Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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Living by Faith

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Mark 5 and 6

Clap when you’re done, you know what I mean? Not when you start, when you end. Children have class? Yes? All right, let’s stand and pray. Father, we thank you for the little ones in our midst. We thank you that you’ve taught us to cherish them, to love them, as Your own Son, Jesus. We ask that we would, through our prayers and through ministering the word to them, build them up in the faith, we pray that they come to a genuine saving knowledge of you. We pray Lord that they would, through knowing you, they would desire to serve you and follow you as they grow older. Give us the grace to continue to nurture them in their walk with you. We ask it in Jesus’ name, amen. We’re in the book of Mark chapter 5 starting in verse 21.

Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to him, and he was by the sea, and behold one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet, and begged him earnestly, saying, My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live. So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed him and thronged him. Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had, and it was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came, behind him in the crowd, and touched his garment. For she said, if only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well. Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my clothes? But his disciples said to him, you see the multitude thronging you, and you say, you touched me. And he looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman fearing and troubling, and knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said, her daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in english and be healed of your affliction. While he was speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, your daughter is dead, why trouble the teacher any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not be afraid, only believe. He permitted no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. Then he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. When he came in, he said to them, why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they ridiculed him. But when he had put them outside, he took them from the mother of the child and those, who were with him, and entered where the child was lying. Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, Talitha, Cumi, which is translated, little girl, I say to you, arise. Immediately the girl arose and walked for she was 12 years of age. They were overcome with great amazement, but he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that something should be given her to eat. Then he went out from there and came to his own country and his disciples followed him. And when the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing him were astonished saying, where did this man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to him? That such mighty works are performed by his hands. Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? So they were offended at him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives and in his own house. Now he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and he marveled because of their unbelief. Then he went about the villages and a circuit teaching.

Faith Versus Unbelief

Now this has been a long text we’ve read today, but clearly there’s a theme that runs through the entire text and that is the theme of faith, really faith versus unbelief. In chapter 5, 21 through the end of the chapter, we see two examples of healing. One of a woman who had been sick for 12 years, another of a little girl who had just died. We see Jesus working miracles here in both cases and it’s clear in both cases that the miracles that he performed were in response to faith. Notice the woman comes and she touches Jesus’ garment. She attempts to hide because She’s afraid of what she did, afraid of perhaps a critical response from Jesus.

But in verse 34 he says to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Then when the man hears that his daughter had died, Jesus says to the man in verse 36, do not be afraid, only believe. Clearly the theme that runs through these passages is first of all, the power of Jesus heal, the power of Jesus to heal in response to faith, in response to faith.

And if you take the time to read the Gospels attentively, you see this theme over and over and over. And Jesus has a favorite phrase, and one of his favorite phrases is, According to your faith, so be it. According to your faith, so be it. And so in the other synoptic gospels, we have the same account, and we also have the account of Jesus being rejected by his own relatives. But in Mark, what’s different is that Mark brings these accounts together. In Matthew and in Luke, they’re separated. Mark brings them together. them together. And as he does in many places, he brings events together thematically. Because they’re tied together by a common idea whether or not they happen strictly chronologically in Mark is a different question. He is grouping the material according to a theme. And the theme here is clearly the importance of faith versus unbelief.

Justified by Faith

So first, the importance of faith. Why is faith important? Well clearly faith was important for this woman because of her faith she was healed. It was important for this ruler because of his faith he received his child back to life. But why is faith important to us? Well first of all faith is important because we are justified by faith. We are saved by faith we would say. In Genesis we what God calls Abraham. It says he made the promise that his descendants would be as the stars of the heaven. And it says Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness.

That verse in Genesis is quoted by Paul as the foundation of his teaching on the justification by faith. Abraham was justified by faith before he was circumcised, before the law was given.

That is to say we are saved by faith without works. Amen. No works. None whatsoever. We do not earn our salvation in any regard by our works. works. You are saved by grace, Paul says, through faith. So if we do not have faith, we do not have grace, we do not have salvation. If we do not have faith, then we do not have justification. If we do not have faith, we do not have Christ. Now it’s striking that in this text, the woman that was healed was only one person of many that were thronging around Jesus. And the word thronging here means not just hanging around at a distance, but pressing in on Jesus. So when Jesus said, who touched me, the reason the disciples were kind of like, what? Because a lot of people were touching Him. Many people were touching Jesus, but only one person was touching him in faith. And the person who was healed. Not the person who touched Jesus, but the person who touched Jesus in faith was healed.

Touching Jesus in Faith

And this is so vitally important because there are many who believe in Jesus, but they do not believe in Jesus in the sense that they have touched Jesus and are united to him. They have a mere intellectual faith in Jesus Christ. They believe he died for the world, but they They cannot say truly in their heart of hearts that He died for them. So they have a generic faith, if you will. They’re like the multitude who was around Jesus, who wanted something from Jesus. As a matter of fact, in John, Jesus has a massive crowd following Him. And this is after He did the miracle, the feeding, the multitude. Massive crowds are following Him and He stops and He looks at them and He says, for the wrong reason. You’re following me for bread. And he says, you need to labor for the bread of God.

You need to believe is what he says. Now, didn’t they believe in Jesus? Well in a way, they kind of did. They believed he can make bread. Right? But they didn’t believe in Jesus. But they weren’t, believing in Jesus as the one sent from God, as the bread from heaven.

They were not exercising saving faith. And there are many Christians who believe in Jesus, but have never touched the hem of His garment. That is to say, they have an intellectual faith, but they are not born of God’s Spirit. They are not going to heaven. But it doesn’t matter if they go to church every Sunday, if they take communion every Sunday, if they were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, it does not matter if they have not touched the hem of Jesus’ Garment, if their faith is not a genuine, personal, vital, living, connecting faith, their faith is in vain. just one of the multitude, but not one of the healed, not one of the saved. If we are to be saved, we must truly put our confidence and faith in Jesus Christ. This brings us to the heart of what faith really means, and if you if you’re gonna turn me off, give me one more minute, then you can turn me off, okay? Just give me a minute, because what’s at stake here is your eternal destiny. What What is at stake here is the eternal destiny of your children and of your friends and your relatives that know you. Because a confusion on this point, a delusion on this point means that you are hazarding your soul. Do you understand? You are hazarding your soul. It’s easy to say, Jesus died for me. That wasn’t that easy. And some of you who said it, it’s not true.

You don’t believe it. But it’s easy to say it. True.

Now let me show you something.

What We Say and What We Do

We’re going to come back to Mark. In Matthew, go to Matthew for a minute. The end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is wrapping up that sermon of sermons, if you will. And he says this at the very end. This is Jesus speaking frankly now.

Not everyone, verse 21, not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, we have not prophes prophesied in your name and cast out a demon in your name and done many wonders in your name. And then I would declare to them, I never knew you. You who practice lawlessness. Now go to James 2. I’m trying to, I want you to see something that’s very similar between Jesus and James here.

In James 2, we have this famous passage on faith where he starts in verse 20, excuse me, chapter 2 verse 14 where he says, What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? If a brother or sister is naked in a destitute of daily food and one of you says to him, depart in peace, be warm and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does a prophet? Well the answer is it doesn’t profit us anything. of no value. So when you read Matthew, Jesus I should say at the end of Matthew, and you read James, what they’re doing is they’re contrasting, are you listening? They’re contrasting what we say versus what we do. Notice verse 14, what does a prophet, my brethren, if a man says, he says, he professes faith but does not have works. Many will come to me in that day and say they will speak the right words Lord, Lord, but they don’t do the will of My Father in heaven. And so we see this contrast here and it’s really all through scripture between what a man says and what a man does. So how do we know what a person believes? Is it by what he says or by what he does? Which is it? That’s the question. Which is it? Jesus says it’s by what he does. Does he do the will of the Father. James says, by what he does, does he feed the hungry? Hey, I really care about you and I’m sorry your car is broken down and even though I have a hundred bucks in my pocket, I’m not going to give you a penny, but I love you. Do I love him? No.

I don’t love if I don’t act. I don’t love if I don’t serve. I don’t love if I don’t lovee if I don’t pray. I can say all the right things because words are cheap, meaning they’re easy. It’s easy to say Christian stuff. It’s easy to say God bless you. It’s easy to say love your brother. It’s easy to say I’ll pray for you and then never do it. It’s easy, but it’s not. Faith. That’s not what biblical faith is. is. Faith is not assenting to things verbally that are not realities in the life and heart of the person that is saying them. That’s just not faith. Now I understand, it’s very common, but it’s not biblical faith. To quote Tozer, and I think I’ve read you this quote before because it’s so good and so convicting and it’s so good to be convicted. To many Christians Christ is a little more than an idea or at best an ideal but he’s not a fact. Millions of professed believers talk as if He were real and act as if you were not. And always our actual position is to be discovered by the way we act and not by the way we talk. We can prove our faith by our committal to it and no other way. That’s what James is saying. Show me your faith. You say you believe, now let me see the evidence of your faith. You know when the Reformers preached justification by faith alone, they were criticized because they were attacked saying, oh, well, you’re saying that a believer does not have to have good works. That’s not what they taught. They taught that good works are the natural consequence of a saving faith, but they are not the cause of salvation. a result from salvation. A changed life is the only evidence of genuine faith, because faith is invisible. You cannot see faith in the sense of its inward conviction of the heart. You can only see it because when there’s a genuine inward conviction of the heart, it actually works its way out in behavior. the person who professes and does not live, Jesus says he does not know them.

Now you’re thinking that I mean right now, I understand that, but you’re not reading the Gospels, my friend, because you read the Gospels and you will see just how mean Jesus can be. And what I mean by that is he has a stern what one author called a severe mercy because he knows we cannot be saved in our falsehood.

We cannot be saved in delusion. We cannot be saved in self-deception. So Jesus brings a bracing clarity, and I mean bracing clarity. I mean like it’s four in the the morning and someone dumps a bucket of ice water on your head while you’re sleeping. That’s what the Gospels are like. And if you’re not braced by them and shocked by them and and jolted by them, then you’re not reading them. How we I don’t know. Because what I see is a man of profound courage and conviction who knows the people he’s speaking to hate him and despise him and they’re plotting his death and yet he speaks the truth right to their face and doesn’t flinch. That is a man’s man. Any belief, Tozer, that does not command the one who holds it is not real belief. It is a pseudo belief only. And it might shock some of us profoundly if we were brought suddenly face to face with our beliefs and forced to test them in the fires of practical living.

The Just Shall Live by Faith

So the question of true faith is the question of not sentiment, it’s not even opinion, it’s living. It’s living. There’s a scripture the Old Testament which says, the just shall live by faith. And it’s quoted twice in the New Testament. And for one scripture to be quoted more than once is important. There’s only actually a few verses that are quoted verbatim several times in the Bible and that’s one of them. The just shall live by faith. It says the just shall live by faith. Not the just shall hold the faith, the just shall assent to the faith, but the just shall live by faith. Do you understand the difference? So when we talk about faith we’re talking about not only intellectual knowledge, now that’s important because I think someone can have faith in the wrong thing. There are There are some people who are very devoted to their God or their cause that they put some of us to shame quite frankly. They give more to their cause than we do. They devote more energy to their cause than we do. The problem is that their cause is wrong. The object of their faith is wrong. So you need intellectual content. You need to know the truth. You need to know that Christ is truly God, and He is truly God in the flesh, and He is truly the Savior. You need to know certain things we call the faith. But that knowledge in itself, held intellectually, is not saving faith. If the woman said, there goes Jesus, and He can heal people, Praise the Lord, He can do it. Praise the Lord. And walked away sick. Well, did she believe it or not? Not really. At least not very deeply. Let’s put it that way. Not very deeply. No, she had to put her problem in Jesus. Because she believed believe Jesus was the answer to her problem, she acted on that faith. So faith is not only intellectual, it’s volitional. It is will. As Tozer said, it is committal. It is committal. To believe in Jesus in a generic sense is to delude oneself that you’re on the road to heaven when you’re on the road to hell. It is to be self deceived. It is to be in the position that Jesus warned us not to be in, where we say, Lord, Lord, but do not the will of the Father. He’s not saying we’re saved by doing God’s will. It’s not work salvation, but he’s saying is, if you say, Lord, Lord, you will live, Lord, Lord. If you say, Lord, Lord, in its real faith, it will be lived out, Lord, Lord. And you’ll see it. evident. So faith is profoundly important for our salvation, but it is likewise profoundly important for our life and for our service. As I just quoted you, we’re told in Scripture that the just will walk, live by faith, not simply hold the faith. That is to say, if we’re going to live for God, if we’re going to serve God, we are to walk by faith and not by sight. It’s that simple. We’re told in, in Ephesians 3, Paul is praying in his prayer, he says, that God would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. That Christ, listen, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Now I don’t think he’s praying that they’ll be saved. I think he’s addressing them as saved people. But he’s saying that he wants them to experience the reality of Christ dwelling in their hearts, in his fullness. He says he prays that this will happen through faith. Why? Because that’s the only way it’s going to happen. Through faith. We walk by faith. We have communion with Jesus Christ by faith. We embrace the promises by faith. Thus, we live by faith. If we don’t live by faith, we’re not living the Christian life, whatever we’re doing. and certainly those who are not inspired by faith will not be very inspired to serve God. I might go to church on Sunday, but I’m not talking about church-ianity. I’m talking about biblical Christianity. Do you know there is a difference? No, you don’t know. You do? You don’t. Do you know there’s a difference? Church-ianity is just going to church for an hour a week, humming along the tunes, looking at your phone, tolerating a sermon and going home, and nothing ever changes in your life. That’s churchianity. That is the norm in America. I hate to say it, that’s the norm. It may be the norm for some of you. You have church, but it’s just churchianity. There’s not a vital living relationship with Jesus Christ. When Paul prays for the Ephesians that Christ would dwell in their hearts, He’s not simply praying, praying that they might be born again. He’s praying that they’ll know Jesus because Jesus is present in their life. He’s real. He’s palpable to them. He’s dwelling there. Dwelling doesn’t mean he visits once a year. He pops in every now and then. Dwelling means he lives there. He’s resident there. He’s comfortable there. He’s welcome there. Jesus comes into your heart and he rearranges the furniture because he lives there. You hear me? That’s what he’s praying. For a fullness of Jesus Christ, a fullness that is real that you can say, I know that my Redeemer lives. I know Him in His sufferings. I know Him in the power of His resurrection. [audio unclear] It’s just not possible. We worship and we walk with a risen Savior. [audio unclear] on the throne of God being worshiped by throngs and throngs and throngs of angels and elders. Amen? That’s happening. But he has also sent his spirit. And so Jesus, although he is physically there, he can be spiritually present in the life and heart of every Christian. [audio unclear] God has built the body together. [audio unclear] It is the reality of Christ manifested through the person of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and in the community of the church. [audio unclear] That changes lives. But this is a product of faith. This is a product of faith. Galatians 3. Here’s what Paul says. He’s reproving the Galatians because although they initially embrace the gospel of salvation or justification by faith through grace, they begin to drift back into legalism, back into works, back into Moses. And so he reproves them and he says, 3, chapter 3 verse 1, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? What’s the answer? By faith. You don’t work for God real hard and then as a reward he gives you the Holy Spirit. You don’t obey the law of Moses, and then as a reward God gives you the Spirit. That’s not salvation by faith or by grace. That’s salvation by works. Paul is saying you receive the Holy Spirit by faith. Verse 3, so that being so, are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? The point is, if you’re saved in the beginning by faith, then you’re saved in the present by faith. you’ll be saved in the future by faith. Because the Christian life is walking by faith and not by sight. It’s the same principle. Paul says in Colossians, as you have received the Lord Jesus, how did you receive him? By faith, so walk in him. Have you suffered so many things in vain? Verse four, if indeed it was in vain? In other words, he’s expressing this doubt. If you’re going back to Moses, well gee, maybe you never really believed, he’s saying. maybe it was in vain. Therefore, he supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you. Does He do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? What’s the answer? By faith. You receive the Spirit by faith. You walk by faith. You see miracles by faith. You get answered prayers by faith. You serve by faith. You give by faith. You live by faith in Christ.

Amen?

Faith Glorifies Christ

And the most important reason, or should I say yes, the most important reason that faith is important is that it brings glory to Christ. It glorifies Him. When we read these accounts in Mark, we can marvel at their faith, but we ought to be marveling at Jesus and His power to heal and to save. Amen? So the woman comes to Jesus, and although she could never articulate it, she understood that Jesus was the great physician. He was the one who could heal. And the ruler of the synagogue came to Jesus, and although he might not say it, he understood that Jesus was the resurrection and the life. And the word of God tells us that R Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the first and the last. He’s the faithful witness and true. That He is a prophet, that He is a priest, that He is a king, that He is a bread from heaven, that He is the rock of ages, that He is the shepherd of His sheep. Shall I go on? Because Jesus Christ is the center and the focus of the Christian life. Apart from Jesus, there is no Christian life. There is no salvation apart from Jesus. There is no real church apart from Jesus. Because the church is His body and He is the head. Jesus isn’t part of Christianity. He is the throbbing heart of it. And so our faith centers on the God-man. We believe in God in Christ, or God as He is revealed through Christ. He that honors the Son, honors the Father, Jesus said. To reject Jesus is to reject the Father. To embrace Jesus is to embrace the Father. Different person, same God. We bring glory to God by our faith by putting Him in the center of our lives where He deserves to be, but it also glorifies him because it is a recognition of what is true. And let me explain what I mean. We, including myself, we live under the illusion that we’re in charge. We think we’re in charge. And I get my planner out and I plan out the week I think in the month, this meeting here and that meeting here and this thing here, all planned out. We are in control of nothing. We are dependent on God for the next breath that we take. In Him we live and move and have our being. I mean, we are utterly dependent on him. But man, I don’t know that we really believe that. Because I’m not sure we really live like that. You know, as I was meditating on faith and on these passages and reading the Gospels, I was struck with the account where, and we’ll look at it later, where Jesus, where the blind man, Bartimaeus, Jesus, well, he doesn’t see him, but he hears that Jesus is passing by, right? You know the story? He throws his cloak down and he stands up and he says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus stops, he says, Jesus stood. Now that is so cool to think that you can speak and the son of God will stand still for you. If we only believed in the power of prayer, we would be a praying fool of the church. The Son of God stands and then he looks at Jesus he says, what do you want? Now Jesus is either stupid or something because he was blind and it was probably pretty obvious to everybody he was blind. But you see this pattern also in really in all scripture in Jesus when he counters people He says, what do you want? What do you want from me? Now, it’s obvious what the man wanted. And I guess he could have been insulted. Well, if you’re going to ask a dumb question, I’m going to go somebody else for healing. So why does he do that? Because the Lord, I believe, wants us to tell him what he knows. He already knows it. He wants us to tell him what he already knows because that puts us in a place of dependence and communion on him. We are admitting to ourselves really by articulating, we need you. I need you to do this for me. And it forces us, sadly, forces us to pray.

But that’s not the way God has designed things. James even says you have not because you ask not. And you can say it doesn’t make any sense, and I’ve thought about this a long time and it doesn’t make sense other than this, that it requires us to make communion with Jesus. Are you hearing me? You know the woman that touched Jesus, McLaren makes a big point of saying she’s an example of weak faith. You say why? He says because she should have understood she didn’t need to touch him to be healed. And it’s true. But the Lord has designed things in such a way that our needs cause us to come into communion with him for solution, for fulfillment. We have a lot of needs whether we acknowledge it or We have many needs. We need our family members to get saved, amen? Maybe it’s your children, maybe it’s your spouse, maybe it’s your parents, maybe it’s your siblings. They need to be saved. So that means we need to pray for them. You have needs in your life. You need to grow spiritually. You need to grow in your relationship with Christ, amen? If you’re not saying amen, you don’t understand, you don’t stop growing until you’re in heaven. And even then, I think you probably keep on a growing. We need victory over sin. Amen.

Too many Christians are in bondage to sin. I mean, they are enslaved. We need God to hear our prayers for deliverance for His people. Amen.

We need the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, Amen.

We need to have the power to walk in victory over the flesh, over sin, and over the devil. We need to have the power of the Spirit in our lives so that we walk in faith and not the fear of man. We need to have the power of the Spirit in our lives so that we’re bold to speak the gospel to unbelievers. We need to have the power of the Spirit in our lives so that when we pray, we see God answer. so that we serve Him and we serve Him fruitfully. Amen? We have many, many, many needs and you may have individual needs. You may be discouraged. You may feel depressed. Your marriage may be in trouble. I don’t know your particular needs, but I know the one who has has the solution for your need. His name is Jesus Christ. And you need to not only call on Him, the Bible tells you to call on Him in faith. Call on Him in faith because He responds to faith. When that woman touched the garment, power from Jesus went out. That’s what we all need. We need the power of Jesus in our lives. Amen? Do you believe God answers prayer? That was easy to say, wasn’t it? It’s so easy to say. But how often do we pray?

How many hours a day do we pray? Hours a day? Okay, try minutes. Are we a praying people?

Can we honestly say that before God, not before me? Can we honestly say that before God? I’m a praying Christian, and I pray in faith. And I get answers to my prayers too. Is that true of us individually? Is it true of us as a body? If you don’t believe, if we don’t believe, well we won’t pray. There’s no point in asking things you don’t believe are going to be answered. Right? But if we believe, we ask. The woman believed so she fought through the crowd and touched Jesus. The man believed so he came to Jesus for healing. He believed. Their belief led them to do something, to approach Jesus. Well unfortunately Jesus isn’t here physically anymore, except in his body. But I mean, you know, if Jesus was in my office, I said today’s special is a personal interview with Jesus. If you’ve got a request, go into my office and Jesus will have a talk with you. I hope you’ll be flocking to my office. But Jesus is just as available. In some ways more available. Just as available for us. But we can’t see Him physically, so we have to see Him by faith. That’s why we have to walk by faith. So I could make many applications but we’re out of time and we’re going to come back to this text and talk more about faith over the next week or two.

Closing Prayer

So let’s stand together. This Wednesday night we’re going to gather here at 7 o’clock for prayer. Say 7 o’clock. Wednesday evening. Wednesday evening. Okay, so you heard. We’re going to pray. If you believe in prayer, or should I say, if you believe in the God to whom we pray, then please show your faith by coming together to pray. Don’t say you believe, show your faith by your actions because otherwise it can’t be seen. And I can assure you of this, prayers that are not uttered are prayers that are not heard. Prayers that are not spoken are prayers that are not answered. We must pray together, and we must pray in faith. As an evidence of our faith we must pray. And as we pray in faith we’ll see God in it, amen. Who works miracles among you? Does He do it by works or by faith? You want to see miracles? Then come and pray with us in faith. Lord we thank you that you are a prayer hearing God. Jesus I thank you that you are mighty to save whatever the situation is. I pray Lord that your spirit that dwells in us would convict us if we’re walking in unbelief. But I pray that he would challenge us that He would move us to walk by faith. And I ask this for your glory because as we walk in faith and as you work in our lives, Lord, yes we’re blessed but more importantly you’re glorified. And that’s what we want. In your name, amen.