Have Faith in God — Ralph Sexton

Faith in God and the Prayer of Faith

At this crossroads, we're at as a church, is found in Mark 11, verse 22. And I'll just read this prayer of faith. It also connects over to the book of James. In your personal notes, you can read James chapter 5 later on, maybe during the week.

But Jesus answering saith unto them. And then the words turn to red in your Bible. That means they're coming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. Okay. Now, notice the first statement Jesus makes in Mark 11 and verse number 22.

Have faith in God. Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe in those things which he saith, shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Therefore, I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when you pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And when you stand praying, and when you stand praying, what's the next word?

Forgive. If you have ought against any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But verse 26, here's the catch to all this prayer life. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses.

Building a Churchwide Prayer Life

For just a moment, I want to challenge you as a child of God to intensify your determination and your dedication to have a prayer life. I want you to realize that prayer, we have just signed up 300 volunteers in this church to be Gideon's army of prayer.

And the very first time we asked for volunteers, we exceeded 300 volunteers on the very first appeal. And now we have Gideon's 300. We now have three captains in our church, and they're a captain over 100.

We're now organizing a second army of 300. Why? Because we believe that the future of this church is contained in the prayers of this church. The future for your marriage is in your prayers. If you have a son or a daughter, and you love them, and you care about them, I promise you, you will begin to pray for your son or your daughter.

You say, well, my son's 35 years old, my daughter's 49. Does that change one thing about the need to pray for people that we love? God has given us an opportunity to touch hearts and to touch lives through the power and the privilege of prayer.

Believing God’s Timing in Trials

I can't help but think that when I read this word, and I look at this scripture, look at verse 24. Therefore, I say unto you, whatsoever things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them.

What the Lord's saying in His word is, when you pray, do what? Believe. Can you say that with me? When you pray, do what? Believe. Now, it's one thing to pray, but is it not a whole other thing to believe when you pray?

Will we all not confess, if you don't mind this morning, allow me just to preach to myself. It's easier to pray for me than it is to believe after I pray. You say, well, I don't think I'd have confessed that.

Well, we might as well be honest. It's one thing to go through the mechanics of prayer, but it's another thing to get up off your knees and say, it's done, I believe. See, Galatians 4 .4 is what we've got to be careful about in the fullness of time.

Not my time, but God's time. And it's hard to understand some things. And many of you that are sitting here today, you have problems in your home. You have problems in your marriage. You have a son or a daughter you're worried about.

You've got a relative, maybe that's fracturing the family right now. Maybe you've got someone that is out in the world that you're burdened over. Maybe someone in your family is very sick. Maybe someone is taking a lot of medicine every single day just to stay alive.

You love them, you care about them. Maybe you're stressed over your business. Maybe you're stressed over your investment. Maybe you're stressed over your career path. Maybe you're having a hard time at the university or the 11th grade.

You know, there's any number of stresses that we can have in our life. And the Bible said that when we're going through these battles, that we should pray. But he doesn't stop there. He said, when you pray, do what?

Believe. Now, why is it so easy to pray sometimes, but so difficult to believe? God said, when you pray, do what? Believe. Now, the only reason there's not a Grady White, 32 foot, sitting in my driveway with a tuna tower and outriggers and twin 300s hanging on the back with all of the equipment on the inside is that that would be a prayer amiss.

You say, well, Brother Alvin, I thought you were going to say it's because you didn't believe. That I can believe. Do you understand? We're not talking about condos and Cadillacs. We're not talking about material things here.

We're talking about things that matter in eternity. He says, when you pray for those things, you pray and you believe. Now, God may give you a beautiful car. God may give you a beautiful home or two beautiful homes or five beautiful homes.

Just honor God with all your blessings. But sometimes you have to pray for things that are not involved in material things. And he said, you need to pray. And when you pray, believe. The ultimate thing that he's getting us to pray about is our relationship with him, our relationship with each other, and that we would pray for the salvation of souls, that we would see other people come to know the Lord Jesus Christ through our life.

Faith Equals Trust in God

Now, when I read this 11th chapter in the book of Mark, we know that if you go to verse 1, and when it came nigh to Jerusalem unto Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and he saith unto them, go your way into the village over against you.

And as soon as you be entered into it, you shall find a colt tied, whereupon never man sat. Loose him and bring him. And if any man say unto you, why do you this? Say unto that, say ye that the Lord hath need of him, and straightway he will send him hither.

And they went their way, and they found the colt tied by the door. Now, here is a little simple lesson that Jesus gave to the disciples in have faith in God. And when they went, they found what Jesus said, and his prayer for them was that their faith be increased.

If you read this whole chapter, you find out that it's happening on Tuesday. You find out that it turned into a day of questions. The disciples were asking all kinds of questions. And Jesus is teaching them that if I'm going to pray, that I've got to be a man or a woman of faith.

And faith, if you're making your equation, is trust. Faith equals trust. Faith is confidence. And such confidence should be placed in God. He said, have faith in God. Not have faith in man. Men will let you down.

Women will let you down. People will disappoint you. A man, a woman, a young adult, a teenager, any person can disappoint you in life. We can be let down. And many times, people that disappoint you are let you down.

They don't mean to disappoint you or let you down. They are under their own stresses. They're under their own loads. They're under their own burdens. And all of a sudden, you look to them for help, and they can't help you.

And you get hurt because, well, I needed you. You weren't there for me. And what Jesus is saying, if you're going to watch people, you're going to stay in turmoil all the time. If you're going to keep your eyes on every other person in church, you're constantly going to be disappointed.

But if you'll not put your faith in man, if you'll not put your faith in people, He said, have faith in God. And if you'll put your faith there, you will never, ever be disappointed. And we can only have faith as we rest confidently and securely in His Word.

Faith Through Scripture and Family Devotion

That's why the devil doesn't want you to be a student of that Bible. That's why the devil doesn't want you to read your Bible. That's why the devil doesn't want you to have family devotions. That's why the devil doesn't want you to have personal devotions.

That's why the devil doesn't want husbands and wives to pray together. Because if you pray together, if you read your Bible together, then you begin to find out you can have faith in God. Not faith in your husband, not faith in your wife, but faith in God.

And the two shall be one in their faith and in their bond spiritually. So that our homes are transformed. Our lives are changed. We're invigorated with the power of God's Word. And invigorated with the fact that I know my God's alive.

I've walked with Him today. I've talked with Him today. My heart's rejoiced in Him today. I am not living a little science fiction drama. I'm not going off into some Hollywood science fiction. I'm alive in the Lord God Almighty.

I was dead in my trespassing sin. But I've been transformed by the power of God. I was dead and had no hope. And Jesus made me alive. And I have faith in God today because His Word is alive today. Oh man, that thrills you.

That gets you excited on the inside. And we can only have that faith when we know the Word of God and study the Word of God. Luke 1 37 teaches that nothing is impossible with God. All difficulties and all barriers can be removed by believing prayer.

Prayer answered is from God. Now, we won't have time to take all this apart. But let me just give you two or three points to take home to think about. Here's what you need to remember. God does answer prayer.

And He said, have faith in God. He answers prayer when you pray. But there are requirements for your prayer being answered. Number one, you've got to be in fellowship with God. You've got to be in fellowship.

You've got to know who Jesus is. You've got to know that you've asked Him to be your Lord and Savior. So the first requirement for having your prayer answered is that you know you are a part of the family of God.

You say, well, I'm a church member. Well, that's wonderful. Thank you for that. Well, I've been baptized. That's marvelous. That's great. I've been sprinkled. Thank you. That's good. I take a communion.

Wonderful. I'm glad you're going to church. I've learned to take all of the sacraments of our church. I've memorized the catechism. That's great. I'm glad you're so intelligent. You're wanting to learn spiritual things.

But salvation is not ritual. Salvation is you personally knowing that the Lord God Almighty is God that we all will face and we'll spend eternity somewhere with God or away from God and that you have to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I can pray all the prayers I want to. But if I'm not a part of the family, they're vain. It's prayers amiss. I'm praying out of the boundary of the requirements. And the requirements are that I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Hidden Sin and the Searchlight of the Holy Spirit

So if you want your prayer answered, then you've got to know you are a part of the family of God. Number two, if you want your prayer answered, you've got to have in your heart no hidden sin, no unconfessed sin, a secret grudge, a secret envy, a secret jealousy.

You've got to have nothing hidden as best as you can to the best of your human ability. You've got to look up to heaven and say, God, as far as I know, I have confessed before you everything that I know about.

I want to serve you. I want to honor you. I have nothing hidden in my heart. And if there's something you see that I don't see, would you turn the searchlight of glory on and let the Holy Spirit of God convict me and show it to me and I will confess it.

This whole church can be affected by secret or hidden sins. This whole church, our services, if you have a hard feeling, you have a grudge, you have an envy, you're jealous of someone, it's the little foxes in the fellowship that take the power of God off our services.

Forgiveness and Freedom From Bitterness

And so it becomes very important if you want your prayer answered for revival, for God to move in your family, that nothing be tucked away. Here's the big one right here. Number three, if you want prayer answered, this is critical, you must have a forgiving spirit.

You say, Brother Ralph, they wronged me, they did me bad, they did me wrong. Well, I want you to pray about it and I want you the best you can to forgive them. Oh, I'd rather die. Well, God can arrange that.

It'll be a cold day you know where when I forgive them. Is that not human nature? Well, if you want your prayer answered, you may not be in a bind right now, but 24 hours from now, you may be laying on a gurney and they'll be rolling you down the hall at Mission Hospital over to the trauma unit and somebody's sitting on top of you, pushing down on your chest, your fingernails and lips have already turned purple.

They're trying to bag you so they can get you inside the trauma unit, keep you alive. You might want to have the ability to pray and get your prayer answered. You may want to talk to God. And are you going to go, hey, time out, trauma unit, stop this heart attack.

I need to go write something. I got to go get somebody to forgive me for, I need to get a prayer through. They just told me I'm dying. I know, I know. You want your prayer answered. He said, you have a forgiven spirit.

You say, well, brother Ralph, you don't understand. They lied on me. You don't understand brother Ralph. We've got a member in this church that they had a relative cheat them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, put a document in front of them and told them to sign it, said it was part of the paperwork that needed to be done.

And it was actually a paper saying that they gave up their part of the estate. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. And that family met with me and they said, brother Ralph, how can I go on?

How can I not be bitter? I mean, that was, that was everything. I mean, there's no tomorrow. That's every penny. My relative did me wrong. They lied to me and they stole from me. And I said, look, I'm not going to tell you you're going to pray.

And this is going to go away and you'll forget it. You'll never forget it. But you can, by the help of God, forgive them and say, God, I don't hold a grudge. And then you can begin to pray for God to convict them that they'll do the right thing.

Do you understand? People can lie to you. They can do you wrong. Marriages can break up. There can be all kinds of problems. And if you keep that root of bitterness from a bad business deal, someone took a deal from you.

Someone stole from you. Someone barred money. They never paid you back. If you allow that to stay in there, it's like you are a puppet on a string. They're going on. They're not thinking about you. They stole your money.

They lied on you. They tried to ruin your good name. They're going on down the road living in sin. And if you don't forgive them, you're a puppet. You can't eat. You go to eat. You think about that. Oh, and it pains your heart.

You try to go out in the backyard and cook out. And you're thinking about, what if I had what they stole from me? And the next thing you know, you're a puppet. And that grudge and that hard feeling, it's manipulating you.

Let me give you another one. We have people in our church that were sexually abused when they were children. We have people in our church that were physically abused. People broke a trust. People hurt them.

People injured them. And it's hard for them to go on in life as adults because of all that pain. And I'm telling you, if you don't forgive them, I'm not saying it was right. I'm not saying it should have...

I'm not saying that. I'm saying don't let that past control you today. Give it to Jesus. God's going to handle that person if they don't make restitution. And if they don't get right, God will handle them.

But don't you be a slave to the wrong that was done to you. Don't be a puppet to the pain. You forgive them. And you go on by God's help. And you serve the Lord. And you help someone else along the way that's in pain.

Huh? And we can have our prayers answered because we believe. Let's stand together.