Faith Life Church
♪♪ Music playing ♪♪
(Praise and Worship Team sing I Walk Like Jesus)
♪ I walk like Jesus I talk like Jesus ♪
♪ I live like Jesus By the Spirit in me ♪
♪ I pray like Jesus I say like Jesus ♪
♪ I have faith like Jesus By the Spirit in me ♪
♪ I walk like Jesus I talk like Jesus ♪
♪ I live like Jesus By the Spirit in me ♪
♪ I pray like Jesus I say like Jesus ♪
♪ I have faith like Jesus By the Spirit in me ♪
♪ His Spirit's in me ♪
♪ Oh the Greater One's in me ♪
♪ I preach like Jesus I teach like Jesus ♪
♪ I yield like Jesus To the Spirit in me ♪
♪ I love like Jesus I give like Jesus ♪
I forgive like Jesus By the Spirit in me
♪ His Spirit's in me ♪
♪ Oh the Greater One's in me ♪
♪ I walk like Jesus I talk like Jesus ♪
♪ I live like Jesus By the Spirit in me ♪
♪ I pray like Jesus I say like Jesus ♪
♪ I have faith like Jesus By the Spirit in me ♪
♪ His Spirit's in me ♪
♪ Oh the Greater One's in me ♪
♪ His Spirit's in me ♪
♪ Oh the Greater One's in me ♪
♪ I walk like Jesus I talk like Jesus ♪
♪ I live like Jesus By the Spirit in me ♪♪
In 2 Corinthians the first chapter, you're going to
Luke, right?
He talked about how God comforted him and in verse eight
he said, "For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of
our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out
of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even
of life," did pressure come on him?
Came on him in such a degree that he thought that if it was
just up to him to handle it, he would die.
"But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we
should not trust in ourselves," this is a perfect description of
casting the care off of you, deciding I can't fix this so I'm
not going to hold on to this like I can, I'm going to give it
to God.
I'm not trusting that I can do anything about this, I'm
trusting in God Who, "Raises the dead," if He could raise the
dead He can get our bills paid.
If He can raise the dead He can help us with these kids and
grandkids.
If He can raise the dead and the Bible said He, "Delivered us
from so great a death, and does deliver: in Whom we trust that
He will yet deliver us."
Paul by the Spirit of God in the midst of a situation where he
was pressed to the point of death, got it off of himself,
quit depending on himself to do it, trusted in God and God
brought him through.
Delivered him.
How do you deal with this pressure?
Well, in Luke there, Luke twenty-one, you see why the
enemy does this.
The Scripture says, "With the heart man believes," and
Proverbs said, "Guard your heart with all diligence for out of
it," out of your heart, "are the issues of life."
Not just talking about your physical blood pump, but talking
about the core of your being.
The spiritual part of you.
The hidden man of the heart.
Where is the life coming from that keeps your heart beating
and your lungs working?
Where is it coming from?
People say, some folks will try to tell us, "There are regions
in the brain where these impulses come from."
Fine, fine.
Where does it come from to get to there?
They can't tell you.
It can't be seen under a microscope.
It's life.
They would call it the mystery of life.
But the reason life is flowing to these parts of our body,
along our nerves and in our brain, is because we are a
living spirit.
Hallelujah.
When the spirit leaves the body, all that life flow is gone so
the body can't continue.
But, out of our heart flows the issues of life.
So the enemy wants to attack, not just your mind and your
body, he wants to attack your heart and choke off the flow of
life.
And as we studied last week, care, anxious care and worry has
the ability to choke the Word of God in your heart and life.
Worrying is not an innocent thing.
Worry is not a non-issue, no deal.
It's a very big deal.
It hurts you.
It chokes you.
Read this.
"And take heed to yourselves," Luke 21:34, "lest at any time
your hearts be," what?
"overcharged.."
The Young's Literal says, "... lest your hearts may be
weighed down with surfeiting,
drunkenness, anxieties of life..."
What does it do to your heart?
It weighs down.
Well, what does weight do if it's on you?
It pushes, it presses, weighs you down.
The Amplified says, "Take heed to yourselves and be on your
guard, lest your hearts be overburdened and depressed
(weighed down) with the giddiness and headache and
nausea of self-indulgence, drunkenness, and worldly worries
and cares pertaining to [the business of] this life..."
All of this is us allowing pressure to choke us, to squeeze
us.
And people think it's unavoidable if it's happening
round about you, how can you get out of it?
Wrong.
I said, wrong.
Just because it's on the outside doesn't mean you have to let it
on the inside.
Oh, somebody say, "Hallelujah.
(Congregation repeats) I don't have to be full of worry.
I don't have to be full of care.
I don't have to be upset."
Now you're going to have to make a quality decision because
you're going to have all kind of opportunities to get upset and
to worry.
But you're just going to have to keep passing them and say no,
I'll pass.
Get upset.
No, I'll pass.
And here's the thing and you have to get ready for this,
including your loved ones, including your bestest friends.
If people are under pressure themselves, they will try to
pressure you and even get upset when you don't get just as upset
as they are, because, "You don't care.
I'm so upset, I'm so upset.
If you care about me you'll get upset with me."
Nope, I'll pass.
Doesn't mean I don't care about you, I care enough about you to
want to do something that actually helps the situation.
That means I 'gots' to stay in faith. (Laughter)
Right?
I've got to enter in to that rest.
Because that's how God moves in the earth is in connection with
our faith.
And me getting upset with you or anybody else is not going to
help.
In fact, it can make it worse.
And if I let that care and anxiety and fear and worry in
me, it's going to sit on me, it's going to sit on my heart
like an elephant.
It's going to squeeze and choke the Word out of my heart.
No, thanks.
I'll pass.
How about you?
Second Corinthians four.
We've all made mistakes in these areas, we've already said that
several times.
But I'm convinced you don't have to live that way.
I'm convinced no matter what happens, you can still have the
peace of God that passes understanding on the inside of
you.
Second Corinthians 4:8 he said, "We are troubled on every side,"
is Paul a man of faith?
Now see, some folks that don't understand it they would've
wrote him back and said, "Now Paul, don't make that bad
confession.
Where'd you learn about faith from?"
This is faith.
The faith is the rest of the sentence.
Faith is not denying that there are issues, faith is what we
believe anyhow in the face of these circumstances.
"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed."
Oh, somebody help me preach this now.
The word 'troubled' literally means 'to crowd', 'to squeeze'.
The RV says, "We are pressed on every side, but we're not
distressed."
And the Greek literally means 'cramped'.
Pressed but not cramped.
Pressed but not squeezed.
It's pushing on me, but it's not squeezing me on the inside.
It's trying to push against me, trying to get me to worry,
trying to get me to get mad, trying to get me to be hurt,
trying to get me to be upset, but I'll pass.
I'm just not going to do it.
No.
No, no, no, no.
"Did you hear what they said about you?
Did you hear what they did?
Oh, did you know they did this?
Surely you'll get mad about this."
I better not.
I just better not.
No.
I like being healed, I'll pass.
I like having all my bills paid.
I'll pass.
It's just a better quality of life.
Being upset all the time gets old.
Wears you down.
And fewer and fewer people want to be around you.
Come on now.
You like being around people that are upset and fuming and
half fussing and cussing all the time?
You like being around all that?
Well then people don't like being around you if you're being
like that.
You know who people like being around?
Folks that are happy.
All the time.
All the time happy.
That's a witness.
That's a witness to the other believers, the other members of
your family.
Will there be opportunities to be upset?
Oh, don't sit there and look so sanctified.
Come on now.
Act like you've never been to a dinner or a family gathering.
Will there be opportunities to get your little feelings hurt?
To get rubbed the wrong way?
To get agitated, to get slightly upset?
"Now I'm not going to say anything, but you know, they
shouldn't have done that.
They shouldn't have said that."
And so you sit over there with your fake and phony smile for
the next two hours, the rest of the day.
And as well as you might do it, folks back in the kitchen are
going, "What's wrong with her?
What's wrong with him?
Do you know?"
Well, they are being un-Christian.
What we get upset about and how upset we get reveals a lot about
us.
If you get upset over any little thing, you're a baby.
Baby, baby Christian.
Don't care how much you talk in tongues, how may Scriptures you
quote, you're a baby.
Have not developed, have not matured.
Oh, but friend, when big stuff happens that shakes everybody
around you and you felt it and you thought - boy, you feel so
pulled, getting mad or yell or do something and you go, "I'll
pass.
Somebody needs to believe God around here."
Is that right?
What we need to do is trust God and now is not time to lose it.
And if people all around you are losing it and you abide in the
peace that passes understanding, they will not soon forget it.
And even if they call themselves agnostic, atheist, whatever,
they will remember it when they go back home.
It will make a lasting impression on them.
They didn't even know it was possible to act like that and be
like that.
That no matter what they say and do, you still have your peace,
you still have your joy, you still walk in love, you still
walk in faith.
How many would agree this is a powerful witness of a real
Jesus?
Isn't it?
Keep reading.
Second Corinthians 4:8 Paul said, "We are troubled," that
means pressed, "On every side, yet not distressed."
Yet not cramped.
"We are perplexed," that literally means to be at a loss,
"but not in despair," not despondent.
Now here's something we have to get a revelation of.
Just because you don't know what's going on, just because
you don't know the answer, just because you don't know how to
deal with it, is no justification for being upset
and mad and frustrated.
"Well, if I knew, I could relax."
You can relax without knowing.
"If I just knew what to do, then I could relax."
No, there will be something else to get upset about right after
that.
You have to learn how to relax before you know.
Before you know why.
Before you know how.
You have to learn how to relax.
Years ago, one of the first ministry trips in the states I
went on, this has been decades ago, I had prayed and studied
the night before but just couldn't seem to get a handle on
what I'm supposed to speak.
And I'm young, and it was bothering me some.
So I thought well, I don't need it right now, so - then the day
came.
And then I'm on the plane, commercial airliner.
And I'm sitting in the seat and we're flying and I'm supposed to
speak that night, and it's late in the day.
I'm going to be there in a couple hours, they're going take
me to the church and then I'm going to speak.
And I don't know.
And it was beginning to bug me.
I was beginning to get agitated.
A little uneasy.
More than that.
And finally under my breath I said Lord, anytime would be
good.
And here's what He said.
He said, "Do you trust Me?"
I don't mean I heard a voice but inside me, "Do you trust Me?"
Anybody know the correct answer to that?
I said yes, yes.
He said, "Well, relax."
Oh, did you hear that phrase now?
"Do you trust Me?
Well, relax."
If you're not relaxing, what does that mean?
You don't trust Him.
"He might not come through.
I might not get it in time.
I might not have the money in time."
This is why folks can't rest.
It's simply lack of faith.
Lack of trust.
I sat there and I realized okay now it's either or.
So I said okay, fine.
I'll relax.
So I ordered me a ginger ale, just looked out the window.
I'm not saying it was easy because it was pressing against
me, it was pushing against me.
Two hours.
One hour.
Thirty minutes.
But I had a Word from the Lord.
What did He say?
"Do you trust Me?"
What's the word?
"Relax."
What does that mean?
He's going to take care of me.
It's going to be alright.
It's going to be fine.
Yeah, but I don't know.
Yeah, but you don't have to know to relax.
Is that what He said right here?
Isn't that what He said?
Perplexed, and I was perplexed as to what I was going to talk
about.
Perplexed but what?
Not in despair.
At a loss, but not despondent.
Not down over it.
"Yeah, but I don't know, yeah, but I don't know."
Yeah, but you don't have to be upset because you don't know.
You can have peace before you know.
You can rest before you know.
"Yeah, but I have to know.
I have to know."
You don't have to know to have faith.
You don't.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things - it ain't seen yet.
And if we're to live by faith and walk by faith and you can't
help but be upset until you see it and know it, well then you're
going to be upset all the time.
Got off the plane, they picked me up, they're taking me to the
church, took me in the back room, gave me the microphone,
took me up on the platform.
Introduced me real good.
And I'm sitting there telling myself relax.
Just relax.
The Lord said, I got a Word from the Lord.
What's the word?
Relax.
There are a lot of people there.
"What are you going to say?
What are you going to do?"
And that's what the enemy is.
He wants to push on you.
"What are you going to do?
What are you going to say?
What if you get up there and you have nothing to say?
What if you get up there and you don't know what to do?
People are going to look at you and say what is that dummy
doing?
He's up there doing nothing, why did they invite him?
Traveled all this way just to stand up there and look dumb?"
Just as I stepped up to the pulpit a word of knowledge came
to me.
A word of wisdom came to me.
Gifts of the Spirit.
It was that way for the whole service.
The reason He didn't give me a sermon, I didn't need a sermon.
We weren't going to do a sermon that night.
Now you might say well then why didn't He tell you that you
weren't going to need a sermon?
He didn't tell me on purpose.
He purposely didn't tell me.
Couldn't He just as easily told me you're not going to need a
sermon because I'm going to give you gifts of the Spirit when He
said relax?
He could've said that.
Somebody said, "Why didn't He say that?"
Well, you're not God.
And so you need to quit thinking you're some smarty and listen to
what He says because the problem is not you not knowing, the
problem is not trusting.
And that's not a head problem, that's a heart problem.
A heart problem that no amount of information can fix.
God can sit down with you with your scheduler and give you all
kinds of information about the next twenty years of your life
and you would still find something to worry about.
Because it's a heart problem that's not fixed.
Oh, but friend, when we get a hold of this and really start
living by rest and faith and trust, no matter what's going on
you refuse to worry about it.
No matter what has happened or didn't happen or what you
understand or what you don't understand, one thing you don't
do is get upset or be anxious or fearful or full of care about
it.
The answer to every situation is believe God.
No matter what happens, "What are we going to do?"
We're going to believe God.
We're going to be in faith and we'll stay in faith.
We're going to stay in rest.
What does that mean?
It can be so simple, so basic.
What are we going to believe?
We're going to believe that God is going to show us what to do,
He's going to come through for us, our needs are going to be
met, it's going to turn out for our good and His glory.
Somehow, someway.
I don't have to know all the details to be settled in that.
Right?
And I can believe that right now before I learn anything else or
see anything else.
Oh friend, it's possible for our scared, fearful, worried,
anxious, frustrated, mad, hurt days to be over and embark on a
whole new way of life.
Do you believe it?
Glory to God.
He said, "Troubled, but not distressed.
Perplexed, but not in despair.
Persecuted, but not forsaken," not deserted, "cast down, but
not destroyed."
One translation says knocked down but not knocked out.
That's why I said we need to learn how to take a punch from
the outside.
"Yeah, but it hit me...
Yeah, but it surprised me...
Yeah, but it startled me..."
Well so what, that was then, this is now.
"It just caught me so off guard."
That doesn't mean you have to live off guard the rest of your
life.
"What are we going to do?"
Let's do something that's going to help.
Let's trust God.
Verse sixteen, "For which cause we faint not; but though our
outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by
day."
He's talking about outward and inward.
Verse seventeen, "For our light affliction," that word
affliction is the word that means pressure.
Our light pressure.
Somebody says, "Man, you've really been going through it."
No, just light pressure.
The Bible said it's light pressure.
It's all light pressure.
And it's, "But for a moment," momentary light pressure.
With the Greater One inside you, can you deal with momentary
light pressure?
It's just for a moment but it, "Works for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the
things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:
for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things
which are not seen are eternal."
Announcer: We trust this message has ministered to you.
Faith Life Church has two locations; in Branson, Missouri
and Sarasota, Florida.
Service times in Branson are Friday nights at 6:30 and
Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m.
Service times in Sarasota are Friday nights at 7:30
and Sunday mornings at 10:00.
For more information please visit our websites
or call us at 417-334-9233.
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