you're gonna be bound by the law and suffer the consequences written in the law when you can't live up to the law. Verse 6, but the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. And uh it says, But what does it say in verse 8? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we preach. And here it is, the simple word of faith. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And in that passage right there, Paul took a verse from verse six, actually, um, from Deuteronomy. And so and he often does this. He's quoting uh the written uh word of that day, not knowing that his letters would become the written word of this day. So he's quoting the word out of Deuteronomy six. Um, and in I'm sorry, Deuteronomy 30, Deuteronomy 30, 11. I'll read this to you real quick, for this is the commandment which I command you today, is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, Who will ascend to heaven and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it, nor is it beyond the sea that we should say, Who will go over the sea and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it? But the word is very near in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it. Um there's a a principle here, and that is the word of faith is not a New Testament thing. It's not an Old Testament thing, it's a Bible thing. They talked about the word, the answer being near in their heart and in their mouth. And Paul referenced that from the Old Testament and declared it in Romans chapter 10, verse 6, and said, This is how we get saved. It also says several places that the just shall live by faith. Romans 1 17, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Galatians 3 11. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Hebrews 10 38, now the just shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2.4, behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith. So we like to major on the things that the Bible majors on, and minor on the things that the Bible minors on. This is repeated multiple times here. It must be in the category of important, or it wouldn't be repeated so many times. The just shall live by faith. So it's not your natural ability, but it is the faith in God that will provide for your living. Um the the Hebrew word there for shall live, the just shall live by faith in the Hebrew is uh um chayah. I'm not gonna spit on you, but I guess that's how you would say that. Not haya like karate, but chayah. Um and it means to revive, to keep, to make alive, to live, to nourish up, preserve, quicken, recover, repair, restore, revive, save, and to be made whole. All of that is wrapped up in live, shall live. The just shall be made whole. The just shall be revived, shall be restored, shall recover, shall be quickened, shall be nourished. All those things are wrapped up in shall live. And how do we do it? By faith. And so uh we're taking this Old Testament principle, this New Testament principle, it's a Bible principle that the word of faith is how we operate this. Now, in the beginning, each one of us was dealt a measure of faith, and that we are saved by grace through faith. Jesus has uh been made righteousness for us, and we appropriate righteousness. How? By faith. Um, Abraham had faith. It says so. He believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. And so in the Old Testament, you have the works, and and faith had a big part of that. To believe what God said and to act on what God said was counted unto him as righteousness. For us, we believe that Jesus died for us, that he was made a propitiation for our sins. He took our place on the cross. He died, he went to hell, he defeated death, hell, and the grave, he rose again and made room for us in his family, and so we just simply believe and confess, and we can have that. And so we get to live because of that. I'm gonna uh talk about an Old Testament example here about operating in this because we talked about it at the uh at the very beginning here that it's by what we say, what we believe in our heart, and what we speak out of our mouth, um, those things we can have. Um let's go back to uh Old Testament example here. I'm gonna paraphrase a lot of this because this is a long passage, but this is 2 Kings chapter 4, and it's gonna run cover most of that chapter, but really 8 through 37 is where I'm gonna be. You can just write down the reference here, and I'll uh I'll do my best to paraphrase this. And so uh it starts out by saying, It happened one day that Elisha went to Shunam where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to come in and eat food. And so as often as he would pass by there, she would open up her house, she and her husband, and and feed him there. And and she said to her, the husband, wife and husband have a conversation. We know that this is a man of God, and we ought to make a room for him. And so they made a room and they outfitted this room for him, so that whenever the man of God came by the area, they made a place for him and uh and and and uh uh took care of him while he was there. And so they made room for the presence of God. So after a while, the prophet asked, What can I do for this woman? And the prophet has a servant, his name is Gehazi, and so he wants to know what can I do for this woman who's been so gracious to us and made room for us. And uh and she said, I don't I don't need anything, I dwell amongst my own. And uh Gehazi picked up some intel. He said that she was uh she had no son and her husband is old, and so there was really no hope for them to have a son. And so the prophet spoke for God here, and he said, About this time next year, you're gonna embrace a son. And she said, Oh no, don't mess with me. Don't lie to your maidservant. And uh and he said, No, really, this time next year you're gonna have a son. And so she did. The child grew, uh, began to grow, she had her child, the child grew a little bit older, and he's working in the field. Um, the child had some pain in his head, a really bad headache, uh, my head, my head. She brought they brought him inside, and ultimately her son died. And she was at a crossroads where she could speak the circumstances or she could answer with her faith. Now she had a word from God that God would give her, because the prophet stood for God, that God would give her a son. Don't mess with me. He said, I'm not messing with you, you're gonna have a son. Now, why would God give her a son just to take him away? And so she was holding on to that. The son died. And what did she do? She uh instructed one of her servants to go get a donkey and and and made plans to go see the prophet. And when asked about it, she said, It is well. When her husband asked about it, she said, It is well. And she hurries off to go see the prophet. Um, and uh and the prophet sees her coming and uh he sends Gehazi down to ask how you know what's wrong, is everything okay? And the response came back, it is well. But he could see that she was greatly distressed, in deep distress. And so he recognized that there was a problem with the sun, and uh and so he sent Gehazi to carry the staff. Gehazi lays the staff on the child. Um, no response. And uh the prophet comes in and lays on face to face, hand to hand, feet to feet, stretched out across the child. Um, and ultimately that child opened his eyes and he returned the child to the woman, said, Pick up your son, and she went in, fell at his feet, bowed down to the ground, she picked up her son and went out. So she had an opportunity to speak something other than what the promise of God was. But her response was, It is well. Now, this morning we had testimony Sunday, and many of you got, some of you came up here and gave your testimonies, and all y'all who were here got to hear the wonderful testimonies this morning. Uh, Linda Donaldson came up and she gave part of her testimony about her sons that were in dire straits. They were not serving God and and uh and doing awful, terrible things, and people would ask you about your son, your sons. And her response to that was God's hand is on them. God's got them. So she didn't speak the circumstances, she just spoke the truth according to God's word. Now, now, how does she know the hand of God is on it? Because she'd been declaring, as for me and my house, we they were our whole house is going to be saved. She'd been speaking the word over them, she'd been declaring things out of God's word over her children, and ultimately her children serve God now. And they are born again, and they got turned around. But when asked in the middle of the circumstance, she doesn't repeat the circumstance and state the obvious what's what other people are seeing. She got to speak what she had already been saying. The hand of God is on them. And so it is well. How many you you bought a car and you expect your car to uh to function properly, do everything it's supposed to do? Maybe you got a new car and uh um and you get a warranty, a five-year, hundred thousand mile warranty if you get a really good one. Maybe it's three-year, 36, but if something happens inside that warranty period, what do you do? Do you fall apart and start having a breakdown, a meltdown, and start crying over it? Or do you start bowing up a little bit and say, by God, this car has only got 10,000 miles on it, and this kind of nonsense should not be happening to my car. I'm gonna take it right back to the dealer, and they're gonna make it right because I have a contract with them. Isn't that right? All right, so this Shunammite woman, she kind of had a contract with the man of God. She had a promise. And so what did she do? She marched right back to the place where the promise came from, and she started making her case and laying claim to the warranty that was due. And she got the warranty work done and she received her son. And so this is the simple word of faith that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you can have it. For with the heart one believes into righteousness, and with confession uh and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Moses wrote about the righteousness which was in the law, and said that the man who does those things shall live by those things. In other words, those who fully earned their righteousness according to law got to live. If they fully earned it, they got to live. The Shunammite knew that she was in full compliance with her terms of her warranty, and she went back and she made her claim, and and and the uh the guarantee uh was made good. It is well. She didn't say anything to violate that word. Now, Jesus had taught this principle to his disciples. Um let's go to Mark 11, 20. And this is the common verse that everybody, you know, that pastor we preach from a lot around here. We're a word of faith church, and uh this is also a big part of the basis for this. But this is kind of where uh some people get off the rails when when they start naming and claiming anything that they want. And that's not really what this what this scripture says. So in in Mark 11, verse 20, it says, Now in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree. So it starts with Jesus cursing the fig tree. They saw the fig tree dried up by the roots, and Peter remembering what Jesus had done prior, he said, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed is withered away. And Jesus is like, Yeah? So what? I said, Why cumbereth thou the ground and cursed that thing? And it like it was normal for Jesus. This was new for Peter. And Jesus answered and said to him, Have faith in God. For assuredly I say to you, whoever says or speaks to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believe those things which he says will be done, he'll have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. So pastors uh broken down a couple of uh Greek words here in verse 23. For assuredly I say to you, whoever says, and that Greek word is epo, which means to speak. For whoever speaks to the mountain, and here's the quote, be removed and cast into the sea, and if he does not doubt in his heart, but believes those things which he lego, that's a different word right there, and the word lego means systematic discourse, means that this is what you continually say. What are you continually saying to this mountain? Be removed and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes those things which he continually says will be done, he'll have whatever he speaks. And so it really comes down to what are you continually speaking in your life over your situation? And I get it. From time to time, we, you know, stress happens and and you let a little something slip, and uh uh you might take a step backwards in what you say. How's it going today? Oh man, it's going awful. Instead of saying it is well, instead of speaking the word. Uh and so, you know, it's easy to it it's easy to get off course a little bit and and say some of these things. Now, I know in in the word of faith, uh religious speak. Um people get tongue tied and tied in knots about, you know, what can I say and how can I say it, and I don't want to lie. Somebody just asked me about something and I want to speak the truth. I want to be honest with them. How can I tell somebody I'm going through something while at the same time maintaining my word of faith confession so that I don't undo what I've been speaking all along? And we end up just kind of getting all tied up in knots and don't really know what to say sometimes. And then there's like the religious side, and I don't mean this critically, but it just kind of happens. I mean, we there's there are things that we say with doctrine, and there's a certain way that we say it, and it's church ease. And if you think about the normal person out there who is not in church on a regular basis, they're going to hear you saying stuff, and it's just bizarre. Like if you were to say to somebody, I'm believing God for something, I'm believing God. Like in the normal semantics of our everyday life, when you when you truly believe that something is real and fact, you don't say, I'm believing this is the case. Nobody says that. I mean, we say it in church. And we say it in church when we're trying to mix faith with our words and say the right thing about something. But just in the everyday life out there, we don't say, uh, I'm believing my grass is green. Nobody says that. If you're going to make the statement about your grass being green, you're going to say, My grass is green. And we don't trip over our words. Or I haven't watered my lawn in a long time. We've had a hot, dry summer, and my grass is brown. Well, your grass is brown, but you want to speak faith over your yard and want it to live, and so you say, I'm believing my yard is green. Your neighbor's going to look at you like you're nuts. That's weird. And so we don't have to get tangled up in all of these things. And you can say, Well, my yard is looking brown right now, but this is about to turn around, this is about to change. I'm going to be doing some things about my yard, and before you know it, this yard's going to be looking real green. So you can speak about your situation without lying about it. It's okay to state a fact about it because facts are subject to change. And when you speak the word of faith in your life over any fact in your life, and you continually speak the word of faith, what you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth causes the change that you're after. And so, and it doesn't happen overnight unless you have like the ultimate level of faith and you're built up because then it can speed things up. But we all start out with a measure of faith. And faith is a fruit of the spirit, and it's a fruit of the reborn spirit. Um, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and the King James says faith, or it might new King James, faithfulness and self-control. And that is in uh uh Galatians 5, 22. And so I'm just gonna pull up while I'm standing here, strong's concordance. And I believe it's now I'm now I'm putting myself on the spot. Galatians 5, I think it's 22. Hey, look ye there. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. That's in the King James. This concordance right here, I can click on any one of these words, so I click on faith, and then I can see uh whether it's Hebrew in the in the Old Testament or Greek in the New Testament, and I can see all the definition right here. Within this definition of faith, it says constancy in such uh in such profession. Or in other words, constancy of your profession. What are you professing? The constancy of your profession. So faith in this word right here is a fruit of the spirit, and it has everything to do with what are you constantly professing. And that's a fruit of the reborn spirit. So we don't necessarily have all that faith. But and we grow we grow in faith. We go from faith to faith and glory to glory, and we know that the word of God increases our faith. Jesus measures faith with his disciples, and so our faith is something that can grow. It's a fruit, and fruit is grown. So if I go back to uh Genesis chapter 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. So everything was in a state of chaos without form and void. And it says, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. He was hovering over the chaos. So this was not even an instant thing. He spent some time hovering over the chaos. Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Now, did God say, Let there be light, and boom, the lights were on? I don't know. Perhaps it was. But we also know that creation was a seven-day period and that it all didn't happen in one split second. And so when we speak faith, when we speak words of faith according to the will of God, according to his word, um, we can expect that we can have what we say. If we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth, we can have the word of faith. What is the word of faith that you're speaking? We can have that. But it may not be instantaneous. Um, but it could be, but it might not be. So I look at this, uh, my son, Benjamin, our son, Benjamin, um he uh he started ordering um some parts, some some electronic parts, some mechanical parts, like random little things that were showing up, little Amazon packages, something from a company I never heard of. And I'm like, Ben, what are all these things? He's like, um, I'm thinking about building a guitar. And then his next thing was, can we go to the uh the specialty wood store and get some wood? And so I took him to the wood store. We went to a fancy wood place that has the really exotic woods. Um, and we went and I let him pick out some lumber. And so this was raw lumber. Now, mind you, that raw lumber didn't start out looking like raw lumber, it started looking like a tree somewhere in a forest and had branches and leaves on it. And somebody had to cut that tree down and then mill that into some raw lumber, and then it made its way over, and then he had to pick out some lumber, and then he brought it to our garage, and then he started milling this thing down and gluing things up together, and the guitar began to take shape. And then these little components that he added, you know, they didn't start out as a component, they started out as some metallic ore somewhere, and somebody mined that out of the ground and went through a process and created these parts, and then he began to assemble these things together, and it took a little bit of time. But he had a systematic discourse, if you will. He was constant in his uh action. Um, he was constant in his words about that. He never got tied in knots about building a guitar and telling people, you know, what is that? Well, it it's a guitar. Well, it doesn't look like a guitar, yeah, but it's it's it's a guitar in progress. And so when you speak your words of faith, can constantly having that systematic discourse, you are building or framing your world. You're building that thing with your words. And it doesn't happen immediately, could, but uh I look at this thing in the long haul. Um, what have you been speaking in the long haul? Because that's what you're gonna have right now. Um, Claire and I, and this is uh a testimony from 23, but uh uh October, I'm sorry, it was uh 20, yeah, 23. October 23, our daughter got into a terrible car accident, was broadsided by a pickup truck and her little Kia sole. Um he was going way too fast, and uh, and some nice person waved her and to pass through the line of traffic, she never saw the truck coming. And she was found at the scene unconscious by the fire chief. Claire and I got the call. We were about a mile from the house. That was a terrible feeling, especially when he said she had signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injury, and they're loading her in a helicopter right now, and they're gonna fly her to the hospital, the same hospital that she was born in. All the feelings of fear, all the feelings of the situation of oh my gosh, did we lose our daughter? Oh my gosh, is she gonna what kind of life is she gonna have after this? All those thoughts were there. That was real. We didn't give voice to any of those things. What immediately came out was it as well. So uh a mother of Thea's friend who was now aware that Thea had been in a car accident and seen the wreckage on the side of the road and knew that Thea had been transported somewhere. She was hysterical, calling Claire on the phone, and Claire's consoling this mother now. Don't fear, only believe. Only pray the word. And before you know it, this Baptist lady is only praying the word. We find out later that there were a lot of people. She rang up everybody she knew, and it made it all the way back around, I think to Carol at some point. Um the mom network lights up, and the instructions on the mom network were don't fear, only believe, and only pray the word. And that's what they did. So that when Claire and I driving down 290, I'm driving 100 miles an hour, I'm watching the helicopter fly over over top of us, and we get to the hospital and get up uh to that trauma unit where Thea was on that bed. And she said, I'm fine, Mom. And they kept her because they had to run all the tests and do all the scans and all the x-rays and all the stuff. And they said, Okay, you're free to go. They gave her a band-aid and a Tylenol, and we walked out of there and drove home. It was five hours later. She took off from the ground after having been unconscious for some period of time. Thank God for the local Tombalian who put duct tape on her head to stop the bleeding from a little scratch on her head. And they had to peel the duct tape off her head. Traumatic brain injury symptoms. Lands at the hospital and she's fine. It is well. It is well. And I know that didn't happen because we began to say those words for the first time ever in our life, but we speak good things over our kids. We speak the protection of God over our kids. They will live and not die, they will declare the works of the Lord. They're like a tree planted by the river of water. They bring forth their fruit in their season, their leaf also shall not wither. Whatever they do will prosper. They will fulfill the plan of God in their life. We have been saying these things over our kids since birth. And so these words of faith, we believe in our heart, we confess with our mouth God's will. We got those things out of His Word. And we've been confessing those things, declaring those things. And we really believe those things. Not fearful about them. We really believe it. You know, it might start out a little bit awkward because you're saying something you're a little bit unsure of, but it's God's word. And so if you can build your faith along the way until you really believe, I mean, fake it until you make it. Speak his word. Faith it until you make it. But it starts out with just reading something and speaking it, even though your head might not be wrapped around it. But you can grow. And soon, the more you say that, the more you meditate on these things, the more that it's on the inside of you, the more you really do believe it. And then it's not a surprise when it happens. Now, along the way, it's it's uh it's easy to say the wrong thing, and we we could say the wrong thing, and it it can be a setback from time to time. Um but then you just correct and turn it around and go on. In um Second Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7, Paul writes, But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. That is the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. And so that he went through all these things, but he wasn't knocked down, he wasn't destroyed, he was under pressure, but he just kept on going. Verse 13 says, And since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believe, and therefore I spoke. So he's quoting something out of Psalms. David said that one time, actually to the negative. He believed the wrong thing and spoke the wrong thing, and then repented for saying the wrong thing. That was David in Psalms. But here Paul writes, Um, Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believe, and therefore I spoke, we also believe, and therefore we speak. And so it behooves you to believe some good things. Build up your faith in what you believe so that when you're pressed, this word comes out. Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up in Jesus and will present us with you. So Paul took the line out of Psalms, he applied the word of faith. He reached to the Old Testament, applied the word of faith. Um we know that the Spirit of faith works by believing and speaking. For the word of faith to work properly, it must be in your mouth and in your heart. And so it really requires that your believer, your heart, is connected with your speaker, your lips. So that's really point number one for tonight. Make sure your believer is connected to your speaker and that you're believing and speaking the right things here. Um, Paul, when he was sailing on a ship, a prison ship, he said this. He said, For there stood uh he said uh in verse 22, so this is Acts 27, 22, he says, And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. He had already had a premonition about how this ship was going to end in peril. He warned them not to go. And the and the captain of the ship didn't listen to Paul, uh, and he set sail anyway. And so now they're they're violating the premonition that Paul said, Now we're in danger, and uh we're we're all in peril. But God gave him uh gave him a special word. And so Paul was able to speak comfort to those on board. He said in verse 23, For there stood by me this night an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar. And indeed God has granted all those who sail with you. This is a man in chains, and God said, The man in chains is the one in charge, and all those other people on the ship are with the guy in chains. God's perspective. Kind of fun. Um he has given all those who sail with you. Verse 25, therefore take heart, men, for I believe God just as it was told me. I believe God just as he showed me. And so he's believing and he's speaking. And of course, you know, you could follow the rest of that story. Not a single person on board that ship was lost. They followed the instructions of Paul and all were saved. And it was a witness, it was a sign and a witness to all those around. Another sailing story here is in Luke chapter 8, verse 22. Uh this is where uh it says, On a certain day, he, Jesus, got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, Let us cross over to the other side of the lake. So here's the directive. Let's get in the boat and let us cross over to the other side. And they launched out. They obeyed. Like good disciples do, they quickly obeyed. But it says, as they sailed, he, Jesus, fell asleep. He had full faith and confidence in their seamanship, their ability to operate that boat. They knew the waters. They'd been out on that lake before, and he just said, I'm going to take a nap, guys. You get us to the other side. And then a windstorm came, and it was an ugly one, and the boat was filling with water, and they're in peril. And they came to him crying, screaming, Master, Master, don't you care that we're perishing? And that's what they woke him up with. And so he arose, he rebuked the wind and the waves, and immediately there was a calm. But his response to them was, Where is your faith? Where is your faith? And of course they were terrified. They were shocked and amazed that he just spoke to the wind and the waves, and they obeyed him, and he was amazed at their lack of faith. Where is your faith? I told you to go to the other side. And they wouldn't, they they they they had they they obeyed it, yes, go to the other side. They got in the boat, but then they failed at the wind and the wave. Where is your faith? I told you this. I mean, that was a given. Doesn't matter what you come across, get to the other side, handle it. And he expected that they could, but that's our example, and so um we can speak to those circumstances around us. Nature understands and recognizes God's word, even when it comes out of your mouth. God's word in your mouth will accomplish the same thing that God's word in his mouth accomplishes. Um, you can look around nature and see God in nature. It is actually hard to believe that there's not a God. When you look at all of creation, all of creation recognizes that there is a creator. And so it is easy for people to believe on day one, never having seen a creator, they see the evidence of the creator. There is evidence of his existence. And so the next step is that he cares for you, that he loves you, and he made a way for you. And so, you know, a little bit of faith will get you a long way. Um having the constancy of the profession of our faith makes all the difference. All right, so here's a this is a personal example, uh, a sailing story, since we're in the um in the water stories, the boat stories here. Um when I was in college, I was a charter boat captain, had a captain's license, and I got paid to take people sailing. I had the hardest time going to college, going to class in college, it was in Corpus Christi, because I go down to Ocean Drive and I could turn right and go to class, or I could go left and go to the marina and go sailing. And so every day I was faced with that tough decision. And then I had people who wanted to hire me to take them sailing, so I get paid to do the Very thing that I absolutely loved to do, and that was even a tougher choice. So I had a real hard time getting through college that close to the water. I was on a sailing excursion a few hours out in the bay, and uh we're sailing along at a pretty good clip, moving along and just kind of bouncing through the waves of the bay. And there were two little girls that were on board the sailboat, and they were up at the bow, kind of in the bow pulpit area. There's a little railing up there, and they were riding the waves up and down and splashing, having a good time. And in the midst of all that wind and wave sound and the sound of sailing, I heard this little voice that says, There goes the anchor. I looked over at my friend Mike. What did they say? I think they said, There goes the anchor. And I look up. The anchor, which is secured to the bow, had come unsecured and deployed itself overboard, and the anchor line is now flying out of the little uh anchor locker right there in the deck, and the anchor line is dragging behind us because we're moving through the water, and that thing's about to come tight very quickly, and it yanked us around and jerked that boat around, and we kind of had a mess of sails and lines flying about while we came to a sudden stop. So that right there is an image of you know, we're sailing along, we're doing good, our we've had systematic discourse, we've been saying the right thing, we're constant in our in our faith declaration, and then circumstances happen and we slip and we say the wrong thing and come to a sudden stop. So that's just a picture of it matters what you say. Um let's talk about the inward witness. Because we, you know, if you're a born-again believer, you have the Holy Spirit on the inside of you. And it it says in the word that he leads us by the inward witness. There's a still small voice. Sometimes you can, you know, make out a word, you can hear, I don't know that it's an audible thing, but your spirit gets to know things before your brain knows things. More often, it's really just an internal knowing. Your spirit, your born-again spirit, is in direct communication with the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of you. And the Holy Spirit exists to lead you, to guide you, to teach you things, to show you things to come. He's your helper. He'll warn you about things. By the way, Thea had an inward witness warning about that accident before she had that accident. She's driving down the road and she had a feeling. What if I get into an accident? She had something on the inside that warned her that there was a risk of accident. And so she prayed for her own protection while she's driving down the road. And that feeling still didn't go away. And so she did the next thing that she needed to do. She's a praise and worshiper, and so she turns on praise and worship music in the car and just starts singing along with it. She's trying to get peace back because she's feeling a little bit of angst on the inside. Something's not right. She knows it, but she's trying to generate some peace. And so she she does that by getting into a mode of praise and worship. And it was when she got into that turn lane to make that left-hand turn that she felt trapped and she knew that she probably shouldn't do it, and she kind of violated that inward witness. She didn't have to have that accident. There was a warning on the inside. You can bet she learned about that. She understands more about that inward witness. But sometimes you just lose your peace about something. You know something's not quite right. And so the Holy Spirit on the inside will help you uh know uh about impending danger, and he'll make you feel easy, uneasy about something, or he'll give you peace in the right direction. There might be a tough decision in front of you, and there they're just um something that should normally be very difficult can suddenly become very peaceful and easy. So there was a testimony this morning about uh Mo and Amanda Alexander and the offering that they gave. They came to church with their intent of presenting God with an offering, and both husband and wife became dissatisfied about that offering. They wouldn't have been wrong to give God an offering. They wouldn't have gone, and they come up and they present it to God, they're not presenting it to a person, there he receives it, but their heart was to give, and they were just dissatisfied with it. Between the two of them, they said they agreed to ten times their offering. And they did. And immediately on the other side of that, the rest of that testimony played out. He's walking back to his seat and he sees his dad coming into church for the very first time ever, who only had an invitation just 30 minutes prior, and his dad shows up. And an obligation that was tens of thousands of dollars that they had hanging over them that was still hanging out there. Uh, they ended up getting an insurance settlement. They had a she had a minor accident, and they had an attorney engaged to uh get a settlement out of the insurance company, and and the attorney kept reporting, okay, it looks like it's gonna be about a$20,000 settlement. No, it looks like$30,000 to$40. Okay, maybe closer to$60. All right, probably looking at about$90,000 settlement. It was a$110,000 settlement, and then the attorney reduced his fees so that they could take more of that home. That's the blessing of the Lord. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and he adds no sorrow with it. And then right after that, he's got a job opportunity that pops up. The CEO of a major company sought him out and is chasing him down. Now he they opened up a job position. They opened up a portal online for him to submit an application so that as soon as he does, they can close the portal because they don't want anybody else applying because they want Mo for that position. That position will more than double his salary. And he reported that they're offering him a six-digit bonus on an annual basis to do the job. I mean, that's you can't make that stuff happen. And so something that should have been difficult to do, like, oh my gosh, we're gonna take this offering and multiply it times 10 and and put that in the offering today, that could have been a tough thing. But they had extraordinary peace about doing husband and wife came into agreement on it, and it just really that obedience freed up the blessing of God and their life. And so, what did they do about that? They spoke the word over their offering. They spoke the word over their life, over their financial scenario. And by the way, the the obligation that was tens of thousands of dollars, I forgot to say this this morning, that got settled out for 500. Their obligation for tens of thousands turned into$500. And they still got a hundred, like separate$110,000. Like, this blows your mind. And so, you know, how did they get there, the word of faith? Constantly saying the right thing. And so the word of faith will drive fear out. We never make a decision out of fear. Fear is never how we go left or right. Now, something on the in on the inside that's a little bit uneasy, it's not quite right, you ought to hit pause. Maybe come to a full stop before you make another step. Re-evaluate. Pray, ask God. He will teach you, he will show you things to come, he will lead you, he will guide you. Sometimes we miss knowing things because we didn't ask. And we have the right to ask. He's our helper, and he will help you when you ask. Uh, in 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 3, um, talking about faith now, uh, Paul writes, I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day. So Paul's praying for him, speaking good things over him on a regular basis, greatly desiring to see you and being mindful of your tears, that you may be, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the genuine faith. That Greek word for faith. It's constancy of belief. So he's recalling the constancy of belief. Timothy's going through a pity party moment when I call to remembrance the constancy, the genuine, the real constancy of your belief that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and Mother Eunice, and I'm persuaded is also in you. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands. For God has not given you a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind. And so if you feel that fear creeping in, coming in on you, what's the remedy for that? Stir up your faith. You have faith on the inside. How do you stir up your faith? Reading God's Word, meditating on His Word, speaking His Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And when faith comes, fear goes. The spirit of faith brings power, love, and mental, sound, stable mind. We get that out of God's word. So you can drive out fear by speaking faith, encouraging yourself in the Lord. David had to encourage himself. He had to say good things in the Lord. The word of faith has a great reward. In Revelation 12, 11, it says, and we quoted this this morning, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. What was their testimony? The word of faith. Because they believed something and they spoke. They believed and they spoke. They believed and they spoke. And so that's their testimony. We had wonderful testimonies this morning. If you heard those testimonies, it should build your faith. If you gave one of those testimonies, it should build your faith. And that's how you know when you're facing a similar situation in the future, God did it then and he'll do it again. The word of faith worked then and it'll work again. And so we can have what we speak when it lines up with God's word. The word of faith has a great reward. In Hebrews 10.23 it says, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he is promised to fa for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10 35, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. Your confidence is boldness of speech. When would you be bold about your speech? When you're unsure and uncertain about something, you're not sure if you believe it or not. That's not when you get boldness. You get boldness when you're absolutely 100% convinced that this is right, true, and I'm entitled to it. And then you get the boldness. And so do not cast away your boldness. That comes from meditating in God's word, until you believe God's word, until you become bold with God's word, then you can declare God's word, and it says, which has great reward. Do not cast away your confidence, your all-outspokenness and boldness of speech, which has great reward. And then a couple of verses after that in Hebrews 10, 38, it says, Now the just shall live by faith. But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. And so faith pleases God. And so it's not a hard thing. It's not that you have to send somebody all the way up to heaven to go pull something down. You don't have to, it's not a hard thing. You don't have to send somebody way across the ocean to go bring it back. It's not a hard thing. You don't have to send somebody way down deep in the abyss and bring it back up. It's not a hard thing. It's the word that is near and close. It's in your mouth, it's in your heart, and it's in your mouth. And when we speak it and we do that consistently, you can have it when it lines up with his word, and it's not foolishness or presumption. And we don't have to get tangled up in knots about it. I'm believing for something. No, that gets kind of weird. The carpet's red. I'm not believing it's red, it's just red. God's word is true. And you can just be confident and say it. How are you doing? I'm healed. You don't look like it. I'm getting better and better. You don't have to get weird about it. How's life treating you? Let me tell you how I'm treating life. You don't have to answer their questions. If they frame the question the wrong way, you can reframe the answer and give it according to God's word. So don't get all tied up in knots trying to speak the word of faith. Just remember that facts are there and you don't have to deny the existence of facts. Fact is a real thing in the present, here and now. It's in the natural world. Just know that the facts are subject to change. And when we're consistent, those facts can consistently change in our favor. The just shall live, shall be revived, shall be made alive. They shall be preserved. They shall recover. They'll be pre repaired, restored, they shall be saved and made whole. The just shall live by faith. So that's the simple word of faith for you tonight. I hope that's an encouragement for you. This is not a hard thing. That's why we call it the simple word of faith. And so let's put it to work in our life. Amen.