Atmosphere Of Faith | David Hall | City Light Church

Let's go together to the book of Mark, the book of Mark. Is there a problem? The book of Mark. I was saying in the last service I can do an American accent but I can't get the vaguest one. I can only do something from Kentucky or Mississippi like, hey there how you guys all doing there right here, here at this church in Las Vegas I've been hanging with Pastor Jabin. We're gonna go to Cracker Barrel. How many love Cracker Barrel? I might just preach about Cracker Barrel, that chicken fried steak with biscuits and gravy and grits and the anointing of Almighty God, the book of Mark. Chapter five, if you can't find that it's immediately after chapter four and it says in verse 21. It says, 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 hands on her that she may be healed and she will live. I love that. That's how you pray. You pray and you believe God and declare what God can do in a situation. Come lay hands on her, get her healed, get her set free, break this thing. That's how we should pray. We shouldn't pray kind of, Lord I don't know what kind of mood you're in. I'll tell you what mood he's in. He's in victory mood, man. He's in blessing mood. He's in breakthrough mood. And it's not his mood, it's who he is. He's a healer. He's a way maker. Whatever you need from God is available. Man, I gotta keep reading. I'm getting myself happy. I'll get happier in a minute but man, I feel like something good could she will live. So Jesus went with him. How many know Jesus will always go where

fate's going? Jesus went with him and a great multitude followed and thronged him. It's important you know that because he didn't just go to Jairus's house on his own. 2,000 people went with him. That kind of slows things down just a little bit. And so that that miracle is now in motion. But then another miracle interrupts that miracle. It's like if the newsreader gets on, they're going to say we interrupt this miracle to bring you another miracle. Because the woman with the issue of blood, you all know that story. She has an issue of blood 12 years. She needs a miracle. She's had a hemorrhage. She needs God to do something. So obviously she's not trying to hold up anything. She just declares in her own heart, if I can just touch the hem of the garment of Jesus, I know I shall be healed. So she touches the hem of the garment of Jesus and Jesus, he stops. Which is not ideal when there's an urgent situation down there. Everyone else is probably glad to see this miracle. Jairus, not so much you know. So she's there, touches the hem of his garment. Jesus said, who touched me? And he stops. And everyone's like, hey Jesus, everyone's touching you. There's 2,000 people here. I'm pretty sure Judas just stole your iPhone. And Thomas is like, no I doubt that. And they said, was it you Peter? Well of course he denied it three times. They're Christian jokes. You have to laugh at the Christian jokes. So Jesus, he stops. He has a moment. And that is like pretty critical time when your daughter is on the edge of death. And so that kind of interrupts that miracle. But let me read on. Because while that happens, if you look down at verse, let's go to verse 35. While he was still speaking and he's talking to the woman that's just been healed. While he was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the

synagogue's house who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble a 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. Somebody say, only believe. Just say it one more time, only believe. And he permitted no one to follow him except Peter, James and John, the brother of James. He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and he saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. Of course, they were devastated. It's a perfectly normal human reaction to what's taking place. When he came in, he said, why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping. I love that. What a declaration. I'd like to suggest today that maybe there's people here, you think the circumstance in front of you is dead. Well, maybe it's just a And today we're gonna wake that up in the name of Jesus. Don't you hit snooze, let that thing come to life in the name of Jesus. The Bible says, he took the child by the hand and he said to her, Talitha Kumai, which is translated little girl, I say to you arise. And the girl arose and walked. I love that so, so much. It's an amazing miracle. It's a miracle of supernatural breakthrough, literally Jesus raising the dead and touching that life and bringing healing to her. But it didn't happen without a fight of faith. His faith got massively tested. He went to Jesus in faith and we'll talk about that more in a second.

He went to Jesus in faith and everything seemed like, hey, we're gonna get the victory. And then things came and interrupted that journey of faith and he had to overcome a few things to see that miracle come to pass. And Jesus, he said to him, he said, don't worry, it's gonna be okay. Don't be afraid, only believe. Jesus declared, we're gonna make it, we're gonna see the miracle, we're gonna see the breakthrough. But Jesus understood that this was a journey of faith for him and he had to protect the atmosphere of faith over his whole world for those, let's call it an hour. For the next hour, he had to live at a level of faith that's possibly, that I would actually say is almost impossible for a human to do. But he did it. And the truth is, we might not be facing that, but for all of us, we're facing something and we need to understand the importance that faith plays in our journey to see God do the unexpected, the supernatural, the impossible. How many know God still does miracles? What he did then, he can do now. And Jesus said to him, he said, it's gonna be okay, but you gotta believe. And basically he's saying, stay in faith. Well, what is faith?

Faith is the thing that God's given you to obtain what he's promised you. He gave you enough faith to accept his grace and then you got born again, you're on your way to heaven. Man, we live by faith. The Bible says that just shall live by faith. You and I, we're going to a place we've never seen. We don't know what it looks like. The Bible talks about it a little bit, but not over and over and over again. What do we know about heaven? Streets paved with gold, walls of Jasper, gates of pearl, foundation of rubies, the throne of God. They're gonna be singing the same song over and over. Some people come here and go, why do they keep repeating the same song? Well, we're getting you ready for heaven. There's one song and it's three lyrics. Holy, holy, holy. That's verse one. Then we'll sing verse two. Holy, holy, holy. Then we're gonna sing the chorus. Holy, holy, holy. And we're gonna be singing that for all of eternity. So you might be a bit sick and tired of singing the same song. We're just trying to get you conditioned. Because one of the songwriters are gonna come out. I've written a new song.

What's it called? Holy, holy, holy. How does it go? Holy, holy, holy. We're gonna be singing. Why? Because we serve a holy God, man. We serve a mighty God. And when we get there, we're gonna cast our crowns at His feet. We're gonna behold the Saviour, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Oh, I can't wait to get to heaven, by the way. I can't wait to see Jesus. I can't wait to see Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and Peter and David and Samson and Moses. I can't wait to get there and have a fairly confrontational word with Adam. I got a few things I need to get off my chest that I'm living this whole life based on a place I can't see. But when I close my eyes, I can see it because I can see with the eye of faith. And if I needed faith to get saved, I need faith to live this Christian walk. So what is faith? It's that internal conviction with an external response. Where does faith come from? Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.

Faith, the Bible says, is a substance. It's a thing. You can't see it, but it's a substance. Water. Water. Water is a substance. Somebody say water. See, the way you said that, that's the correct way to speak English. I love this country. I respect this country. But you're not quite saying the words right. When you get to heaven, you will be talking like this. You know, deep down somewhere, I think that might be true, but it might not. We'll never know. We'd have to go to heaven to find out. It's cool to see some people wearing their pajamas to church, by the way. I did have to ask. I said, are they wearing pajamas to church? And they said, yeah, it's like Pajama Sunday at kids church. No one told me I would have worn my pajamas. Faith is a substance, water is a substance. H2O, two hydrogen atoms, one oxygen atom, put them together, water. You get that water, you put it in the fridge, cools down. Oh no, this is deep.

Is this helping anybody? You know what to do with water, you put it in the freezer, gets colder still, well, really cold, well, proper cold, frozen. You put it in the stove, it boils, evaporates, you leave it out on the counter, it'll evaporate. The substance is the same. Where you put that changes what that substance does. We've all been given a measure of faith. So what are you gonna do with that faith? Oh, I'm gonna take it to a place of unbelief, no. I'm gonna take it to doubt, no. I'm gonna mix it with disappointment or unforgiveness. No, no, no, take your faith like you have today, bring it here. I brought my faith to church today. And when you bring your faith to church, God breathes on it, He stirs it, He builds it up. The Word of God puts depth in your faith. Faith is a substance. And the Bible says faith is the victory that overcomes the world. So what am I saying when, well, sorry, what's the Bible saying when it says that? It's saying that when you have that faith in your spirit, that sense of it's done in your spirit, then even when you don't have the full manifestation of that thing, you still walk with a victory going, it's done. I can't explain it, I don't yet see the full breakthrough.

Some of you with your kids, your kids might not be walking with God, but begin to declare the Word of God and say, no, this is done, my kids, they're coming home, man, they're serving Jesus. Start to walk in victory and blessing and walk like, see, some of us, we wait for the situation to turn before we rejoice. I'm learning in my walk of faith, I've gotta rejoice before the situation turns, man. I gotta praise God, man. That breakthrough's coming, that victory's coming. How do you know? Because I've got it in my spirit. How do I know? Because faith's a substance, it's real. Faith is that victory on the inside of me. See, a great old preacher going to be with Jesus, T.F. Tenney, he says, faith puts no limitations on God. And then he said, God puts no limitations on faith. The bigger we can learn to believe God, ah, man, that stirs my faith. See, faith, I'll tell you the difference between faith and maybe hope. Hope believes God can heal. Everyone in this room would say, yeah, God can do miracles. You'd all say, God can bless. God could bless me. God can sort that situation out. Faith is just one step closer to claiming that thing.

And I'll show you how it works. Hope says God can, faith says God will. Faith, faith, hope says, man, hope God can do something. God could heal me today. Faith says, you know, I'm gonna receive that miracle in the name of Jesus. Man, when I go to the grocery store, I don't know what you call them here. In Australia, it's Woolworth's, I think here. Just throw me a name for a grocery store. Like Albertson's, beautiful. I know in the South it's Piggly Wiggly, but anyone ever been to a Piggly Wiggly? That's the only one I could think of. But have you ever been to an Albertson's? Man, if you wanna get your Froot Loops or your Corn Flakes, and they're up on that top shelf, sometimes you gotta reach up and grab that thing and put it in your cart, your cart. I come to church today. Man, I need a breakthrough. I'm gonna reach up and get that thing in the name of Jesus and say, it's mine. It's in the air. I'm touching the hem of the garment of Jesus. Today's my day. So Jairus is all set. Jesus is on His way, and the miracle gets interrupted. And so Jairus, that miracle's still gonna happen for him, but he has to endure four obstacles to faith.

And I wanna give you those today. Then at the end, by the way, I'm a preacher, but my whole thing that I'm passionate about is seeing people get a miracle, seeing people get an answer to prayer. So I'll preach my message, and I love to preach the Word, but at the end, I wanna pray with you and believe God for some miracles to happen in the room today. I'm believing if you're sick, you're gonna walk out well today in the name of Jesus. I'm believing if you're broken, you can walk out whole by the power of God. I'm believing, God, that if you're dry, you can walk out filled with the Holy Ghost. and touched by the power of God. Today's your day of victory in Jesus' name. But there's four obstacles to his faith. And I feel like we all face these in our own life. The first one, number one, was his position. He was a ruler in the synagogue. He wasn't allowed to be bowing down at the feet of Jesus. That was not, Jesus in many people's eyes, obviously we know the truth, but in many eyes, he was a blasphemer. In many eyes, what he was preaching was heresy and some would have thought he's a charlatan. But Jairus, a ruler in the synagogue, bowed, fell at Jesus' feet. He was told, you can never bow. That's how he would have been raised, you can never bow.

But yet he bowed because he was deferring to the lordship of Jesus. That is a big thing to do. Now, it's one thing to do that in private. Nicodemus did that in private. He came in the cloak of darkness at night and he said, how do I get to heaven? Jesus said, you must be born again. Jesus was kind to him in that interaction because Jesus is kind. You can come to him any which way you want, but there's something about coming to him in front of 2000 people. Maybe half of those people went to his synagogue. Yet he's willing to go, I got a daughter. Look, I'm a dad and there's moms and dads here. How many know when your kids face a challenge, it's amazing what you're willing to abandon to get them healed and get them whole. It's amazing what you'll lay down. And I do feel like sometimes we miss out on the things of God because we're not willing to step out of our position. And that position might be shame. That position might be a sense of unworthiness to come before God. But here's the deal, you might be here today and you're struggling to lift your hands in worship because you think you don't know what I've done or you don't know what I've been up to recently.

Here's the thing, the Bible says, let everything that has breath praise God. When you pull back, that's exactly what the enemy wants you to do. My encouragement is, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've been walking through, step into God and say, today's my day, I worship you. And you watch the goodness of God flood your life. But he laid down his position. I think sometimes our position, I love that he's a dad. I hope I can be the kind of dad that sets the spiritual temperature in my home. Standing in the gap for my kids, seeing them touched by the power of the Spirit of God. I pray for my kids every day when I drop them to school. I used to pray those nursery rhyme prayers and they're good. Like, dear Lord Jesus, bless James as he goes to school today. Be with him, amen. With Sam was more like, Lord, let him not get in another fight. Please. Now, but I remember one day I just thought, I'm gonna pray for him. I'm gonna pray, see, I'm a Pentecostal boy, you know. I'm gonna pray. I'm not gonna go half Holy Ghost, I'm gonna pray full Holy Ghost, you know. So I now pray in the God, Father, in the name of Jesus, mark him, make him evangelist, let him carry the anointing of God.

And they're like, amen. No, no, no, no, no, no, don't you amen me. There's more juice in this tank. We gotta touch God. Use him, Father, make him man of God. And you know, they roll their eyes, but you know, whenever, sometimes, and they do say amen, whenever they face a problem, Dad, would you pray? Dad, would you pray? I never wanna let my position get in the way of me touching God. I don't know who I like to think I am, but whatever that is, I hope it never stops me. I wanna be the hungriest guy in my church. If there's an altar call, I wanna respond to the altar call. Even if it's for like, you might be a woman called to ministry. You know what, I'm going anyway. I wanna touch from God. I wanna be that person. We got a pastor in our church, his name's Pastor George. He's in his 80s, but this might've been maybe seven years ago I was at a conference and the preacher gets up and he says, I want everyone under the age of 25 get down the front. So I'm sort of sitting at this conference over there and I look over and there's Pastor George lifting his hands. I'm like, you're not 25, but gee, you're hungry.

I wanna be like that. I'm happy to go to altar calls I wasn't invited to go to. I called to mission, sure I'll go. You can call, I wanna be hungry for God. I don't wanna be the guy that sits back and go, I've been saved a while now. You know, I think sometimes we've been saved for so long, we've lost that new Christian vibe. You know, you get around new Christians, man. They believe this. They read the book of Acts and go, okay, let's go and pray for somebody. Let's believe God. And you know, I wanna be like that. I don't wanna get over being saved. I'm born again and the Holy Ghost is on the inside of me. And Jesus. This is the same yesterday, today and forever. I don't wanna dry up, man. I wanna stay full of the power of God. I still believe this Bible works. I still believe Hebrews 13, eight, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. What He did then, He can do in Las Vegas right now. He can do wherever you're watching online. He's the unchanging. Oh, sorry, I'm getting happy this morning. He's an unchanging, supernatural God. Man, I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna calm down. I wanna fire up, man.

I, I wanna be one of those old time holy ghosts, heaven sent, devil chasing, sin killing me, devil defeating, born again. Ah. I don't feel like advancing in the things of God means quieting down and chilling out. I wanna fire up. Why? Because greater is He that's in me than he that's in the world. I'm just gonna go over here for a minute and just do that. Sometimes it just gets in your feet, you know. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus, man. No, one touch of the power of God changes everything. You know, this, this holy ghost, he's not a force. He's not a bird. He's not, he's not a vibe. The Holy Spirit is God. And when that, that Spirit of God, when the Spirit of God comes on you, things shift, things change, callings are awakened and God gets on the inside of you. Man, you need to be filled with the Spirit of God. Let faith rise in your heart. Second thing you had to overcome was God's timing. I know that's a, that's an odd thought to think that God's timing can be an obstacle to our faith. I believe that forms our faith. But God's timing, if you go to the hospital, they have triage. So if you go to the emergency room or I think you call it ED, the emergency department, whatever part of the hospital you go to, if you, if you chop your leg off, I'm talking about that spot in the hospital. I, that's where they take you afterwards. I'm talking before that.

Emergency. Thank you, sister. I appreciate that because it's good to know if I have a trouble in America and I don't know where to go. So, but you go to the emergency room. If I have like a, a throbbing finger from an infected, I don't know, nail. I know it's gross. I don't have that by the way. I'm good. We can shake hands after church. It's fine. But, but, but if you have that, say you get there at nine o'clock and then, and then the door bursts open and some guy's being brought in having a cardiac arrest or something like that. They're not going to say to the guy with the cardiac arrest, sir, this guy's got a throbbing finger and he's had that since nine o'clock. I'm going to get to you in a minute. I just have to sort this out. They're going to, brother, throbbing finger's going to sit there and throb until the evening because major things are going to happen. And the emergency department is not about people being comfortable or happy or anything like that. It's about saving life. It's about whatever's urgent comes in first, triage. We're going to go with the urgent, not who's been there the longest. The woman with the issue of blood had been in the waiting room the longest, but the pressing need, that is what Jesus in the natural should have been focused on. Yet he stopped there. It's interesting to me that God is not moved by the urgent. He's moved by our faith.

Isn't that amazing? See, you might be here in church and Jairus could have sat back. Jesus is going, you know, your faith's made your whole shalom, go in peace. Jairus is probably going, yeah, just shalom out of here. I've got to get Jesus to my house. But Jesus is stopping. He's taking all the time in the world. Why? Because Jesus wasn't moved by the severity of the situation. It was faith. You might be here today and one person's rejoicing because they're about to have a baby and maybe you're here and that's not a reality in your world yet. Maybe somebody's proposed and Pastor Jabin's up here celebrating a couple that have announced their engagement. Isn't it amazing? And maybe you're facing a marriage challenge. Maybe somebody's testifying to healing of a sickness. You have the same sickness and you're battling it and you haven't had the victory. What do you do? What do you do? Do you sit back and go, well, there goes my miracle. He gave it to them. Well, firstly, Jesus doesn't run out of power. There's not like a, he doesn't have like, I've got a hundred doses of Holy Ghost power today, and they've all been used up by city light people's faith because they're all so hungry. Here's the thing, he is the self-existent God. He doesn't run out of juice, man. There's enough power for every need in this room.

So this is what I wanna say. If somebody gets a, see, one of the things during our faith journey is we will have to survive other people's breakthrough. What do you do with that? It's what I've learned to do. It's not easy, but I've learned to rejoice. I've learned to say this. If they can get that miracle, I must be close to getting mine. I reckon there's some people sitting in this room today, you haven't had your miracle. Don't put a period on the end of that sentence. You haven't had your miracle. I don't, I'm not good with grammar. I don't know if it's a comma or a semicolon or a dash, or dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. Party emoji. You haven't had your miracle yet. But I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost here in church today. You've come, some of you are gonna walk out of here whole by the power of God. Some of you have been living with something for so long, whom the Son sets free is free indeed. And then he had to overcome one more thing. And that was the negative report. And it wasn't from the devil. It was from someone in his house, probably someone that loved him.

Don't trouble the master anymore. I've come to tell you, keep troubling the master. I'm giving up. Don't give up. Don't give up on the brink of a miracle. The miracle could be this close. And you're going, you know what? You gotta pray that thing in. Believe God, call it in by faith. Say, today's my day. He had overcome a negative report, but Jesus says to him, I'm taking my glasses off to emphasize my seriousness. I actually took them off because they weren't very comfortable. Jesus says, don't be afraid. It's gonna be okay. And he says this, only believe. Only believe. What does that mean? Only, I looked it up. It means only. Nothing else. Not another thing. You don't mix faith with some unbelief or mix faith with doubt. Faith doesn't share. You gotta choose. You can stand here in unbelief or you can go, you know what?

I'm gonna jump into faith. I do that. I consciously do that at times when I'm facing a challenge. I go, okay, you know what? I'm in doubt. Stepping into faith. So when you say, oh, it might not happen. No, no, I'm not allowed to do that. I'm in faith. The appropriate caring response for Jesus would have been to hug him. Go, man, so sorry. He didn't. He said, only believe. Don't you cry. Don't you doubt. Jairus, come on, man. We can do this. You have to believe. David said, I would have despaired. Unless I had believed, I'd see the goodness of God. I don't wanna just believe in God. I wanna believe God. He goes into the house and there's people crying. What would have been kind would have been to comfort them. But kind wasn't gonna get that family what they needed. I think sometimes we're kind instead of believing God. I'm not saying we shouldn't be kind, but I mean, sometimes we just stop at kindness. Kindness wasn't what they needed at that point.

They needed Jesus to clear the room. He got the doubters out. He got the ridiculers out. And he took Peter, he took James, and he took John. Peter, man of faith. James, man of zeal. John, man who had, he had a revelation of the love of God. He'd write it in the book of John. He wrote it. The disciple Jesus loved the most, even if he said so himself. A little bit of a humility issue, but he's still making a point. What does the Bible say about love? Perfect love. What does it do? Cast out all fear. He took the right combination in there. He didn't take Thomas. Thomas would be going, I doubt this is gonna work. He didn't take, he didn't take Matthew, Peter. He didn't, sorry, Matthew or Judas. Took Peter, James, and John. And then he takes her by the hand. He says, little girl, Talitha, Kumai. Little girl, arise. You know, he didn't take emotion in there. We don't have to be emotional to get God to come. I get emotional because of what God's done, but I don't have to stir up an emotion to get God to come.

Jesus has walked in there. Little girl, arise.