In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the story of a man who came to Jesus seeking help for his sick son. Jesus tells the man that his son will live, and the man believes his words and goes on his way. The preacher emphasizes the power of the word of God and how it brings life and transformation. He also discusses the concept of faith and authority, highlighting the importance of believing in Jesus and his ability to solve our problems. The sermon concludes with the reminder that Jesus is the way to find solutions to our challenges and that we should pray in faith, trusting in God's power to work miracles.

Well, we're glad to be back with you again today on Eagle's Wings. Listen to these words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore I say unto you what things soever ye desire when you pray believe that ye receive them And ye shall have them. Heavenly Father help us to believe. Help us to break away from the shackles of unbelief. We ask that today that your word would build us up that we might be believers. Not only believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior but also believing in him as our daily Savior, our Lord, the one who loves us, who is the sovereign God of our lives. We pray for any that do not know Jesus as their Savior that there be a drawing to the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 18 says it was impossible for God to lie. Think about that. It's impossible for God to lie. Well today we're going to continue on with the rest of the message from God's Weightlifters. We started the first part last week, but before we do I might share a few thoughts with you from A.W. Tozer on God's character. And as we have enough time I might finish up with a few more thoughts on it. But he said that human sin began with loss of faith in God when Eve listened to Satan's sly remarks about God's character and then she began to entertain these thoughts and doubt entered in. Doubt of God's integrity actually if you'll think about it. And right there the doors were open to the incoming of every possible evil and darkness settled upon the world. And the Bible talks about man's being alienated from and an enemy to God. Now if this sounds harsh to you or maybe extreme maybe you need to think about the reality of the seriousness of sin. Tozer said should this sound harsh or extreme to you? As I continue on he said have only to imagine your closest personal friend coming to you and stating in cold seriousness that he no longer has any confidence in you. I do not trust you. I have lost confidence in your character. I'm forced to suspect every move you make. Such a declaration would instantly alienate friends by destroying the foundation upon which every friendship is built. Until your former friend's opinion of you had been reversed there could be no further communion. Only a restored faith could bring about a restored friendship. One of the things that revival does in the heart it restores faith in God. Backsliding is actually a loss of faith in God and more faith in ourself. It's well known that people do not go boldly to God and profess that they have no confidence in him. And no one except the rare professional unbeliever, Tozer said, is willing to witness publicly to his low view of God. The frightful thing however is that people everywhere act out their unbelief with a consistency that is more convincing than words. Idolatry is the supreme sin and unbelief is the child of idolatry. Both their libels on the character of the most high and the most holy. He that believeth not God had made him a liar, wrote the Apostle John. A God who lies is a God without character and where there is no character there can be no confidence. The joyous message of Christianity is that there is a way back from this place of unbelief and alienation. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. The gospel message declares that the wronged God took the wrong upon himself in order that the one who committed the wrong might be saved. Repentance is among other things a sincere apology to God for distrusting him so long and faith is throwing oneself upon Christ in complete confidence. Thus by faith reconciliation is achieved between God and man. I don't know what kind of relationship you have with God right now, but if it's less than desirable, why not repent and come back to him with an open heart and open arms and cry out and ask him to forgive you. And if you've never come to him, why not come to him right now? As your Savior. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would open up our hearts to the truth of the necessity of us having a clear relationship with you in Jesus name. Now we're going to continue on with the rest of the message. Last week we gave you the first part on God's weightlifters. And now here's the one at a distance. The centurion that came to Jesus, this was Matthew 8, 8, said only speak the word and Jesus marveled because of this. He understood the concept of authority. And he said only speak the word. And Jesus marveled at that faith because this man understood the principle of faith, of authority. And and this man now, he comes to Jesus and Jesus answered him. Now notice his answer. Let's keep on going. Then Jesus said unto him, Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Is that much hope? Not much. He said except you see signs and wonders. Now I want to take you into something a little bit here. And it's this. Did you ask God to do something this week? Did you pray? Did you pray? Okay. Did you pray in faith? Okay, you see where I'm going. Okay, if you prayed in faith, 1st John 5, 15 says, and if we know that he hear us, did God hear you? If we prayed in faith, if God heard, and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us, verse 14, 15. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. Have you ever noticed that it's important that God hears you? That God hears you. Now, I believe unbelief can be a weight. It can be a weight that weighs us down, keeps us. He that comes to God must believe that he is, that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And Jesus said to this man, Except you see something, you just won't believe. Except you see something. Now, unbelief can be a weight. He actually didn't encourage this man very much. Almost a rebuke. The man came right back in. He came right back in and said, Sir, he said, Sir, verse 20, come down, ere my child die. Before he dies, just come. He wasn't, he wasn't affected that way. Now, I believe he received the rebuke in a good spirit. Matter of fact, the rebuke just drove him deeper, more persistent to grab a hold of God. And now, Jesus is going to test him. And he says, Go thy way. Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. How do you leave the presence of God? After you ask for something. Do you go off scratching your head? I wonder if God's going to answer this or not. Or do you go off saying, the matter is settled. I have committed it to God. I've expressed my need. I've expressed my faith. The lot is cast, the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. And you go off praising the Lord and cheerful. You have the weight lifted. You had a weight put on you. You went to Jesus, the weight was lifted. If you go away with the weight still there, did you come and go in faith? Now, how did this man go? Jesus said, Go thy way. Go thy way. Did he go believing or not? By the way, do you know why Jesus dealt with the Jews, or the Gentiles in a distant situation? You remember the woman that came under the, he talked about the crumbs under the table. He was seemed to be reluctant to minister to them. That was because he recognized his priority function of going to Israel. Matter of fact, in John, I was reading in Ephesians in chapter 2, it might be good for us to understand this, in understanding the Gospels and the life of Jesus. Paul wrote about this because he wanted the Gentiles to understand, the Ephesians were Gentiles, that they had a relationship with God just like the Jews now. Because he said, Wherefore remember that, in 2 and verse 11, Ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision, wasn't a nice term, by that which is called the circumcision, the Jews would call them uncircumcision, in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. Jesus was dealing with Gentiles at a distance because he was under the covenant relationship with Israel at this time. You were from the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world. And then he said this, But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. The covenant was fulfilled, the blood was shed by Christ on the cross, the Jews had now full access to the Father, and not only the Jews, but the Gentiles also. Those of us that were not Jews. This is why he dealt with the Gentiles sometimes in a seemingly hard context. It was not that he was hard with them, it was just that he was under a covenant relationship with Israel at that point. But once the blood was shed, the cross was there, Jesus shed his blood, he died, he rose again the third day, his arms are open to the whole world. We can all come in under the blood. And so the distance has been closed in by the blood. Is there any distance between you and God? Because you have not yet trusted the blood of Christ as your substitute, as being shed for your sins. Now, let's close in on this man. Look at verse 50. John 4, 50. Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And 41, it said, And many more bleed because of his own word. The word of God. When God gives you a rhema, a personal word, the word of God, the Bible says in John 6, 63, in John 6, 63, it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that are speaking to you, they are spirit and they are life. This man received life for his son, because he received the word of God. Many Christians are weak because they do not receive the pure word of God by faith. And many want to change it or explain it away or whatever, but the weight was lifted off this man when he believed. Now, burdens are lifted at Calvary. We sing that song, but burdens are lifted when Jesus is allowed to lift them. In verse 42, 51, let me read 51, but I want to get you to 52. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Did anything happen between 50 and 51? What happened between verse 50 and verse 51? What happened in verse 50 and a half? You say, well, I don't see anything in there. I got some white space in my Bible. Was there anything there? Now, this may be a little bit stretchy, but I don't know if it really is. How far was it from Canaan to Galilee? Anybody walk that distant lately? Maybe a four-hour hike. It's been a long time since I was over there. I couldn't tell you, except that I never walked it. But they say it was about a four-hour trip. What time was his son healed? Did you notice that? 51, as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then he inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth, and himself believed in his whole house. Now, the hour was about one o'clock in the afternoon. Right? If that had been your child, what would you have done after Jesus did that? Would you have hopped in your little donkey or on your camel or whatever and took off as fast as you could back home to see if it really worked? Do you recognize that this is the next day this man came home? What was he doing? What was he doing? Did he obey and go his way? I believe he did. The only thing is, the burden had been lifted and he had a new way. And Jesus was his way now. And he wanted to spend as much time with Jesus as he could. I believe he spent the rest of the day there with Jesus, personally. We get to heaven, we can find out if this is straight or not. But Jesus was now his new way. Jesus had said, I am the way. Because, you see, he could have went back home right away just to see, but he didn't need to because he believed that his son was healed. And his son really was healed. Well, I don't need to rush off. I can spend some more time with Jesus. The weight and the burden was lifted. And the pressure was off. How many of us sometimes are pressured and we operate under pressure? And that pressure drives us. But that burden was lifted. And I thought, this is really neat. This man had a new way. He had a new peace. He had a new song. Now the God of hope, Paul said to the Romans in 1513, now the God of hope fill you with all joy. I believe it's filled with joy and peace in believing. This man didn't have that weight anymore. Joy and peace in believing, he said, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. And so if Jesus is your way, if you need a job, Jesus is the way. If you have a problem in your life, Jesus is the solution. Jesus is the way. I am the way. This is the simple basics of following Jesus. And 53, and his whole house believed. I believe true faith will lift the weight of sin. It'll lift the problems of others. True faith lifts the burdens. His whole house believed. I just, when I was in Paris, I think it was Paris, Vicki, was that in Paris? Not Paris, France, but Paris, Texas. When that young man, when I led him to the Lord, remember? And he just put his arms around himself. He said, I feel so clean. Never had anyone do that when I led him to the Lord. The weight of sin, the uncleanness, the burden was lifted off of him. Weightlifters. God is letting you take a little pressure so that you'll learn for yourself and also for others to get that weight off others. Now, just for the fun of it, do you think this egg can take, do you think this egg can take another 10 pounds? This is pretty heavy. Anybody like to feel how heavy 10 pounds feels? It's pretty heavy. Do you have a burden right now that you'd like to have removed off of you? I haven't told this story for a while. But when I came back from traveling out on the agency, and now we're over in that part of the world, we're a long ways back, but when I came back out off on the agency, I had a desire in my heart almost to the point of being a burden. And I was so close and I couldn't get it done. But I wanted to go to Israel. And I tried one year earlier and I got cut off and I couldn't go. Well, I signed up on a tour and everybody got to go but my buddies. I got cut off. And here I was sitting in my room. I came back. I had to leave. I had a little money, not a lot, but I had some money and I was sitting there and I'm on the bed and I said, Lord, I have to go back to the States in just a couple of three weeks. I think it's maybe about a month. I had to go back to the States. And I want to go to Israel. But I can't get there. And it's just like something spoke inside of me to get up. My bags were still packed even from coming off of our little trip. And this thing was on me. Lord, I'm so close. And here I'm going to go back 10,000 miles the other way. I'm within 400 miles or however far it was down there. And it's just like pick up your bag and go out to the airport. So I did and I walked down to the air terminal. I went in there. I said, you got any planes going anywhere? And they said, yes, we got one going. And I forget, I think it was a real short time, like 15 minutes or something, going to Athens. And I said, well, put me on it. So I hopped on it and I got over to Athens. And I got into Athens and I went up there. I said, you got any planes going to Israel? I had this weight on me. I want to go there. And they said, yes, we got one a week that goes to Israel. And it just went yesterday. One a week. Ah. Check the other side of the airport, this little voice said. So I got on a bus, went around to the other side, went into the civilian terminal. And I went in there with my weight on my shoulders. You got any planes to go to Israel? They said, yes, we got one a week that goes. I've heard this story before. And it goes in three hours. And we have one seat left. And so I said, I feel led to take that. So I bought the ticket, got on the bus, went way back around, got my visa stamped in the military side. They shared the same runway, each military civilian on each side. Got back just in time to get on my plane. But there was no burden. God was showing me that He was lifting the weight. As I responded by faith to the prompting of God, my burden was lifted. Has your burden been lifted? Because if your burden isn't lifted, there'll be another one put on it. And you need to deal with them. Now what's going to happen? I don't know what's going to happen. We may have scrambled eggs for supper. How many of you think that this is going to make how many pounds? We've got eight, and we put ten. Eighteen pounds. How many of you think that this egg can take eighteen pounds of weight? We have a faithful bunch. My wife doesn't have faith. It's going to be scrambled eggs for her, but we're going to have hard-boiled eggs. No, really, it's not hard-boiled. I didn't cheat. Okay. Scrambled eggs it is. It can't take eighteen pounds. It may have been. It may have been at that little hole that was sitting there that was too sharp. But, good illustration, isn't it? There's our eggs. Somebody like scrambled eggs? Yes, yes. Sometimes God wants us to be broken and crushed. And we will if we want cry out to Him to be our strength. And so, some of us, God's got to do this. Some of us are tough eggs. We think we're tough. And the egg, though, in order to be useful, has to be broken. It has to be broken. Yeah, it's edible now. Even if you boil it, some of us are hard-boiled. It's still got to be broke. The shell, that hard shell of unbelief still has to be broke. So, God is making us weight-lifters. Weight-lifters. And so, you're here today to hear from God. And when you hear from God, it should increase your faith in Him to where you just want to praise Him and thank Him. And you come back to Romans 15, 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. In believing. There's nothing too hard for God. Let's pray. Thank You, Heavenly Father, for speaking to us and sharing with us today. We're so confident in You. We have no confidence in the flesh, as Paul said, but we have confidence in You that all things do work out together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose. We pray for any that do not know Jesus, that have the burden of their sin on them, that they would respond to Christ. Any of us may be carrying a burden of sin in our heart, that we would come to You to be our burden-lifter, our weight-lifter. That we, in turn, would be free to help others to lift their burden. We thank You now in Jesus' name. Amen.