Great Faith | Charles Nieman | City Light Church

Before I get into what I feel God has put in my heart to share, there's a couple of thoughts I just want to drop on you real quick, just to kind of help you with some things and your understanding of life in church and understanding what church is about, if you don't mind. The first thing that I would love to share with you today is that I discovered this several years ago in our church, and it's really helped us immensely as we think about church and look at it, that every church, City Light, Abundant Church in El Paso, every church is made up of three families, three families, all right? First of all, there's the church family. That's all the people that call City Light their church, right? Hundreds of people, probably several thousand people by now that call City Light their church, the church family, right? Now, inside of that, there's another family called the serving family, and that's all of the people that volunteer. It'd be hard to do church without the serving family. How many of you would agree, right? So, all of the people that volunteer, and that's all of the people that volunteer. All over the building today, there's probably, many of you probably come to one service, serve in another service. Thank you for that. I would venture to say some of the people up here in Praise and Worship today are part of the serving family, and so, you know, they serve. So, again, it'd be very hard to do church without a serving family, amen? Then there's another family, all right? Now, get ready, because if we were at our church in El Paso right now, I would say, welcome to Big Boy Church. And so, there's another family, and that is the giving family. The giving family. Now, think with me. Think with me now. Here's the big boy part. Without the giving family, the other two families never exist. Can we handle that today, right? It's a reality, okay? I mean, think with me, right? Without the giving family, there is no church for the church family to become the church family. There is no church for the serving family to serve at without the giving family. And now, we understand that. So does the devil. And that's why we have such a fight to give at church. We have such a fight, right? Satan will fight you over going to church, amen? Fights you over serving, but he'll really fight you over giving. I have been a tither for over 50 years, and not every month, but probably five or six times a year, the thought comes into my mind, and stop now. You've given and given and given and given and given. My son said to me that day, he said, Dad, do you realize how much money you would have if you weren't a tither? He said, I don't make as much as a lot of people in my church do, but every year, I'm either number one or number two, right? And let me tell you why I'm a part of the giving family. It's not because I pastor a church. I give, listen to this, because in Luke 6, 38, Jesus said, give because you believe God has given to you. So for me not to give is for me to say, I don't believe you've done anything for me, and I don't think you ever will. I can't say that. Amen? All right. Now, second part, is everybody good with that? All right. So if you're not a part of the giving family, I pray that you'll become a part. Our church needs you. Our church, City Light, we need you to be a part of the giving family. We need you to be a part of the serving family. We need you to be a part. Amen. Second thought. Is that one all right? Second thought. All right. Second thought. We need to see the church the way God sees the church, not the way politicians see the church, not the way the news sees the church, not the way our co-workers see the church. We need to see the church the way God sees the church, and God sees the church somewhat different than we do. We need to see the church we see the church, but we need to see it from his perspective, right? The church is the only thing in the earth that Jesus is personally building. It's the only thing. Now, there are millions of things that he blesses, and he does so willingly, but the church is the only thing he personally builds, and he has invited us to come on the construction site with him. Think about that. We labor together with him. So he's invited us on the construction site. So we need to see the church, right? Now, in Genesis chapter 28, you can go and look at it. Jacob used the term house of God for the first time, and he said he came to this certain place, and he had the literal text said he had a God encounter, and there he said when he had, after he saw the vision, and God spoke to him in grace, he said that I didn't know this was the house of God, and then he said this, the gateway to heaven. You are sitting today in a gateway to heaven. There will be people over the years to come that will come into your church and not know they were in the house of God. They will not know they will encounter God here. They do not know that they have come to a gateway. They will not know it. It's incredible when you think about it. Now, think with me, and then we're going to get into the words. You still with me? All right, think with me now. Imagine if you found a literal gateway to heaven in the earth. By that, I mean you could walk up, there's the gate, and on the other side is the city of heaven. Can you imagine? Imagine if you found it, and imagine with me, if you would, that that gateway was in the middle of the Sahara Desert, or in Antarctica, or the middle of the Amazon jungle. You know what I think? I don't think you're any different from me. If I found that gateway to heaven, that literal gateway to heaven, I would do whatever I had to do to get my children there, get my friends there. Come on. I would do whatever I had to do. If I had to mortgage my house to get them there, I would do it. Now, I can't force them through the gate, but by golly, you're going to get to the gate. All right? And yet, here we sit in a gateway, and we believe the lies that part of society tells us, well, you shouldn't force your believing on other people. Shut up. All right? We tell people about restaurants. We tell people about movies. We tell people about television shows. We tell people about books. We tell people about something we saw on Facebook. We tell people about everything, but then they tell us not to tell people about church. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. I think we would actually like it better if there was a literal gateway, and it was hard to do, because then we could bring our friends and go, God, look at me. Look what I did. I brought these people all the way across the Sahara. Aren't you impressed? And God says, I'm going to eliminate all that, and I'm just going to put them all over cities. Your city today in a gateway to heaven. So let's respect it. Let's protect it. Let's honor it. Let's take care of it. Amen? All right. You ready to rock and roll? Let's pray. Father, I thank you today for every person that's here. I thank you for what you're doing in them and through them, and I ask you over the next 30 minutes to speak to us clearly, powerfully. Give us understanding. Help me to take these incredible truths, that revolutionized my life, and share them with your children so that it can do more in them than it's done in me. In Jesus' name, amen. As pastor said to you a moment ago, and I called him the other day, and I said, you know, is there anything you're teaching on that I could kind of hook my wagon to and add a little extra, put a little hot fudge on your ice cream? And he told me that he was going to begin a series on faith, and I've been known to teach a little bit on faith. And, hmm? Kind of known for that. All right? Our church used to be called Abundant Living Faith Center. But we changed it to Abundant. It's easier, quicker. All right? More modern, more hip. But that was a big part of who we are and still is. So years ago, decades ago, I went on a quest to find out what faith is. And let me tell you why. Because, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I'm going to just quote verses to you today. I think they're going to put them on the screen for you. For the sake of time, I have my Bible. I could turn to them, but this is quicker. All right? And I can give you more faster. Is that okay? If we just kind of roll, just start moving through. So 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7 says, for we, we, we, the children of God, for we walk by faith, not by sight. So we, we, as children of God, we have been blessed with the privilege to walk in a different realm, to walk in a different way. The word walk there means manner of life. So our manner of life as children of God, we're not limited to sight walking. We have been brought into a bigger world where we can walk by faith. All right? So we walk by faith. That is, faith is, if I can say to you, just help me to understand the way that helps me. Faith is the currency or the flow or the juice. or the life force of living in the kingdom of God. All right? Does that help you? All right, so maybe if you think of it that way. So it's what moves you through the kingdom of God. Remember Colossians 1, 13 and 14. I didn't give them this first, but you can look it up. It says that Christ has delivered us from the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. So when you make Jesus the Lord of your life, right, he delivers you from the kingdom of darkness, but he doesn't just take you out of the kingdom of darkness and put you on the sidewalk outside and say, okay, okay, we got you out. Don't go back. And we'll see you in 60 years. Hope it works. Love you. No, they're too kind to do that. They delivered you from and translated you to. So they took you out of one kingdom. And put you in another kingdom, the kingdom of his son. Now inside that kingdom, that kingdom is not loosey goosey lead. We don't know. Nobody knows. No, no, it is run. It is organized. God abhors chaos. He is a God of order. Can I hear a good amen? Everything God is in control of functions exactly right. Everything functions. Okay. If you were in California today and they said the tide, comes in at 617 and you're standing there and the tide comes in and you look at your watch and your watch says 618, your watch is wrong. Okay. Everything God is in control of functions. He abhors chaos. So inside the kingdom of God, there are principles, there are laws, there are statutes that govern the kingdom of God. And you and I have to learn how to live in that kingdom. It's no different than if you were moved from America, to Singapore, Singapore is a great, great country, right? I've been several times, great country, but they have different laws than we do. And Americans get in trouble in Singapore because they go over there and they think that Singapore operates like America. It looks like America, but it don't operate like America. They are much harsher in their punishments. Okay. Singaporeans don't just walk down the sidewalk and spit their gum on the floor. They don't spit their gum on the floor. They don't spit their gum on the sidewalk. They don't do that. It's great. All right. Do you know what the penalty is for dealing drugs in Singapore? Not prison, death. Death. Well, I don't like that. Don't move. Stay here. You know what the penalty is for rape in Singapore? Not jail, death. Death. Death. Now, as a father of a daughter, I'm like. Now, if you don't like that, don't move over there. But they're not going to conform to you by the same principle. It's the kingdom of God. Listen, listen, listen. It's not a democracy of God. It's not a republic of God. It is the kingdom of God. You and I are ruled by a royal family. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. It's their kingdom. They invited you to come live in it. And we are predestined to be conformed to His image so we can live in that kingdom. And in that kingdom, you walk by faith. So you've got to find out, what is faith? So I began asking over and over and over again. I began asking, what is faith? What is faith? What is faith? What is faith? Right? 1 John chapter 5 says, this is the victory that overcomes the world. I want to overcome the world. How many of you want to overcome the world? Right? I want to overcome. This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. So then, what is faith? So I began asking. And everywhere I asked, I got the same answer. Everybody told me that faith is Hebrews 11.1. It says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Great verse. Great statement. But that verse does not tell you what faith is. That verse shows you what faith does. But it does not tell you what faith is. So I discovered two things in my quest. Number one, I found Romans chapter 3, verse 27, that says that faith is a law. It's called the law of faith. Now, I love that, and I hope it blesses you. Because if you're going to walk by something, if you're going to build your life on something, if you're going to raise your kids on something, if you're going to build your life, you don't want to build it on a theory or a supposition or an idea. You want to build it on a law. Right? Like the law of gravity. The law of lift. Right? When I flew here yesterday from El Paso, that plane got me here because of the law of lift. Not the theory. None of you would fly if they backed the plane up to the end of the runway and said, okay, ladies and gentlemen, we're about to take off. We're sure hoping lift works today. You know, it looks good on paper. The guys at MIT said it's a great theory. We're going to find out. I'm getting off the plane, and so are you. No, it's the law of lift. Now, listen, listen. Why is it important to think about faith as a law? Because laws don't care how old you are, how young you are, how rich you are, how poor you are. Laws don't care what color you are. What country you're in, what generation you're in. Laws don't care. Gravity works the same in the United States, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, Africa. Laws don't care. So laws don't, the law of faith doesn't work for me because I'm a preacher. The law of faith works for me because I'm here. Because I work it. Right? It's like the laws of seed time and harvest. Right? The seed doesn't care. If you're rich or poor, seed doesn't care. If you're a farmer in Mexico or a farmer in America, couldn't care less. All the seed is saying is, take me and put me where I was made for. Take me out of the barn and put me in the dirt. Throw some water on me. Give me a little sunlight and watch what I can do. And seed doesn't go. Ah, sorry, sorry, sorry. Not working for you. You're the wrong color. Laws don't care. So it's the law of faith. So that's good to know because you're going to live by it. You want to make sure it's a law. But then I found, get ready, 2 Corinthians 4, 13. It says, but we then having the same spirit of faith as it is written, God speaking of himself. Right? So make a note of this. We have been given the same spirit of faith. Romans chapter 12 says, when you got born again, get ready, God gave you all the faith you'll ever need. He gave you the measure of faith. You don't need more faith. Don't go to heaven and say, God, give me more faith. Because you know what they're going to say? We gave you all you need. Well, then what's the problem, pastor? The problem is you don't know how to operate it. You don't know how to use it. Or you haven't developed it. You know, I work out a lot. So a lot of times I have people in my church that start working out. And they'll come up to me and say, pastor, look, I started working out. I got new muscles. No, you didn't get new muscles. Those muscles were there the moment you got conceived in your mama's womb. They've always been there. You didn't get new muscles. They didn't take you to the hospital and give you a muscle transplant. The muscle's always been there. You just developed it. That's all you did. And the same thing's true with your faith. You need to learn how to use the faith you got. You got to develop it. Faith cometh by understanding the word of God. Romans 10, 17. So the more you understand, makes sense, right? How can you have faith? Faith is something you don't even know. I can't believe what I don't know. Your kid starts first grade and they start testing him in physics. He's going to fail every time. Doesn't mean your son is stupid. Doesn't mean your daughter can't learn. The problem is it's not fair to test them on stuff they don't know. Still with me? All right. So then he continues. 2 Corinthians 4, 13. Still here? Still with me? So I'm looking at this, right? I got to build myself. So what is faith? He tells me what it is in this verse. But we then have in the same spirit of faith as it is written. Now God's speaking about himself. I have believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore we speak. So write it down. What is faith? Faith is made up of two ingredients. Faith is believing and speaking. Believing and speaking. It's not a feeling, though it'll give you feelings. It's not an attitude, though it'll give you an attitude. But look at it. Break it down. Watch now. He said we believe and therefore we speak. So in the kingdom of God, our speaking is driven by our believing. We believe and therefore we speak. It is assumed in the human species that if you say it, you meant it. Did you hear what I just said to you, right? And that's why you hear humans say all the time, why did you say that to me? Well, I didn't mean it. No, no, it is assumed when you said it that you didn't mean it. It's in our DNA. Okay? So what is faith? Okay, pop test time, right? You ready? One, two, three. What is faith? Very good. 20 years from now, you'll remember that. All right? All right? Now, we all know what speaking is. What is believing? Believing is what it's always been, a choice. You have been choosing all of your life to believe or not to believe. You've chosen to believe. You're a prophet. Your parents or not believe. Teachers, to believe or not to believe. Any of you girls in here ever had a guy tell you, I love you? I bet you have. All right? And probably some of them you went, don't believe that. You're just going to leave me out here by myself, aren't you? All right? That's okay. I'm a big boy. All right? You didn't believe it. But then, for some of you, a guy came along and said, I love you. And you went, I believe that. Okay, let me ask you a question. Could you see the love? Could you open his heart and look in there and see that little heart? Love, love, love, love. Could you see that? No, you chose to believe it. So what is faith? It is God. It is God asking you to choose to believe what he says about your life. And then, because you believe what he says, for you to then say what he says about your life. All right? So I believe what God says and now I'm going to say what I believe and I believe what he said. All right, here's a little thought. I didn't give first service. I'm going to give this to you. Are you ready? Are you ready? Okay. Our believing and our speaking becomes God's believing and speaking when we are believing and speaking what God has believed and spoke. You didn't get it the first time? Okay. Okay. Our believing. Think with me now. Our believing. Our speaking and our speaking becomes God's believing and speaking when we are believing and speaking what God has believed and spoken. So when I am believing and speaking what God has said about my life, then it is God believing and speaking about my life because I am believing and speaking what God has said or what God has believed and spoken. Okay. You know, I'm giving you about 20 years of life in 40 minutes, right? Yeah. It took me decades to get all this. Say, thank you, Pastor. You're welcome. All right. So it's my joy. All right. So now here we are. So it is faith is believing and speaking. So now watch how this works. You're going to love it. Right? So then we walk by believing and speaking. Our manner of life in the kingdom is believing and speaking. Above all, taking the shield of believing and speaking, wherewith you should be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Therefore, believing and speaking is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Right? So now the flower is starting to open up to you, right? You're beginning to see the pathway that God has laid in front of you to live in the kingdom of God. He didn't want you frustrated. But the Bible is your book of understanding for living in the kingdom of God. So if you don't know it, how are you going to live in the kingdom of God? You know, there are all kinds of rights and privileges that may belong to you as an American citizen. But if you don't know what they are, nobody's going to tell you. And somebody could actually take those rights and privileges away from you. Because you don't know. But when you know, you become dangerous. All right. So you ready? Go with me to Mark 11. If you have your Bible there with you. Mark 11. Let's read Jesus' personal teaching on faith. You ready? Got 13 minutes. This is going to be awesome. You should have said amen right there. But no, I can't. No, no, no. I can't wait for you. You were too late. All right. Mark chapter 11. Now, if you don't know the setting, Jesus says, walk by in the morning. He's going in Jerusalem to preach. He walks by, sees a fig tree. Goes up, gets something to eat. No food on it. Speaks to it. It says, no man eat fruit of you hereafter forever. They go into the city. They come back at night. The next morning they come back. Peter, ever curious Peter, goes, I'm going to go look at the fig tree. And he walks over there. And it's dried up from the roots. He hollers. Behold, the King James text says. The word behold simply means come look and see. Come look at this. He goes, the fig tree which you cursed is withered from the roots. Jesus then looks at this and says, you know what? I'm going to do a teaching on faith so that Peter can learn it and the other guys can learn it. And Charles can teach this at City Light in October in 2021 and change people's lives. Right? Mark, you're going to write. Write this down. Get a hold of this. Okay? So here we go. He answering saith unto them, have faith in God. The King James text says, my margin says, Jesus said, have the faith of God. One translation says, have the God kind of faith. Stop right there. Charles Siemens' reaction to this decades ago was, if Jesus said I can have it, I'm going to have it. If Jesus said I can have the God kind of faith. And then I discovered that I already had it. Romans chapter 12 said, God dealt unto me the measure of faith. So he took some of his faith and put it in me and put it in you. Again, you have all the faith you'll ever need. You have all the faith you'll ever need. You'll never encounter circumstances in your life where you don't have enough of the raw substance of faith. You've got it. You can overcome. This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our believing and speaking. Sorry. He didn't say, if you have enough. Thank God. All right. So he continues. Have the faith of God. Now, I'm going to have the God kind of faith. How many of you are going to have the God kind of faith? I'm going to have it. I already have it. Jesus said I can have it. I'm already have it. I'm going to live out a war. I'm going to learn how to walk in it. All right. Now, years ago, somebody said, well, I heard a guy on the radio say that, that, that you were right. You're wrong teaching. You can't. Who do you think you are? I don't care what Dr. Ding Dong on the radio says. Couldn't care less. Oh, Charles, you sound so arrogant. It's not a matter of arrogance. It's a matter of you have Dr. Ding Dong. I have Jesus. I'm going with Jesus. If he didn't want me to have it, he shouldn't have said I can have it. So you got to get a little of that tenacity, right? So he continues for verily or of a truth. I say unto you. You. I say unto you that whosoever are there any whosoevers in the room, right? I love that word whosoever. You know why? Because somewhere in that word is Charles. Somewhere in that huge line of whosoevers is me. Whosoever's right here, right here. I'm a whosoever. He said that whosoever shall say. Unto this mountain. Now, what is a mountain? A mountain is anything that is standing between you and the fulfillment of God's promise in your life. Maybe a mountain of sickness, a mountain of fear, a mountain of lack, a mountain of depression, right? Now, notice what Jesus said. He said you shall speak to the mountain. Wait, wait. In the kingdom of God, it is assumed what? That if you're speaking, it is because you are believing. Right? So the understanding here is, is that I'm speaking to the mountain because I believe something about the mountain. And I'm speaking to the mountain. And what has he said? He said, say unto the mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast in the sea. Charles, even in translation, get on up out of here and don't ever show your face around here no more. Hit the road, Jack. Right? Little Ray Charles. And don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more. Hit the road, Jack. and don't you come back no more. You've got to speak to the mountain. Notice what he did not say. He did not say, say to the Lord, I don't know why the mountain is here. I don't know why you brought this mountain. What is this mountain here to teach me? It's not here to teach you anything. It's here to keep you from. Okay, take your hands and go. But I was listening to a guy the other day. Again, I don't care what the guy said. I'm going with what Jesus said. Jesus said, speak to the mountain. God does not bring you mountains to teach you something. Stop it. God, that's a bad teaching. Destructive. Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea. Watch now. And shall not doubt in his heart. Okay, this is what I want you to see. Okay, got eight more minutes. You ready? There are three words for doubt in the New Testament. One of them, not this one. I'm going to give you this one in just a second. One of them you find in Matthew when Peter's walking on the water. And Jesus said, wherefore didst thou doubt? That word doubt means why did you take the second opinion? What was the first opinion? Peter said, if it's you, bid me come. Jesus said, come. He got out of the boat. He was walking on the water. He had the first opinion. The second opinion came from the waves. He began to walk by sight. And not by faith. Beginning to sink, he cried out and said, Lord, save me. Jesus said, wherefore didst thou doubt? Why did you take the second opinion? It was worth coming to learn that. But that's not the word here. The word here is, Jesus said, speak to the mountain. And he says, and do not doubt or do not withdraw your heart from the mountain. So, in other words, don't withdraw your believing and speaking. Once you speak to the mountain, keep speaking to the mountain. Keep speaking to the mountain. And you're speaking because you believe. So, I'm believing and speaking to the mountain. There have been mountains in my life that have moved almost instantaneously. There have been some that moved in a week. Some that moved in a year. There are some mountains I've been speaking to for 45 years. Oh, pastor, that discourages me. I'll grow up. Like what, pastor? Well, I'll tell you one right now, right? I am speaking to the mountain of unbelief in my city. I'm speaking to that mountain. I'm speaking that all of my city is going to be saved in my lifetime. That is my belief. That is what I'm believing. I'm speaking to that mountain of unbelief. And nothing can get me off of it. People say, well, you know, you're 71 now and it doesn't look like that. Okay. So, I don't care. Okay. Let's stop on that for a second. So, if you withdraw your faith from the mountain, is the mountain going to leave because you withdrew your faith? No. It's not going to go anywhere. It's just going to sit there. Mocking you. Stopping you. Making you settle on this side of the mountain. The promise is over there. And the mountain is standing. They're looking at you and say, well, you know, they can get it, but not you. Too bad. So sad. Hmm? Now, doesn't that irritate you? Hmm? Okay. While we're on this happy note, let's continue. All right. It does not say cry about the mountain. All right. Again, welcome to Big Boy Church. Crying is not going to get the devil off your life. And I'm not picking on you. I'm trying to help you because I have cried. I've had situations happen in my life you cannot imagine. I have cried. And like Peter, like David and Zik, like I tell you, I had no more power to cry. And when I opened my eyes, he was still standing there looking at me. Hmm? The devil does not look at you and go, oh, my gosh, we made you cry. I didn't intend to make you cry. I mean, we were picking on you a little bit, kind of roughing you up a little bit. You know, having a little fun with you. We didn't mean to make you cry. All right. All the dogs, come on. Out, out, out. Why devil? Because he's crying. Now, your tears touch the Lord, but they do nothing to the devil. My family, I wish I had two weeks to warm up to you, but I only got a couple minutes. You're in a fight. You're in a fight. Now, you're not in that fight every day. You're not in it all the time. But sometimes the fight comes to your life and comes to your door, and you better toughen up, Buttercup, and you better be ready. You're ready to fight, and you better get in the fight, and you better fight to win. Amen. Amen. I'm not a fighter. When you were born, you came out with a little placard that said, this one's not a fighter? You got to get in it, baby. You got to get in it. Come on. It's worth the fight. All right? So how do you keep it? How do you keep speaking to the mountain? All right, turn me to Hebrews 6. You don't withdraw. Verse Mark 11, 24 says, the literal Greek text, Therefore, what things whoever you desire, when you pray, go on believing. Go on believing. Go on believing. Now, remember, if I'm believing, what else am I doing? Speaking. Go on believing and speaking that you have received them and you shall have them. Look at the verb tense, right? What things whoever you desire, when you pray, believe, present tense, that you receive them, go on believing, future tense, that you have received them, past tense, and you shall have them, present tense. In one verse, Jesus goes, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. There you are. Okay? So, have you found Hebrews? I'm in James. But I know where Hebrews is. There we are. All right? Hebrews chapter 6. All right? Verse 12. But you be not slothful. Okay, I refuse that. I'm not going to be slothful. But followers of them, watch, who through faith, what is faith? Believe me in speaking. And who faith, through faith and patience. Inherit the promises. The word inherit means you have them in your possession. This is the verse that grabbed me. Because I was not content to just read the promises. I want to possess the promises. Don't tell me how good life can be. Give me a better life. I want to put my hands on it. I want to possess it. I want to have it. I want to have something to give my kids. To give my church. Right? So, there's two things. Faith and patience. Now, we already know what faith is. So, what is patience? Patience is what keeps you speaking to the mountain. So, I'm going to give you the definitions. Are you ready? All of these come out of the Greek, English, New Testament dictionary. This is not Charles. This is what it means in the literal text. Number one, the power of being sound or constant. The power of being sound or constant. Sound or constant. So, patience is a power force in your life. It goes with faith. It also means an abiding or standing under. So, in James, he said that when your faith is tried, right? What does Satan attack? He attacks your faith. So, inside of you, God has put a spiritual fail-safe system so that when your faith is tried and your faith takes a hit, this power force called patience, who has just been sitting there, right? Got nothing to do until faith is tried and then patience goes and steps under your faith and tells faith, come on, we got this together. You keep on believing and speaking and I'm going to take you and we're going to go through to where Charles gets the promise. All right? Almost there. It also means, listen to this. A quality of calmness, stability, and persistent courage in trying circumstances. It is a spirit in a man that refuses to be daunted by the difficulties of the way. It gets tough sometimes, but I'm not giving up. I burned the white flag. No, I'm not a quitter. I'm not a quitter. Have you ever thought about quitting? I think about quitting all the time. That's okay, just don't quit. still quit that quality of character which does not allow you to surrender to circumstances or succumb under a trial okay almost done wow i've gone late sorry but i'll give you this and we'll pray right whenever i think of this i think about jesus at the tomb of lazarus right and the bible says he walked up verse 33 and it says he groaned in the spirit you ever read it he groaned in the spirit then he says he wept and then it says he groaned again then he said roll the stone away lazarus come forth the word groaned means he became indignant he became indignant so he became indignant over what happened to his friend what does that mean he said this isn't right then he wept he got overcome by his emotions but he popped back and he became indignant get ready in the literal greek text it says he got his roar back some of you here in 2021 god brought you to church today so you can hear all this but to hear this he wants you to get your roar back he wants you to get your roar back he wants you to stand up and get back in the fight amen get back in the fight jesus came to give me life and life more abundantly didn't come to give me mediocre life didn't come to give me some life he didn't just come to give me heaven he came to give me a better life here and now i'm gonna have it i don't care what anybody thinks stand to your feet with me please i gotta pray and let you go did you learn some things today would you lift your hand towards heaven and i'll pray and pastor is going to come father in the name of jesus i pray for every person here today and online and i believe today that you will watch over them and strengthen them and help them and you will give them their fight back their roar back today i choose courage say it i choose courage i choose faith for me and my family i choose faith not doubt in jesus name amen