In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of faith and how it can impact our lives and the kingdom of God. He uses the example of Jesus feeding the 5,000 to illustrate the concept of faith. The speaker emphasizes that faith requires us to recognize our own emptiness and inability to fulfill God's commands on our own. He also highlights the significance of this miracle by noting that it is mentioned in all four Gospels, indicating its importance.

This message is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. And that's sort of like when this huge slab of concrete is hanging over your head and it starts slowly to slide upon you and you begin to sink under the weight and it's going to crush us. It will crush me. And then I remember that the Lord says, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. And I realize when I'm yoked with Jesus and I give him the weight of things, he, his bigger, stronger shoulders, he's yoked with me, carries the weight. I had a shifting of trust and it began to show itself this week. But praise God, the Lord ministered a word to me. The first part of this word was ministered to me by my husband and I am asking the Holy Spirit to be able to just take it and minister it to you. I want to speak today about a walk of faith. And you know, in the scripture, in the Old Testament, the patriarch Joseph, he met his brother Esau one time and Esau was in a big hurry to get with Joseph to a meeting place. And he wanted Joseph to hurry along with him. But Joseph was traveling with his wives and his children, a pregnant wife and small children. And he said no to his brother Esau, you go ahead. He said, I don't want to overdrive the young one. I don't want to go at a pace that hurts the young and those that are with child in our midst. And I felt today that the Holy Spirit wanted to teach us and show us aspects of a walk of faith, but that he did not want the word to be in overdrive. He didn't want it presented in such big inflated terms that the new among us and the young among us and those that are struggling would be left behind. So the Holy Spirit knows how to minister this word to us. And it's not steps of faith because they aren't steps of faith. The very young among us can grasp in an instant of faith and a belief in Christ and move on. And those that have walked with him many years can slip out from out underneath his yoke and be crushed by the weight of things, even though they have a head knowledge of many things. But I trust that the Holy Spirit is going to give us some insights into a walk of faith that we may please him. Father, I thank you for this word. Jesus, when you come upon a word, when you send the Holy Spirit to be a teacher, you light that word. You set it aflame in our hearts. Lord, these people that are before me, oh God, they're not here by accident. Lord, I believe that you've brought them here for this time. Lord Jesus, I just now ask you to minister by the Holy Spirit. Put something in our hearts. Oh God, when we leave here this day, it is something that is ours in the inner man, and we live upon it to your praise and glory. In Jesus name I pray. Amen and amen. The title of my message today is called Licking Fish. Licking Fish. And I would like you to turn with me in your Bibles to Mark 6. Mark 6. In Mark chapter 6, starting at verse 30, is the story of Christ feeding 5,000 people. He said 5,000. And that miracle is told in all four Gospels, which is a very unusual thing for one miracle of Jesus to be recounted in all four Gospels. Which means it tells me that there's something very significant about this miracle, that all four wrote about it. Now when they wrote about it, they all brought in a little different point of view, and they all remember different people saying different things. So what I want to do is us to read the first six verses together in Mark 6, and then for the rest of the story, I'm going to weave in what the other writers and the other Gospels were saying about this miracle. So we get a composite drawing of what was happening at this time when Jesus fed the 5,000. So starting with me in verse 30, Mark 6, it says, And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert, and rest a while. For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they departed into a desert place by a ship privately. And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, out went them, and came together unto him. And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were a sheep not having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far past. Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. So here's the disciples after a day of teaching in ministry, saying, Send them away, there's nothing here, they need to go buy bread. And in the book of Matthew, it recounts Jesus as saying, They don't need to depart, you give them something to eat. In Mark it says, They said, Well, shall we go and buy 200 penny worth of bread? In Luke 1 says, Shall we go buy meat? In Mark it records Jesus as saying, How many loaves and fishes have you? Go and see. And of course, the answer, the report came back, there were five loaves and two fishes. They said, But what's that among so many? And in John 6, it says, And this he, Jesus, said to prove them, for he himself knew what he would do. And the disciples needed to see in this situation what they would do. Jesus was going to prove them. Proving means to show what is in them or what is not in you. Faith had to be what set these men apart. Jesus knew that. And the time for them to learn a fundamental truth of faith and a faith walk was now at hand. Now, it's not that these men were bereft of faith, because when we began to read the recounting in Mark 6, they were gathering together, Jesus had sent them out two by two, and they had seen in their recount of what happened that they saw Satan falling out of the sky as lightning, because as they went out teaching two by two, giving what they had been taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, they saw devils cast out. They saw people healed. They saw the kingdom of God go forward. So it was not as if these men had no faith. They had a measure of faith. One thing that Jesus knew that after every blessing is an attack. So while they were men of faith and they had personally seen the kingdom of God go forward in their ministry, it was also a time if you read in Matthew, it was also a time, a very sobering time. They had just learned about the death of John the Baptist, where he had been headed. And this must have been very troubling, I felt to the disciples, because Jesus had said that the spirit of Elijah, Elias, it says in the New Testament, which is the Greek for Elijah, was upon John the Baptist. And Jesus himself had extolled this man and said, none born of woman is greater than John the Baptist. And I believe in their hearts they esteemed this man in a way that they didn't esteem themselves even. And now he had lost his head. It was an exciting time, but it was a sobering time. Jesus knew they needed to be men of faith. So he proved them with the question. He proved them. He said, you feed them. You feed them. Now I could just sense in them that charge and that responsibility, that, that commission that Jesus was giving to them at that moment, you feed them. Okay, well, all right, well, what's in our hand. And they would look and they would see there was five loaves and two fishes. And the one, you know, we started to hear some of their, uh, responses of how to, how to deal with this, this command of Jesus to feed them. So they thought, well, should we go and buy bread? And you could think the one who said that when you could see everybody turn around, look at them and go, no, you know, first of all, do we have the money for that? And second of all, by the time we get across the desert, get in the boat, go back. That's not a workable situation. So we buying them food, us going to seek bread or meat that that's not going to work, but, but I could imagine the practical good idea guy had even given more time speak up. And I could see that he, he looked and he saw the fishes and the loaves. And the only way that he could see that this could happen, that he could feed this 5,000, I could say, I know, I know. We'll pass the fish around. We'll tell everybody, lick the fish. And to him, it was a great idea. You know, if everybody would just lick the fish and pass it on by the time I got through to 5,000 men, it would be just bones. But Hey, we did it. Didn't we, we worked with what we had. And here's where a good imagination really gets you in trouble. Imagine you're the 347,000 person. And it's been licked that many times. It wasn't even really a good idea, but you could see Jesus told us feed them. And this is what we have in our hand. No one, if they had, you know, got the bull horn, just lick the fish and pass it on, lick the fish and pass it on. You could see in that crowd of 5,000, nobody was satisfied. Everybody would still be hungry. The majority repulsed. Scripture says, Jesus told them, sit down. He blessed the little that was there. All were satisfied. All were fed a miraculous occurrence, all fed, no licking, chewing, digesting a satisfying meal. And there was leftovers. But beloved, the first lesson of faith is not looking in our hands or our resources to do the commands of Christ, to understand we are empty and that enough, there is no resource to fulfill what God asks us to do in a walk of faith, a walk of faith means that you and I cannot do it in ourselves. We have no resource. When Jesus asks us to do something, it's an understanding that we do not shift into the gear that says, okay, if you're asking me to do this, what have I got in my hand? What do I have in myself to be able to do what you are asking me to do? Men of faith know how limited, how empty is their hand. Scripture says, have faith in God for whosoever shall stand to this mountain, be thou removed and be cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe those things which he saith, it will come to pass, shall not doubt in his heart. I believe that is a man and a woman that's beginning to say in my ideas, if God is asking me to do something to believe him, to believe his word, to this word when I read it, know that it's addressed to me, it's speaking to my life, it has the answer from that situation, it has the peace from my mind, if I believe it. If I turn away from it, I'm just going to end up trying to lick fish to be satisfied and it won't happen. And when it says a man shall not doubt in his heart, it's a man not trusting in himself. The Bible says the kingdom of God is in you, but it's not of you or about you, it is in you. And we were slow to learn because Jesus said, when I return, shall the son of man find faith on the earth? Will there be a people who can cast their mountains into the sea? Because they believe me. Will there be a time, will there be a people that can be a mountain moving people? Beloved, the scripture says, without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe, one, that he is, and two, that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him. And he is saying here, work all you want apart from faith, and you have not pleased me. God knows that our flesh would love to work for him rather than believe in him. Faith to be true faith also must be tried. And it's God's love for us that's going to put us in faith-stretching situations. That's why he told them, you feed them. So that they would forever remember they couldn't. So that they would ever remember that command. Although in their heart, they would have loved to if they could have, but they could not. And they had to turn to one whose hands were full in their midst. The one whose hands were never empty. Because he's a rewarder of them who diligently seek him. Faith brings a release of power. It is possible, beloved, our mountains go to the sea. When I'm anxious, I'm not having a faith response. When I'm worried and fretting, angry or depressed, I'm not having a faith response. But beloved, we, many of us who have been called into faith, who love Jesus, who want with all our heart to please him, who want to know what it is to live a life of faith. Who, when we read the scripture, it says, have faith in God. We want to say, yes, Lord, I want to be that. I want to have faith in you. I would please you. I would learn what that is. I would glorify you and bring honor to you to see my mountains go into the sea. In order for that to happen, we know that there needs to be belief that God is good and that he has a record of faithfulness in our life. And we understand that, but somehow it just... knowing these truths sometimes are not enough for us to live in the kind of faith that we know he's asking us to. The kind of faith that will glorify him. And these obvious truths seem to have a difficult time of lodging in our heart so that we can move forward in faith. So I ask you, what kind of heart is it that grasps faith? The disciples wondered that because one time they went to Jesus and after hearing him preach, after understanding as he began to tell how the kingdom of God moves forward, they began to understand that the key was faith. That it was shifting their confidence and trust away from themselves, but understanding with God all things are possible. And so what did they do? They went to him one time in a moment of inspiration and they said, Lord, increase our faith. And Jesus answered them with a parable. If you would turn with me to Luke 17. Luke 17. He's going to answer their question. They said, increase our faith. And in Luke 17, starting at verse 5, it says, And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you have faith as the grain of a mustard seed, you might say unto this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you. Now we start out by telling them the effects of faith. And beloved, do you know how many times a verse like that is quoted in the scripture? This is not empty words. This is not something, this is not a picture Jesus is painting so we can get an idea of how grand faith is. But every word of Jesus Christ is life and spirit and truth. He's saying, now this is how powerful faith is. Would you have it? There's what, if a man or a woman be found full of faith, this is what can be done in their lives, in their hearts, in the kingdom of God. So after he described the effects of faith, now he's going to tell them, how do we get it and how does it increase? And he goes on to tell them, starting verse 7, But which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he has come from the field, go and sit down to meet? Will we not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup, gird thyself and serve me till I've eaten and drunken and afterwards you shall eat and drink? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all these things which are commanded you, say we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do. In a nutshell, Jesus was saying the kind of heart that I can speak to about faith and the kind of heart that will have faith increase is a heart of a servant. A servant. Jesus saying here, that is somebody who who puts themselves in a permanently a subservient relationship and says I'm consumed about doing your will. That's what a servant here means. And he's saying a person with a servant's heart has some very special characteristics about that heart that you don't find in other relationships with me. There can be a heart of a child, there can be a heart of a bride, and all these things are important to know in our relationship with Jesus Christ. But he's saying if we're going to talk faith walk now, if we're going to talk about speaking to mountains, speaking to trees being uprooted, and moved out of the way, we now need to talk about the heart of a servant. And this is what a heart of a servant is like. First of all, a servant relationship is not a complicated relationship. It's not worried about self. When you ask a servant to do something, it's of little consequence to him when, what, why. That's not his concern. If the master is asking him to do something, then his concern is in doing it. It is the heart of a servant like this that can grasp faith. Because this heart says what you will, O God, your time, your way is your business. Mine is to obey. A heart of a servant doesn't expect explanations and it doesn't ask questions. You can ask a servant to do hard things and it will be done. And it so follows the life of Jesus. It sums up his heart and spirit while he walked the earth. He said of himself, it was said of Jesus, he came not to please himself. It says son of son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. So practically, how does this servant's heart react when God gives them a promise? Well, beloved, in Isaiah 12, 1, God makes a promise. And he says this. In that day, you shall say, O Lord, I will praise thee. Though you are angry with me, thine anger is turned away and you comfort me. Now there is a command and a promise in this. And the heart of the servant would say, Lord, I'm going to lay these these words to heart. It says in that day, though you are angry with me, thine anger is turned away and you comfort me. Beloved, when that word is preached to us, we understand that that day that it's talking about is the day of our salvation. And when we ask Christ to come into our life by faith, we were brought out of the side of where the goats were and those who were abiding under the wrath of God. And we were cleansed by his blood and put into a relationship with the father that we now have the privilege of calling him father. And we were his children. And the Bible says that the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the righteous. And so this scripture is telling us that though you are angry with me in that day, the day I trusted you, the day that I said, Lord, I believe you are and I'm coming to you and I believe, oh, God, you will accept me because of Jesus Christ and I'm cleansed because of what Christ did. And you've accepted me into your family because of Jesus and because you love me on that day. I am no longer your enemy. I am your child. And you deal with me differently. And it says here in Isaiah 12, though you were angry with me, thine anger is turned away and you comfort me. And beloved, the heart of a servant can say, oh, God, I will praise you and comfort me and let you comfort me because you are no longer angry with me. What about the days, oh, God, when I feel like you're angry with me, when I disappoint you, when I fail you, what about the days when I'm angry with myself, when there's something in my brain pounding, I need to pray more, I need to read more, I need to witness more, I need to do more. And Lord, I feel that your wrath and your anger is upon me. I feel like I'm falling so short. What do I do? Do I go on with this grim determination? Oh, God, I will do what I need to do so that you will be pleased, so that your kingdom will come forth. Beloved, that is a shifting of trust. That is where we start to end up praying and reading and doing these things so that the kingdom of God can go forward. Beloved, the kingdom of God moves forward when we, by faith, move in faith. When we say, Lord, it's not my grim determination to do the things I think you're asking me to do, but it is by recognizing, oh, God, that by me in you, by me trusting you, oh, God, you've called me as your own and you're giving me a heart to want to do these things. Now, Lord, come and subdue the flesh. Come and subdue the laziness. And sometimes God will tell you, just go to bed and sleep. When we get into this, this mindset that God is angry with me, we need to understand with a heart of a servant, oh God, by faith, look at your, you're the ones who concerned about how your kingdom goes forward. This is your business, how this is done. Mine is to please you. If you tell me you're not angry with me, it is your heart to comfort me when I'm feeling the most vulnerable and the most condemned. Then, Lord, by faith, I will. You see, the Holy Spirit has been sent to convict us of sin. He'll be faithful to it. We don't have to worry that he won't show up and do that. He will. But beloved, if he is not, if we're saying, Lord, teach me in this faith walk to hear your voice, that I may tell the devil's voice to be silent when he condemns me. That is what I need you. That's how we move forward in faith. We say, I will not let the enemy condemn me unrighteously. But Lord, when you speak, I will hear you. And so many times we need to hear he's not angry with us before he can deal in the way he needs to deal with us. And we need to accept that and believe that we need to take that into our heart. But the interesting thing about Isaiah, Isaiah 12 to the next promise that's found there, it says, Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. God is going to fulfill that. He says, I'm going to be your salvation. Blessed is the man who trusts me. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. We sang it. I will trust and not be afraid. But beloved, for that to be reality in our life, I will trust and not be afraid. This is where the heart of a servant comes in so strongly. When God is going to teach us a walk of faith of how to trust him through our fear, how to trust him and learn to put away the fear, how to trust him and give him the fear, how to trust him and deny the fear. There's many ways, but beloved, we have to trust that he's going to take us through that fear barrier, his way, his time, his path. If we have our heart set on God now in order for you to deliver me from the fear of man, from the fear of rejection, from the fear of not pleasing you, from the fear of whatever, Lord, I know you're going to take me this way. You're going to have to move left. We're all going to have to move left. And then God turns right to the heart of the servants, not concerned that there's a right hand turn. But those that haven't learned it need to grasp on it and they need to feel they have to instruct God through their prayers and they need to instruct God and tell him what to do when they're talking through their fear. God is saying, no, you've got to be at that heart of the servant and just follow me if you think we need to go left, but I take a right. Don't let your faith be shaken. That's not faith. If you're trying to tell me what to do, if you, if I, if you think we need to go left and then we go right, your faith will be shaken. But if you leave the question of who leads and whose follows settled in your mind, we will move a lot farther. A person you can say, Lord, I want to be a person of devotion. I want to have a prayer life. I want to know what it is. Lord, I thought you speak to me so often that you want a time with me, just me and you alone in the prayer closet. And you have tried so many times, and it seems that that cry of your heart to be a man of prayer, a woman of patience, falls to your feet. Beloved, I want, I want you to know something. When you pray that prayer from your heart, God hears it. And if he hears it, he answers it. We will have that request. I will have that request. You will have that request. But it's very similar to like when Jesus said to his disciples, we're going in a boat, we're going to the other side. And when they got in the boat, all of a sudden the wind and the waves started beating up against that boat. Now, Jesus said, we're getting in the boat and we're going to the other side. And that's exactly what happened. Now, a heart of faith is able to say, God, you said, trust you and not to be afraid. Now, in the meantime, there are winds and waves and storms coming up against that faith. But that has nothing to do with the fact that the boat will not reach the other side. If Jesus said it's going to the other side, it is. So it is a heart of faith that learns come what may against it. If Jesus said it's going to the other side, that's what I trust. When the winds and waves come, when it's a right turn instead of a left, what I say is, Lord, I'm the servant and I follow. So every time the path takes another turn at that moment, I have the privilege of saying, Lord, I trust you. That is a heart of faith that is growing in faith. It is a servant's heart. How we get there, when we get there is your concern. But I hang on to the fact we're getting there in Christ's name. That is a heart of faith, beloved. And faith rejoices sometimes through tears, sometimes through fear. But a heart of faith is learning to rejoice. Lord Jesus, I'm hanging on to that word. And I glorify you when I lift my hands up in the midst of my fear or the midst of my tears and decide at that moment to trust you. That is when faith grows in the heart as nothing else. That's when saying, Lord, I'm not responsible for how you're going to do this. I just know that my faith, a heart of faith says, if you say it, it shall be done. We do not get ourselves full of self-doubt. If the apostles had said, you know, the reason why we're not getting to the other side is we forgot to buy bread. The other side is that you didn't do this and I didn't do that. Beloved, many times we are the ones who cut out our legs of faith from underneath us because we allow the voice of the condemner to act as if he's truth, to speak as if he's truth in our heart. Beloved, I want you know, in Isaiah 57, sometime you get a chance, you read that. I read it this week and I was shocked. Isaiah 57 is a recount of Israel's gross idolatry. It was a time in their national life and in their religious life where they were totally given over to idols. They were totally given over to gross idolatry in Isaiah 57. But in the middle of it all, starting in verse 13, as the Lord is telling us exactly what they did in living color in verse 13 of Isaiah 57, it says, but he that put his trust in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. This is at a time when the land is being polluted. The land is overrun with idols. But in the middle of it all, God speaks the word and he says, those that can hear me right now, if you will stop, if you will put your trust in me, I say the land is still yours. I say the mountain is still yours. In the middle of gross idolatry, because he has a people and he's saying, you can't out sin me. If you have a heart to trust me, I will send the Holy Spirit and convict you. And then it's your privilege to get up and condemn the condemner and say, I have believed the final word. He says, the land is still mine. The mountain is still mine. In the middle of my idolatry, in the middle of my unbelief, if I can still hear his voice, I can stop and say, Lord God, forgive me and give me that heart to say, look away, look away from what I'm doing right now. Look away how empty my hand is. Look away how unfaithful I am. But I still hear you speaking a word to me. You say the land is still mine. If I will rise up and trust you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. A servant says, I follow and I believe. I trust. Servant says, I'm following a crucified savior. I'm following a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. I'm following a man who knows what it is to fall under the weight of a cross, though without sin. Beloved tempted in all points like we are. He in this season of grace has not turned into our condemner. And we as servants need to understand that God does not give us a detailed roadmap because that's not faith. When we believe because God said it, that's why we believe it, not because we see it. Now, beloved, this what I'm speaking is not faith is not a weapon that we use, that we can sin lightly because you see what I said earlier, if we begin to sin, we stand all of a sudden apart from Christ and that crushing slab of concrete will come down upon us. There will be no faith walk in sin. There is a faith walk when there is a trust that God, you are leading me and you know how to lead me through to a walk that pleases you. And this is what another revelation now that we know when we cannot shift our trust from ourselves, our empty handed selves to doing the work of God, that we must stand by the one whose hands are always full. And then we realize we need a heart of a servant to follow him, that we're not questioning him when he doesn't take the route we think when he doesn't follow our good advice and our prayers, when we let him lead, when we're willing just to do what he's asking us to do. That's another aspect of faith. But beloved, there's a third one. And that one is found in 1 John 3, 9. If you can quickly turn there. 1 John 3, 9. In order to understand this verse, it is the heart of a servant that has said, Lord, lead me your way in your time, that is now going to understand what this verse is saying to them. It says, Whosoever is born of God does not does not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Beloved, this verse is not saying that Christians don't sin because 1 John tells us in other parts of his epistle here, he says that whoever says he doesn't sin is a liar. He says in another one of 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive our sin. He is not saying here that Christians do not sin. But what he is saying here, that whatsoever is born of God does not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him. That seed is Christ. The life of Christ implanted in us when we believe. It is that seed that remains in us, this life of Christ. Christ in us does not sin. Christ in us cannot sin. This life that we have, this everlasting incorruptible life given to us at salvation that lives in us is the essence of our new heart and our new spirit. It is Christ with a full hand living in us. It is the life of Christ in us that cannot be corrupted to fear. It is the life in us that cannot be corrupted to unbelief. It is the life in us that cannot be corrupted into rebellion. It is the life in us that says, Lord Jesus, I would do your will. It is that faith that is Christ in us. It is a living word in us. And that living word, the Bible says it's by hearing the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And we have Christ in us, so we have this ability to have this incredible faith because the faithful one is in us. It is his life that cannot be corrupted by fear, cannot be corrupted by unbelief in us. And so all of us that are born in Christ have this potential to have a rich faith because the word is in us. The word is in us. The life of Christ that cannot be corrupted lives in us. And he is the faithful one. He is the one that we draw on to walk this life of faith. And it is a servant's heart that begins to realize more and more. And Lord, in order to walk the way that you're asking me to, I have to draw on something deeper and stronger than just a desire to want it. I have to begin to walk on this life of faith, the seed that is in me. If I am born of God, then I have the seed of Christ living in me that cannot be tempted to fear, that cannot corrode down into unbelief. And it is that that I draw on that I may walk a walk of faith. Hallelujah. When we have Christ in us, it is the law of God after the inward man. It is the spirit within us that is completely against sin and unbelief. It gives us a hatred for sin. And we have a thirst to believe. There is a cry in all true believers to resist unbelief in Christ. We're like a compass. You ever held a compass? And that needle, it can sometimes be so easily turned, but it will always, always reseek north. It will always, always point back to the true. And that is Christ living in our hearts by faith. And so we can say in John, first John five, four, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world. Even our faith. It is our faith in the Christ that lives in us to overcome the world. There can be a faith walk that overcomes the world because the world no longer has a part in us. We have learned to draw on the faithful one who lives in us, whose hands are forever full and able to complete all the commands of God, able to cause us to believe fully the promises of God. And beloved, as we walk with him in that kind of faith, trusting in this holy one within us, we are able to overcome the world because the world has no part in Jesus Christ and he lives in us. And he can bring us to the point of learning a walk with him, of drawing on him in us that we can overcome the world. This is the faith that's promised in first John five. I'm beloved just to make it real and to close out. I want to, I want to show us how that lives out in a life, how this kind of overcoming faith that even overcomes the world, that kind of faith is lived out in a life. And it is found in Daniel, the book of Daniel. If you want to turn with me quickly, it's Daniel three. Now we're familiar. I think many times when we talk about a life of faith immediately to my mind, anyway, we kind of think of a David faith, you know, where he, he was to meet the giant. And the Bible says he ran to meet the giant. He was full of faith. I believe he has a gift of faith at that moment where God has spoken a word to him and told him he was going to have, he was going to have that enemy's head for the kind of faith that he ran to meet the giant. And that is a type of faith. But there is another kind of faith that is found in Daniel that the book of Hebrews speaks about in the book of Hebrews. It talks about there's a kind of faith that can subdue kingdoms and shut the mouths of lions and have the dead raised up. But then it says there's another kind. And that's like a David faith. But there's another kind of faith that says we're refusing the deliverance. It talks about a kind of faith where it is so submitted to the will of God, a faith that says, God, you choose a faith that says, God, my life is in your hands, live or die. There is a faith, the Bible says that the world is not even worthy of this kind of faith. But beloved, if Christ lives in us and he promises a faith that overcomes the world, I don't think it's a faith for a few. I think it's a faith for the weak and the trusting. And the Bible tells us in Daniel about the Hebrew children, and it talks about how a wicked king had made a golden statue. And he said, everybody who doesn't bow down to it gets thrown it burnt to death in a fiery furnace. And three Hebrew children living in this strange land says we will not bow. And the king was so enraged by their defiance, he ordered the oven seven times hotter, let them know that's what he did and then told them to bow. And in Daniel three. It says, starting at verse 17. Let's start at 16, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image what thou has set up. Now, beloved, the promise to them is this in verse 17, he will deliver us out of thy hand. He will deliver us. We will not bow. We will not bow to anything. And he will deliver us. But the interesting thing was they were not dictating to God how the how they were leaving to him. And they declared before everyone this kind of faith. God is able to. He's not spoken a word to us. He is able to deliver us out of your hand. But I'll tell you, I mean, he's able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. He is able. But I'll tell you what he has delivered us from you. He has delivered us from this world system. He has delivered us from anything you can do to us. He has delivered us from the burning fiery furnace. He is able. But I'll tell you what he has delivered us from you. He has delivered us from this world system. He has delivered us from anything you can do to us. He has delivered us from the burning fiery furnace. He is able. But I'll tell you what he has delivered us from you. He has delivered us from this world system. He has delivered us from anything you can do to us. He has delivered us from the burning fiery furnace. He is able. But I'll tell you what he has delivered us from you. He has delivered us from the pull of this world. He has delivered us from the fear of man. He has delivered us from the fear of death. He has delivered us from compromise. He has delivered us from a lukewarm heart. He has delivered us from unbelief. He has delivered us from a heart that looks to self. He has delivered us from you. And he's able to deliver us from the fiery furnace. But if not, we still don't bow. That's a very sobering faith. But beloved, I believe that that is a picture of faith delivered from the world. That is a picture of faith that's available to every believer in Christ, babe, or otherwise. If we believe that there is an incorruptible life living in us, we can be faithful because the faithful one abides in us. But we need to trust on that. God will put us in a place, beloved, where we need to remember not to shift our trust, where we will not be driven by the voice of the enemy, where we will begin to learn, God, you're in control. You're God. I will not dictate to you. If you say something to me, I will trust the Christ in me to show me how to believe to the utmost. And then, Lord, you will learn to cut all the world and all its influences off me. Ultimately, that is a faith that overcomes the world. Beloved, it's not for the few. It's for those that say, Lord, it is possible because you died that I may have your life, that I may live your life, that I may live your life again on this earth. We're not called to lick fish. And we're not called, beloved, to walk in our own strength that we'll be crushed by it. We can never walk the way Christ asks us to live. They are seemingly impossible demands. Love your enemy. We can't do that in our own strength. But a walk of faith, we can do it. We can do it in Christ. We can do we shift away from our empty hands and say, Lord, you feed people through me. It is possible, beloved. But are we willing? Is that the kind of heart we want? This is a last day call for a faith that when Jesus comes, there's a people who can move the mountains into the sea because Christ has come and Christ lives in us. He says, when I come to the earth, will I find the people that want this? Will I find the people that will believe me? I believe here, this is what he's doing in Times Square Church. He's giving us a love for his word and a trembling at his word that is able to create that faith that we may walk to please him. Will you stand? My altar call today that the Lord laid on my heart is for those that fear is eating your faith. There is fear eating at your faith. And for those that have a shifting focus, you've been shifting your trust from Christ to self. That's why your burdens are getting so heavy. That's why every command that he every time you come to church, you feel almost condemned is because you're trying to do it in your own strength. You shift. You say you trust Christ, but there is a shifting and you're trying to do it in your own strength. And you realize today that you're empty handed. But the one in you is full to capacity. But Lord, you're saying, Lord, I acknowledge before you, I've been trying to do this in my own strength. And for those that have fear, will you come? In the war of faith, faith is like the nuclear weapons that we have against the enemy. If it's that powerful, then the truth is everyone in this auditorium could say, I will fight. I fight fear and I fight a shifting trust because the enemy knows how powerful faith is. But beloved God's word to those today that say, Lord, I would have a heart of faith. I would be a man or a woman full of faith, a Paul, a David. I would be that kind of person. The Lord is saying he will deliver us. He will deliver us. He will deliver us from our fear, from our shifting trust. He will deliver us. That's his word. The same word that he gave to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is ours. He will deliver us. And no matter what we face in the battle of faith, he will deliver us. He's going to teach us that walk where Jesus, when I pull my full trust in you through the tears and through the fear, you will come through and you will deliver me. And my faith will be based on something solid that I've proved you. I've proved you. Jesus proved the disciples, but now he's asking some people, will you prove me? Will you prove me? Because I will deliver you. I will. And in the days to come, we will be a people that will be able to say, let the furnace come. It holds no fear because he has and he does and he will deliver. I will let him choose whatever path my life has to take. I'm going to release the fear of that because the God who loves me above all else will only do what is for his glory and through love for me. And in the end, I will be good. I will come out the stronger and the better. The Hebrew children were not left alone in the furnace, but they came through brighter and stronger because they let God lead. And God gives the best to those who leave the choice to him always, always. And so we know that if we come by faith and say, Lord, you lead, I follow. And I'm going to have a faith that even a furnace will not back me down, that the world will have nothing in me. And when Jesus comes, you find us faithful. Let's lift our hands up. Father, we just thank you today. Thank you, O God, that you are a great conquering king who goes before us. Thank you, O God, that you will deliver us. Nothing is too difficult for thee. Nothing is impossible to you. My puny fear, my shifting trust, my battles are nothing to you. And so, Lord, I place them in your crucified hand. And Lord, I thank you that you're going to give me that heart of faith that when you speak a word to me, I trust it to thee. That most to the end, to the praise and the glory of your name. Thank you, Jesus. You're going to give me a testimony because you're so faithful and you will deliver. Amen. And amen. Father, thank you for this work today. God, we thank you, Lord, for how you're speaking to us as a church, Lord, and giving us your word to sustain us in whatever awaits us. God, in the coming days. Thank you, Lord, that you give us promise to the prophet Isaiah that in the midst of the fires that burned God. There is a bride. There is a worshiping people, Lord, songs of praise and adoration coming through God, giving honor and glory to the only one who can keep his people. Father, we thank you for that. God, thank you for that knowledge today. God, keep us and bless us. Father, I pray for those who have to go home today. Father, at this point that your hand of blessing be upon them. God bless our coming in, bless our going out. Keep us, Lord, our people praising you and trusting in you and believing you. Thank you for this. In Jesus mighty name. Amen. And amen. Beloved, we meet again tonight at six o'clock and I believe there's going to be a shout in the house of God tonight. Let's go singing a victory song. We have a victory song we can sing. All right. God bless you. We'll see you tonight at six o'clock. Shake somebody's hand. Encourage one another. This is the conclusion of the message.