The 4 P's of Perfect Faith, Part 2

Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Otz thanking you for tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message, the four P's of perfect faith, is illustrated in the crisis faced by Jairus, a ruler of the Jewish synagogue whose 12-year-old daughter was dying.

When he found Jesus and asked him to come lay hands on her and she shall live, Jesus followed him home without hesitation. But a game-changing problem presented on the way and Jairus got a crash course in the four P's of perfect faith. I don't care what it's been like up to now. I don't care how many disappointments you've been through. I don't care how many doctors have shaken their head at you.

I don't care how many times you've tried to figure this out. Forget it and reach out today and touch the Master. The more you rehearse your disappointments and the failures and the people that have done you wrong and the doctors that have misdiagnosed you and the doctors that have given you something that made you worse than you were before you went to them, the more you've rehearsed that, the more turmoil will be in your spirit and it will prevent your faith from operating without hindrance.

Amen? And so she knew that it was wrong for her to touch him because what does it say? She came fearing and trembling, fearing and trembling because she knew what the law of Moses said. The law of Moses said that when a woman had an active flow of blood that she was not to touch anyone and especially a rabbi, especially a man of God.

So she knew that what she was doing was breaking the commandment of Moses. But I have to believe that the Holy Spirit had put it in her heart that I've got to touch him. So when she thought she could touch him and nobody would be the wiser, they wouldn't know that she touched him. They wouldn't know her condition. She would just come in, you know, she would come in under the radar and reach out and touch him, get her miracle and go home and live happily ever after. She didn't know that Jesus was going to stop and say, I felt the touch of faith.

I felt the power leave my body and I want to know who it is that had that faith to do that. So she came fearing and trembling and she told him all about her history. You know, technically her touch would have made Jesus unclean, but instead her touch made her clean, made an unclean woman clean.

Amen. Made her clean. And Jesus said, daughter, thy faith has made thee whole. What did he say? Thy faith has made thee whole.

What did she say? If I can touch him, I shall be made whole. She got exactly what she kept on saying, exactly what she said over and over again. I shall be made whole. I shall be made whole. I shall be made whole. And Jesus said, thy faith has made thee whole. Mark tells us in the 11th chapter, if you will believe in your heart and not doubt in your heart, you will have whatever you say. You're going to have what you say. If you say negative things, you'll have a negative result. If you keep rehearsing over and over again, oh, we're in a bad way here. We're falling behind. Oh, this is happening.

Oh, I can't pay my bills. Oh, this, that and the other. You're going to have it. You know what? You're going to have it some more.

You just keep having it and keep having it. Amen. I'm not talking about being an ostrich and sticking your head in the ground and you know, that's not faith. I'm not saying that you deny reality. Neither is that faith. You don't deny the reality.

Amen. But neither do you take hold of it and speak it forth. I don't know if I should throw this out there or not, but I will. When I was giving the diagnosis that your pathology report came back positive for breast cancer. So after that, when I had to talk to people and tell people, I had to tell people what it said, I had to move forward with what it said, but I would never say I have. Now let me qualify that.

I have to explain what's going on. So I say I have received the diagnosis. My diagnosis came back positive for breast cancer. I received the diagnosis of breast cancer from the doctors, but I never took ownership of it and said I have it because I don't, I don't intend on allowing it to stay. I don't intend to give it ownership. It's not mine. I didn't ask for it. I don't want it. Amen. So I'm not going to claim it.

I'm not going to be stupid. I'm going tomorrow morning and I pray you will pray for me. I got to be at the hospital five 30 tomorrow. I'm having a lumpectomy to get it removed.

Now I have to have a sonogram again before they do it. And because they want to make sure that they know exactly where it is to go and get it. Amen. So you know, I wouldn't be one bit surprised if we can't even find it at all. And I honestly don't know what the protocol is. I don't know what the protocol is. If they say we can't find it, we can't find it.

I don't know if they say, well, we still got to go and I don't know what's going to happen. I don't even think about that. All I know is this. Matthew 15, 13 every plant, the father is not planted, shall be rooted up. However it gets rooted up, it's getting rooted up. I'm not keeping it. I'm not letting it grow in my body. Amen. I want the Lord to root it up.

And if they say, oh well, it's there. We got to do whatever. It's getting rooted up. It's not going to stay there. I'm not claiming it.

I'm not owning it. Amen. And then I'm going to continue to walk in faith that the Lord will direct me, whatever has to come.

Amen. And I'm going to claim the Bible, the scripture in Nahum one seven, says affliction shall not rise up the second time. So I'm not talking about being foolish and saying, oh, deny reality. When I kept having to go to see different people, I begin to think that maybe they think I'm denying reality. We had to go before this tumor board and I had to see five different doctors, not all at the same time, like 20 minutes each. And it started off with a therapist.

And I, first I had to fill out this form and the form had all these questions. I can't remember them all, but these are the ones like, uh, have you been having a hard time eating? Are you having a hard time sleeping? Are you crying all the time?

Have you been depressed? And then they had a thermometer drawn and it went from zero to 100 and I was supposed to fill it in to my level of my distress. I thought, what? I ain't filling that thing in. I ain't claiming distress.

So I wrote down there zero and every question, no, no, no, no, no, no. So when the therapist came in, bless her heart, she was sweet as she could be. She didn't know what to talk about. She was like, and I thought she probably thinks I am one of those people that is denying reality. If you deny it, it's not there.

And I'm thinking, I bet that's what she's thinking. So I told her, I says, look, I'm a woman of faith. And I said, I have many, many people.

My whole church is praying for me and many others are praying for me. And I said, I can be honest with you. I have not cried. I haven't had a meltdown.

I have not experienced any of those things. And that is the truth. That's the truth. So she was like, okay, well, you know, uh, let's see, what else can we talk about? So she left and I'm supposed to wait for the next people to come in and surgeon and all these ones. So in the meantime, while we're in between waiting for the next one, because see, they would go from me to a woman in another room. So it was back and forth.

So they had a little area where you could get, um, some refreshments. So Benny and I went out in there to see what we could get to eat and we were looking at stuff and when the, they were coming for me again. And so the navigator, the nurse who was navigating between all the doctors, she says, um, that's her and the someone, I don't know who it was. It said, it said, so you're the famous Mrs. Notts. And I'm thinking, what are you talking about?

So we went in the room and we had our time together. And after they left, Benny says, what do you think they meant by you're the famous Mrs. Notts? I said, I don't know. The only thing I can figure out is that they went and talked about how I said I wasn't having no distress and no nothing. And they just, I said, that's the only thing it could be. Amen. That this woman claims that she's not crying, she's not upset, none of that stuff.

Amen. Because you see, you can give into that thing and I won't take the time to tell you here, but I had an experience 33 years ago that I was, had to go for what they call a suspicious test mammogram and fear got on me so bad. And that whole week I had so much fear on me waiting for the report that I actually started to have symptoms and I had myself dead and in the grave. And when that report came back that it was nothing, I thought, oh my God, it taught me that fear can actually actually manufacture symptoms in your body of something that's not there. So when this happened to me 33 years later, I said to myself, even if this time it is nothing there, I am not going to let that devil do to me.

Put that fear on me like he did before. Amen. And so she got exactly what she said. I shall behold. She spoke her faith. She acted on it and she got her manifestation.

Now let me throw this out there real quickly. If it was just Jesus' willingness to heal sick people, then every person who touched him would have got healed. We know that he wants to heal everyone and we know he has the compassion to heal everyone.

So if it was just his willingness to heal all the sick persons, then every sick person that bumped into him would have gotten healed. But you see, you have to do your part. I have to do my part and we've got to believe and we got to do the first P of faith.

We got to pray the prayer of faith. She said, if I can touch him and she did. She heard, she said, she pressed her way, she touched him and she received. However, unfortunately, while she's getting her great miracle, it is now her deliverance is going to bring disaster for Jairus. Let's look at verse 35. While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, thy daughter is dead. Why trouble is thou the master any further? And as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said unto the ruler of the synagogue, be not afraid, only believe. Luke says, fear not, believe only. And he suffered or he allowed no man to follow him, save Peter and James and John, the brother of James. And he comes to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and sees the tumult and then that wept and greatly wailed.

Let's stop here for a moment. Because while he yet spake, I want you to get the image in your mind. He's speaking to the woman. He's saying, daughter, thy faith has made the whole go thy way. And simultaneously, it's happening simultaneously.

Here comes somebody from Jairus house saying, don't bother the master, your daughter's dead. So Jesus is speaking to one person and the Greek says, when he heard, he overheard. Have you ever been in, you have, where you're talking to one person, but you're trying to listen to somebody else. You're trying to, but you really want to hear what's going on right here. Your ears are perked up at something else, but you're trying to finish your conversation, but you're really trying to listen here. That's what was going on here.

And so while Jesus is speaking to the woman saying, your faith has made the whole, he immediately at the same time, he heard the person that came with the message. Your daughter is dead. It's too late. Leave the master alone.

Don't bother him anymore. She's dead. Those minutes, however long it took for him to heal that woman and deal with that woman and have the conversation with that woman, however long that was those moments were the precious minutes of life that were ticking away for his little girl. Amen. Now, while this was happening, do we see that Jay Iris butted in and said to the woman, cause I mean, after all, he's a ruler of the synagogue. He's got authority. He's accustomed to speaking his mind. He's accustomed to saying what he wants done. He's a ruler.

Rulers rule. Do we see him objecting, protesting? Tell him that woman, you need to wait your turn. I thought to him first.

And besides that, my daughter is dying. He can come back for you later. Do we see him doing that? No, we don't see any of that. Do we? We do not see that he, that he butted in and said, wait a minute.

My need is greater than your need. Wasn't his knee greater? How many think his knee was greater? I mean, this woman had been dealing with this condition for 12 years. Don't you think a few more minutes, even a few hours, she could have waited. Amen. So he could go and pray for his daughter who was at the very point of death. He's a very important person. Jesus should, you know, come to him first, but no, he exercised the second P of faith. Was he patiently? He waited.

He waited. Amen. And so when you have prayed the prayer of faith, amen. And it seems like you're getting some opposition.

You've got to be patient. Like he was, he was humble. He showed humility for being a ruler of the synagogue. He showed humility to let that little nobody.

And I don't say that in an ugly way. You know what I'm trying to say to let that little nobody lady take time with Jesus time that was being taken away from his daughter. Amen. Jesus had already agreed to come with him, but he had now to be patient to wait on the Lord. And at no time do we ever see that Jesus turned to Jay Ivers and said, just be patient. I will come to your daughter. Your daughter's going to get healed. She's going to be fine.

Just, just be patient and wait while I deal with this lady. Do we see Jesus doing that? Do we see him giving him any kind of special assurance? No, Jesus didn't say anything. Jesus never spoke until the alarming news that came. Don't bother him.

She's dead. It's too late. And immediately as soon as Jesus heard that in the Greek word, as I explained means to overhear. Amen. He turned around and he cut off that word of fear and doubt right then. He said, be not afraid. Only believe.

Be not afraid. Believe only. I like to say, believe only.

I guess it really doesn't matter a whole lot which way you say it. But in my mind, well, here's the way that I'm understanding this. It means you've got to believe, period.

What are you talking about? You cannot let this bad report bring fear to your heart. You cannot let this bad news bring fear and unbelief.

Amen. In other words, if you're going to get what you want, it's only going to happen if you have all faith and no doubt. All faith and no fear.

Friends of God, I preach this message before and other messages, authority above all and many other sermons that I have. It's not how big your faith is. And first of all, let me back up and say you do have faith because the scripture says in Romans 10 three that God has dealt unto every man, the measure of faith. You couldn't even be saved without faith. We all agree to that.

Amen. So you have faith and there's nothing wrong with your faith because God doesn't measure up bad faith. He doesn't have any bad faith to give you. God doesn't have junk faith. He's only got good faith. And if it was good enough to save you, it's good enough to heal you. It's good enough to make your needs supplied and everything else in your life. And so it's not how great your faith is, how big your faith is.

All you need is the measure God gave you, but it can't be mixed with doubt and with fear. And that's what Jesus was saying. Did JRS have faith? Of course he did.

He wouldn't have come in the first place if he didn't. We heard what he said, lay hands on my daughter and she shall be whole. He had faith, but now introduce fear because of the evil report. The evil report now was going to compete with his faith.

And what happens when you had fear competing with faith? What did James say? If you lack anything, ask of God. He gives to all men liberally and abundantly.

He does not scold. He does not withhold, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering for he that wavers is like a wave of the sea tossed with the wind and driven. Let not that man think he shall receive anything from the Lord because they double minded man is unstable in all of his ways. Now I've just quoted James one, five through nine, double minded. The Greek word is dia sucos, dia psychos. We get the word psychology from that. And that refers to your emotions, your soul, how you respond and think in your soul. Actually your soul man dia means two. So he is literally saying that you have two souls or two emotions or two thought processes that are going on at the same time. Faith, fear, faith, fear, faith, fear.

And he says in that condition, you will not receive your answer. Amen. So we know that he not only had to believe, he not only had to pray the prayer of faith, then patiently wait while Jesus ministered to this woman. But the third P of faith when things didn't get better, but actually got worse, he had to persevere.

He had to persevere. You know, it's easy to be patient when you're waiting on an answer from the Lord when he's walking right next to you and you're, you're walking along, we're going to our year. I'm going to your house. I'm going to get there. I'm going to pray for her. It's easy to be patient when everything is moving in the right direction. You don't have the manifestation yet, but it's moving in the right direction. It's another thing when the bad news comes, when the bad report comes. Amen.

You got to go beyond patience then and you got to kick into perseverance. So now when they said your daughter's dead, do we hear him moaning and wailing? Do we hear him yelling at that woman and said, it's all your fault. If you wouldn't have stopped Jesus, but now it's too late all because of you.

Nope. Do we see him saying to Jesus, master, really, if you would have just come to my daughter first, but now she's dead. No, he not only had prayed the prayer of faith, he not only had been patient while that woman got her healing, but now at the word of Jesus, he persevered. You know, there's a powerful verse that says in Psalm 112 verses six and seven, surely the righteous shall not be moved. His heart is established. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings or let me put it this way. He shall not be afraid of the evil report. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. He's not double minded. He doesn't let that evil report throw him for a loop. Amen.

He keeps his heart fixed. So when Jesus said, do not fear, believe only. And in the Greek, it's in the present tense with the negative. And that simply means this. He said, stop fearing and keep believing.

Let me say that again in the Greek, it's present tense. So he says, stop fearing. So we have to believe that Jesus saw fear on his face. How many have ever seen fear on a person's face? And if you're spiritual, you can see it in their spirit, but you can sometimes just with your natural eyes, see fear on a person's face.

So when that report came, she's dead. Jesus had to see the fear on him, whether he saw it in the natural or in the spirit, either way or both. He said, stop fearing.

That's what he said. Stop fearing. Keep on believing.

You've been believing up to this point. You came through three P's. You prayed.

You were patient. Now let's persevere. Stop fear right now. And that's what you have to do. When fear comes, when the evil report comes, when anything like that comes against you, you have to immediately cut it off. You've got to stop it right then.

I mean, sometimes you don't mean to be rude and I surely don't want to be rude, but I've had to cut people off when they start telling me all the bad stuff that could happen. I don't want to hear about, tell me about all the good things you know. Tell me the testimonies of the people that got their healing, that got their deliverance. Amen. I want to hear the good report.

And if you don't have any good reports and just don't say nothing, say I'm praying for you. Amen. So when things get worse, you've got to persevere. And when they finally got to the house, things were even worse. Let's look at verse 38.

And he comes to the house. I want you to see verse 37, which we already read. He put, he only took Peter, James and John with him. He only took three of his disciples with him. He was keeping the number small and personal. Amen.

Because the more people that you have, the more potential you have for fear and doubt. You know, he loved Thomas very much, but he didn't want Thomas to go with him that day. You know, Thomas, you stay here. I don't want you to feel bad, so I'm going to let the other eight guys stay with you. Okay. You nine guys stay here.

I'm taking Peter, James and John. Amen. And so when they got there, they come to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and see the tumult and then that wept and wailed greatly. And when he was come in, he said unto them, why are you making this ado and weep?

The damsel is not dead, but sleeps. And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, when he had put them all out, when he put out all the doubters, he took the father and the mother of the damsel and the them that were with him, which was Peter, James and John. And he entered in where the damsel was lying. So when they got there, now we have Jairus walking in the third P of faith, perseverance. He said, okay, I'm trusting you, Lord.

I'm trusting you. But when he got there and saw that all of the professional mourners were already there, that word tumult means they were making a big loud, noisy, clamorous ado. Do you know that the Jewish people then hired professional mourners to mourn when one of their loved ones died.

And even if you were poor and couldn't really afford much, you were required to at least hire two flute players and one woman to wail. Now you all have heard what it sounds like when the Middle Eastern women do that thing. I can't do it. You know what I'm going to go. They must get that little thing back there jiggling because it makes a, I don't know, it makes a vibration, but they get up there.

How many know what I'm saying? So you had to hire at least one woman to do that and two flute players to play. Now Jairus was the ruler of the synagogue. I'm sure he could afford more than that because it was a lot of noise and a lot of them making that sound. And even though he had been holding it together up to that point, do you know what it does to you emotionally when you're thrust into that sort of atmosphere? Luke said all wept and bewailed her. And Matthew said the minstrels were making noise. The minstrels is the hired mourners I'm talking about.

Amen. They were ready to take this girl to the cemetery because the Jews buried their dead the same day. So they had her washed and dressed and probably had on her white linen outfit and they were ready to take her to the cemetery. And the hysteria that was on display would have been enough to cause anybody to fall apart.

But Jesus put a stop to it right away. He came in there and said, why are you making all this commotion? What's going on here?

What's wrong with you people? Why are you acting like this? Why are you making this scene? Why are you causing all of this hysteria and upsetting this poor mother? And who knows the aunts and the uncles and the cousins and all the loved ones.

Why are you doing this? She's not dead. And they laughed at him. They laughed him to score. And that means they scored him.

That means they said some remarks. Look, I know dead when I see dead. I don't know what's wrong with you, but that girl's dead. Of course she's dead. You go in there and see for yourself the girl is dead.

And they were laughing. He says she's sleeping. Amen. But Jesus put them all out.

He said, all of you out of here right now. Get all the doubt out. Get all the doubters out. When you get out the doubt, that's when you can believe only. That's when you can only believe.

How many see what I'm saying? Believe and that's it. Just keep on believing.

Shut down the doubters and shut down the liars. If you've got to speak out loud to the devil, if you're at home by yourself and there's not another human being there talking to you, but you keep hearing a voice saying, this is going to happen. That's going to happen.

This is going to happen. You finally might need to stop and say, devil, you are a liar. I shall live and not die.

Amen. So he threw out all the doubters and Jairus had come a long, long way. He had prayed the prayer of faith. He had patiently waited while that other woman got her victory and her healing.

He didn't try to usurp his authority. He humbly and patiently waited. And what did he get for his patience?

It got worse. But he believed and he persevered. And now he was going to receive the fourth P. The fourth P of faith is the promise.

And let's look. Verse 41. And he took the damsel by the hand and said unto her, Talitha cumi, which is being interpreted, damsel, I say unto the rise and straightway or immediately the damsel arose and walked for she was of the age of 12 years and they were astonished with a great astonishment.

And he charged them that no man should know. And he commanded them to give her something to eat because even after a supernatural miracle and resurrection from the dead, she still had to have food. Amen. You still got to take care of your body.

You still got to do what you got to do. Amen. And so because he prayed the prayer of faith and because he was patient and then because he persevered when everything came against him that was negative and opposite, he received the fourth P of faith. The promise. Amen. The promise.

You know, somebody, one of the country people, one of the country singers wrote a song saying there's a promise coming down that dusty road. And so the devil will try to tell you it's too late, but if you persevere, he'll come right on time. Amen. And so I'm finished here with my message this morning.

I'm gonna take just maybe five minutes and I want to tell you about something that happened to me. So how many of you be praying for me for tomorrow? I know you are. Here's my prayer.

If the surgery takes place, I want clean margins and clean lymph nodes so that I do not have to have anything else after that. Amen. And also that I don't have any kind of effects, you know, from anesthesia and all that sort of thing.

Amen. Nothing going on there. Just, you know, very routine textbook routine.

Thank you. Now I had to go yesterday and if anybody's ever had surgery, even if it's small, you have to go ahead of time and they take your blood and they give you a EKG. That's just standard procedure, which I had to do the other day. And I actually wanted the EKG because I gotta tell you, a few years ago, my primary doctor had retired and so a woman took his place and I just did not like this woman.

She was very negative. And so I had an EKG. It's just, you know, routine and she was like, well, next time you come in here, I want to get another one. I was like, why? What's wrong with, what's wrong? Well, well, nothing, but I think we need to stay on top of it. We need, I said, well, what is it?

What's wrong with the EKG? Why do I have, why? She couldn't give me an answer.

Not men, but to see the enemy planted that seed. So it's been on my mind for a while. I got rid of her real quick because she tried to put me on this other, this medicine for your bones that actually causes your jaw to rot. So I got rid of her. So I thought, I need to tell my new primary, I need to get EKG, but I never do. And time's been gone by and it's been on my mind. You should get one.

Well, so I'm gonna have to get one for this. So, you know, she, the lady does EKG and she says, and she says it with a lilt in her voice. I mean the sing song is she says, do you want to see your beautiful heart? I was like, huh? And then she held up the EKG for me to see. And I looked at it and it was beautiful. It was perfect. I mean, everything was absolutely uniform and consistent. It was, it was perfect.

And I thought, okay, there goes that lie of the devil. So I was happy about that. So she says, you can get dressed now.

I'll be right back. So she left. I had told her before that I had many people praying for me. I told her that.

So I had put a little feeler out there of faith. I didn't, you know, give her my life story. But I told her that people were praying for me and that I had faith. She came back in and she says, this is for you. She said, it's a prayer shawl. As soon as she said prayer shawl, my ears perked up. She said, it's a prayer shawl.

She says, there are women. There's a group of women called the knit wits and they knit these prayer shawls and the whole time they're knitting them, they're praying over them. They're praying over them that the woman who receives it will have healing. I could, I thought, I never expected that to go to the hospital, to get this done and to be leaving out of the hospital with a prayer shawl.

I said, if that, if the Lord is, he just keeps giving me peace and reassurance. And I thought to myself, if that's not beautiful to go there and leave out the door. She also gave me a bookmark of, you know, the one, the famous one about the footprints. She gave me that too.

And I thought, Oh my goodness, that is truly something else. And so I left out there with this beautiful prayer shawl. Amen. And I looked on here and it said, God bless you.

And this group of women, and they're from a Methodist church, God bless these women that they knit these prayer shawls for women to come and it's for women that come in the women's center, whether it's for breast cancers or other women's issues. Amen. And so it just goes to show you that if you will just persevere and cut off the lies and the doubts of the enemy, then the Lord will keep feeding you the good report.

But if you got all that other stuff competing in your mind, that's all that you're going to receive. Amen. But I believe the report of the Lord. Amen.

Come on stand on your feet this morning. Amen. I pray your faith is being divinely inspired by this word, the four P's of perfect faith. This story is actually two stories overlapping one another, and it birthed two miracles. Jairus, ruler of the synagogue, sought Jesus to come and pray for his dying daughter and his first P of petition was immediately granted. But enter a problem, an interruption by a suffering woman who too was desperate.

She did not plan on being seen or heard. She just wanted to touch Jesus clothes and she would be made whole after 12 years of misery. But when she touched Jesus, she made a supernatural connection. Immediately, Jesus felt the power go out and she felt it come in. It was in this interim as Jesus conversed with the woman that Jairus exercised his second P of patience.

He uttered no protest of the delay she caused. But then servants came saying it was too late. The girl was dead. In that cliffhanging moment, Jesus commanded, do not fear, only believe. Discover how Jairus exhibited the third P of perseverance even when things got worse when they arrived at the house until his faith was rewarded with a final P of the promise. The four P's of faith is an excellent resource for anyone who is facing catastrophic illness such as cancer.

I share about my own diagnosis of breast cancer in this message. It can be ordered on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for our radio ministry. Request SK204. Mail to Sound of Faith P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore Maryland 21203 or shop online at our e-store at soundoffaith.org where you can order on MP3s as well. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10, request offer SK204 and mail to P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore Maryland 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Autzen, Maranatha.