Opening Prayer - Heavenly Father we thank you for the oppertunity to worship your Son this morning. We know that if He hadn't died on the cross for our sins and arose from the dead, we would have no way to have a future home in Heaven or the privilage of worshiping Him this morning. Please bless us indeed and give us the strength and wisdom to live the way the Bible says we should live. We pray that everyone who reads this sermon who are not saved will become saved before it is too late. For this Sunday morning service, we pray that You will help us to understand that nothing is impossible if we have faith. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Worship music - Please click the links and sing along if you know the words (You can also click skip ad to go straight to the songs) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05hhZ0oFEIk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do1NUSPdgaM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIEEz9yaukA
Nothing Is Impossible
It seems that one of the most well known teachings in the Bible is when Jesus said in Matthew 17:20, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." The Holy Spirit has allowed me to understand this a lot more than I used to.
Jesus used the example of someone praying for a mountain to be moved to another place to show that Christians can ask God to help them or others over-come situations that seem impossible (for example - someone being healed of AIDS or paralysis), and if the Christians believe it will happen, it will really happen.
In order to help Christians believe that their prayers will be answered, Jesus used the example of a grain of mustard seed (which is very small) to help us to not be intimidated by something that seems impossible to over-come (moving mountains).
For many Christians today, it is very easy for them to ask God to give them a safe trip to work and believe that it will happen. The reason is because they have had a safe trip to work day after day. Praying for this to happen isn't very intimidating; however, asking God to heal someone who is paralyized and believeing that it will happen, seems intimidating. Therefore, we need to obey Matthew 17:20 when we are faced with situations like this. As Jesus said, "Nothing shall be impossible unto you."
The teaching from January fourth's sermon (http://chriswaug5.wix.com/jan4) can also be applied to this topic. If you are sitting in a chair or lying in bed, and you want God to heal someone who is paralyzied for example, tell God that just how you "know" this chair isn't going to fall apart, you "know" that your friend is going to be healed of paralysis right now through Jesus' healing power. You can actually imagine that the paralysis is part of the chair you are sitting on. You have faith (are confident) that the chair is not going to fall while you are sitting on it, and since the paralysis is the same part of the chair that you know will not fall apart while you are sitting on it, you believe that Jesus will heal the paralyzed person. Since you believe that the chair is not going to fall apart, then that is all the faith that you need. Since the paralysis and the chair is the same thing, your only job is to believe that the chair is not going to fall apart while you are sitting in it. This is how you treat something that seems impossible (moving mountains) like something that is far less intimidating (having faith as small as a grain of mustard seed).
Also, when an ambulance speeds past you with its lights flashing, you can tell God that just how you "know" that your doors aren't going to fall off, you "know" that the person in the ambulance is going to be healed right now through Jesus' healing power and become a Christian. Again, as Jesus said, "Nothing shall be impossible unto you." These are the kind of prayers that God will answer. 1 John 5:14 says, "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:"
The Bible teaches that we should pray until we are satisfied that God has answered our prayer. If you have the kind of faith that has been mentioned in this sermon when you ask God to heal and save people, you will obey that teaching.
However, if you are a Christian, but you have sinned and have not asked God to forgive you for that sin, God will not answer your prayers until you have asked God to forgive you for saying something sinful, thinking something sinful, doing something sinful, or not doing something that the Holy Spirit urged you to say or do. Also, you should ask God to forgive you for sinning in ways that you didn’t realize you had sinned. These concepts are taught in Psalm 66:18, and it says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”
In conclusion, if you have prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, but you haven't had the kind of faith that Jesus talked about in Matthew 17:20, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure
If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you are not sure that you are really a Christian (Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 21:18-22, 1 John 5:14, and Hebrews 11:1), you need to be sure - please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven
If you have never prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven