2nd Sign: From The Foxhole To Genuine Faith, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. I mean, think about this. How simple are the words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? They're really simple. Now, you tell those to somebody on what you say.

I don't think so. I've got to be doing something. I mean, that's just the way it is. I think you have to become a really good person if you want to have anything to do with God. I think you better show up in church. You know, I think I better do the sacraments or I'm out. If you think that way, you're out. God doesn't share this.

You don't have a responsibility to do something hard. God gets all the glory in this. This is God, even though we have this nature not to do this. The only thing you and I can do is believe what God has said. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. Jesus said this is the problem. Unless you see signs and wonders, you won't believe. In other words, you'll only ever have foxhole faith.

That's all that you'll have no matter what ends up happening. The royal official said to him, sir, come down before my child dies. Come down is imperative. You have to come. He means down because Capernaum is on the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Galilee, 700 feet below sea level, which is really low considering we're at sea level.

Seven hundred feet. So no matter how you go to the Sea of Galilee, you're going down because there's mountains around it and all that. So he said he wanted that. And the idea of his child is interesting.

It really means that the Greek word that's used there is little one. It's male. My little boy. Is dying. So you can see this man's desperation. You have a little boy that's dying.

How desperate are you? Do you ever try to make deals with God for this? God, if you do this and I'll do this, that type of thing.

Well, the whole story changes right now. Jesus said to him, go. It's imperative. Your son lives.

Put yourself in the guy's place. Now, you've already figured out how God should work in this situation, right? He needs to come down. He needs to find your son and he needs to heal yourself. Jesus says, go. Your son lives. Is that good news? Maybe. All right.

I mean, think about it from your point of view, certainly from his point of view. This is a moment of truth. Being offered right now. The prayer is going to be offered in Cana. The answer is going to be done in Capernaum. That's the most difficult walk in the world. We've all done this.

The walk from Cana to Capernaum. Have you ever prayed for something and you've had to wait? Ever? Yes.

Yes. You're praying for something. You're using your foxhole faith and you want it done now and you want it done in this way.

And you have to walk. But our situation seems a lot different. Yes, Jesus didn't say your son lives to us. Let's see what he did say. Paul wrote in Romans 828, all things work together for good to those who love Jesus.

That's what he said. Now, what does he mean when he says all things work together for good to those who love Jesus? What things?

All things. That's what Jesus said. So Jesus tells you, he may not say go to Capernaum, but in a sense he is. All things will work together for your good. You've prayed, all things will work together for your good.

How do you feel about that? You see, do you exercise genuine faith? Or do you sit in, you know, sort of in a sense, scratch your head and say, I just don't know how this is going to work at all. See, I don't know if I'm going to get what I asked for.

I don't. I don't know when I'm going to see the goodness. See, I don't know when am I going to see the good? When's he going to answer it?

Am I going to get what I asked for? How long will this walk be that I'm on right now? Could be 18 seconds. 18 days, 18 months, 18 years. It could be you won't even understand the good of it until you were in the Lord's presence.

That's a long walk, isn't it? But he already answered it. This is all going to work for your good. Now, what Mary saying? Whatever he says, do it. So this is what he says to you.

This is the way it's going to be. Now, which kind of faith do you have when he says that? Foxhole faith or genuine faith?

You see, this is a little bit harder than we thought. It goes on. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke. Just like the Samaritans. He believed. Now we're moving to genuine faith. He believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and he started off.

Wow. He didn't start off because he experienced the miracle. He started off because of what Jesus said to him. This is hard for us.

We do this all the time. You find these kind of stories all through the Bible. Hold your place here with me for a moment and go with me to 2 Kings 5.

2 Kings 5. John says, now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master and highly respected because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. And the man was a valiant warrior but he was a leper.

Now, that's about it. Here is this great warrior, famous man, has great value. He's a leper. I'm guessing it's in the early stages of his leprosy. But he knows in that world that's a death sentence to him. He will eventually be isolated in leper colonies.

He'll likely lose vision, digits off his hands and feet. He knows what leprosy is going to bring him. Now let's go down to verse 9. So because of that, Naaman came, he said, with his horses and his chariots and he stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. Who's Elisha? He's a prophet.

One of the great prophets of God, the successor to Elijah. This is, look, I'm going to deal with this. I'm going to go to the store. I'm going to go and talk to the great prophet of God, Elisha.

Now this is why, because I don't want to have leprosy and die a leper. That's his foxhole faith, how it starts. Now watch what happens. Elisha sent a messenger to him. Now where's Elisha? He's in the house. Does Elisha come and talk to him at the door?

Nope. He sends a messenger. Now here I am, this great warrior and all that, and the guy doesn't even come talk to me.

He sends his messenger. And he said, go wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh will be restored to you and you shall be clean. Now did Elisha tell him that? Nope. God told him that. There's the word again.

You go ahead and do this. You got to love Naaman. Naaman was furious and went away sad and said, behold, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. I know how this works.

I've seen it on TV. Guy's got to come out. He's got to be right with it. He's got to wave his hand and call on God and then you get healed.

That's foxhole faith. He's telling Elisha how to do this. You see, he just like come down to Capernaum. He's telling them the same thing. In fact, he says, are not. He said, Abana. And he said, in Farpar, the rivers of Damascus better than all these waters in Israel. You've got to love that. Look, if it takes rivers and you want to do a good one, how about our rivers? Our rivers are better than that river.

Could I not wash in them and be clean? And so he turned and he went away in a rage. He didn't do what I wanted done the way I wanted it done. So then his servants came near and they spoke to him and they said, my father had the prophet told you to do some great thing. Would you not have done it?

That's a great line. If he had told you, here's what you're going to have to do. One, you're going to have to take half of your wealth and give it to the poor. You're going to have to do that. You're going to have to promise me that you stop swearing all the time in God's name. You're going to have to treat your wife better than you've ever treated her before.

OK, I can do this, then I won't be a leper. He said, if you'd have told you that, you'd have said, OK, I'll do it. Wow. How much more then that he says to you, wash and be clean. And so these are his words, wash and be clean. It's all he's asking. There's the words. So he went down, dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, according to the word of the man of God. He does it. And his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.

He was clean. Wow. See the evidence, the same idea. It only comes down to this idea. Do you believe the word? You don't believe in the word.

That becomes the problem, I think, for all of us. Man has a problem with this. God doesn't share his glory with anyone. Everything he does is righteous. Everything that we have is a result of his grace and his mercy. And God gets not part of the glory. He always gets all of the glory. Man hates this.

Man doesn't like this at all. We want to do something. God, if you do this, I'll do that.

That's the way this should work. I mean, think about this. How simple are the words of the gospel of Jesus Christ? They're really simple. Now, you tell those to somebody and what do you say?

I don't think so. I got to be doing something. I mean, that's just the way it is. I think you have to become a really good person if you want to have anything to do with God. I think you better show up in church. You know, I think I better do the sacraments or I'm out. If you think that way, you're out. God doesn't share this.

You don't have a responsibility to do something hard. God gets all the glory in this. This is God, even though we have this nature not to do this. The only thing you and I can do is believe what God has said. Now, go back to John with me, verse 51. And then it says, as he was going down, his slaves met him.

Now, this is really interesting to me, something you miss if you don't think about it. If that would have been you. And you find out that your son, he said your son as well. What would you have done? Now, remember, you could you can get there in six hours.

So you're going to find out in a moment. You could have got there the day Jesus told you that. You could get there.

And in fact, this is a wealthy man. He could have got gone to Hertz rent a chariot, rented a chariot, and he could have got there in two hours. Don't you think that I'm getting back there? I got to see that I'm going to get back. You know what the guy did?

He spent the night in a hotel. I'm in no hurry. Why? I believe him. I believe what he says. You see, that's important. He believes what Jesus says, and then it goes on.

It says this. His slaves met him, shows he is a man of wealth and that his son was living. So he inquired to them the hour when he began to get better. And they said to him yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him one in the afternoon. Right when he was talking to Jesus. So if he'd have left right then walking, he could have been home by seven that night. But he wasn't.

Why? He believed what Jesus told him. Now he doesn't have foxhole faith. Now he's showing genuine faith. You see, that's an amazing thing that he does right there.

It doesn't stop. So the father knew it was that that hour that Jesus said to him, your son lives, and he himself believed and his whole household. They're all saved.

The whole household and the man genuine faith. How did he get saved? He believed Jesus. You see, he just he believed what Jesus said, and it ended up that he was saved, just like the Samaritans. Same idea. Now, in Judah and Galilee, not not at all.

Very little conversions, but here it is. Jesus, even when he interacts in a miraculous way, always has something bigger in mind. Always, always. That should have a profound effect on our prayer life. I know you are and I'm often asked to pray for people. And the prayer request that I get is often a foxhole request. So and so is really ill or my aunt, who's just like a mother to me, had a test.

And let's pray that it's benign. That made that sense. Does that sound like a prayer you give? Yes, we do this.

But are there bigger fish to fry here than that? One of Jesus had healed the boy. And then just left them be. The boy would have been healed, right?

And in 70, 80 years, the boy would have been dead. And forever separated from God. In other words, when Jesus is talking about doing something physical like a miracle, he always has something spiritual in mind. So when you and I do intercessory prayer for somebody else, I challenge you to make sure you don't just pray the foxhole prayer that God will do in this situation exactly what you want him to do. But like Mary, you say, Lord, you do it. That this outcome be for you.

We say you will be done. That's what Jesus said. But more importantly, there should be a spiritual aspect to my prayer. Sometimes people are surprised because they'll ask me to pray for someone they know it's going through a difficult time, usually health, but other things. And I'll say, what's their spiritual condition? Well, why would you want to know that?

Well, why wouldn't I? Are they saved people? If they're not, I would pray God would use the situation to bring them to Christ. If they are saved, I pray God would use this to help them mature in their faith. That's what the spiritual part is extremely important here. It's not just I want to get what I want to get.

I want to get it now. We think that somebody if somebody is really sick or someone young even dies, that's the tragedy. What's really the tragedy is someone lives to be 92 and dies without Christ.

That's a tragedy forever. That's what he came for. That's the gospel. And so this man went from foxhole faith to believing Jesus and staying there and now trusting Christ as a savior and his whole household did. That's what Jesus had in mind from the beginning. Was Jesus more interested in giving a boy health or more interested in saving the household? His word has far greater worth than his miracles. His miracles just authenticate his word.

He uses miracles in that way. We have to think about this in our life. Life doesn't always go the way we want it to. I mean, a lot of us right now in certain areas of our life, we're living between Canaan and Capernaum. That's where life is right now. And it's hard. You pray and pray and you wait.

And you're on that walk. Look, I'm sorry that your plans never materialized. I'm sorry that your spouse never apologized. You know, I'm sorry that your cancer decided to metastasize.

I'm sorry about that. And I know it takes great faith to walk between Canaan and Capernaum. But you have to remember what he said.

All things will work for your good. That's what he said. The question is, do you believe that? Or as Mary said, just do what he says. I'll leave it in his hands. There are no limits to what Jesus can do. He tries so often to assure us. Psalm 46 one says that God is ever present in trouble. Ever present.

What a great way to describe it. God is as close as your next breath. He's right here. He's right with you. He said, I promise Jesus.

The writer of Hebrews said about Jesus differently. His promise was I'll never leave you nor forsake you. What do you mean?

Am I walking from Cana, Capernaum alone? Never. I never will. In fact, it doesn't even say that in the Greek. You can't write it very well in English. English is I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

Greek five times uses five times not as repeated. This is what it literally says. I will not not leave you. Neither or not will I not not forsake you. Now, why did God say that? I'll not not leave you. I'm not not not forsake you. So that you believe it.

That's his emphasis. I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be right here. That's his word to all of us. Look, when it comes to difficult times in our lives, there's a temptation.

I've done it myself. Don't have foxhole faith. Don't make a deal with God.

He's way beyond that. Have genuine, real, saving faith. And you know what that simply means? Take God at his word. What a difference I'll make in your life. Just pray. Father, I must confess that all of us in one way or another have prayed to you and told you exactly what we want done and exactly the way we want it with the outcome that we desire. But, Father, that's just foxhole faith. I want genuine faith, Father. When you say to me or to any of these people, go your son as well, I want that peace beyond all understanding. I want to trust you. You've given us these promises so that we can live our lives triumphantly. That we can have peace and joy and hope in our lives and we're not bound by the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Father, have each of us just look into our own soul and ask ourselves, do I have this kind of genuine faith when I find myself in difficult times and when I begin to pray for you, specifically how, when, and where you should do something for me.

It shouldn't be that way, Father. We love you. We trust you. We put those circumstances in your hands for our good and for your glory in Jesus' name.

Amen. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. We'll see you next time.