Well, happy Sunday, everybody. Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. We're continuing our series about having victory over the darkness. And we've learned a lot through this series and in taking samplings of pieces of Scripture to put it together in such a way as to teach us how do we actually overcome the trials of life, and how do we overcome the difficulties that are even within us? And how do we overcome the difficulties that are around us? And how do we actually have victory over the darkness that is constantly attacking and existent in our world? Well, we found out that the key to having victory over the darkness is having our identity in Christ. In other words, understanding who we are in Jesus Christ. What has He done for us? And what has that done to us? What have we become? And who indeed are we? So we began by asking that question. Who are we in Christ? And we looked at our inheritances that we got from creation. What did God intend for us? What did He make us for? From sin, what kind of negative things did we inherit? What kind of a world did we inherit? Were we born into? We looked at the fact that when someone comes to Christ, then they are forever different and they have become children of God. And this is work that is accomplished in the cross. It is something that is already done. And we saw now that the key is we must begin to see ourselves for who we really are, not who we think we are, not who the world says we are, but what Jesus Christ says we are. And once we begin to see ourselves that way, we see that, in fact, we're something old and something new. The old person has died away, but the flesh remains and it is imprinted with that sinful nature and everything else. And so we battle that with our new nature, the Spirit of God that's been put inside us, that guides us, that teaches us, that is God with us, Emmanuel. And those two things battle for control of our lives in a battleground called the mind. So he said, how do we stop this battle? How do we win this battle and put the favor on the side of the good? And we saw there's basically two ways. And the first is walking in the Spirit. And we studied walking in the Spirit from the biblical perspective. And we saw that while we can't make a formula for walking in the Spirit, we can examine the Scriptures and see what walking in the Spirit is like. and we can see then what it is. We saw that it's something active, it's not passive. We saw that it's walking, not running ahead of God. We saw that it's a matter of following. We saw that walking in the Spirit is always proven by its fruit. And we saw that walking in the Spirit is liberty, freedom. It's not licensed to do what we want, but it's also not walking in legalism. and not trying to walk a narrow line between a bunch of rules that we have created. It is a liberty to walk in Christ. But then we saw the other part of it, walking in the Spirit, the other part of winning this battle once and for all and day by day in our lives is to have a renewing of our minds. And last week we looked at Luke chapter 24 when we have a couple of disciples leaving Jerusalem After having experienced Christ's ministry and his death and his crucifixion, and having even heard reports of a resurrection from the women that saw the empty tomb and experienced the angel, these men were walking away from Jerusalem. And Christ came to walk with them and he opened their minds to the scriptures. And we learned that knowledge of Jesus and the Scriptures gives us the faith to do the right thing, to turn around, to go back to Him and go back to His people. And the first step then of really renewing the mind is to be with Jesus and the Scriptures. Well, now we're going to look at walking by faith and we're going to see how is it that we walk by faith. You hear the term and it's like, well, we have to walk by faith, not sight. We're like, great. What does that mean? How do I do that? We're going to look at an example from Luke chapter eight here. It's a very powerful example. We're going to find out this. We're going to find out that in order to renew our minds, we have to begin by bringing things to Jesus. And then He will begin to take over, to guide our circumstances, and He will actually create ways to increase our faith that we can do things beyond what we believe we can do. And it makes coming to Him again easier. I look at this story here, this account of Jairus and his daughter that was very sick, and this begins in verse 40. And it goes to the end of the chapter there in verse 56. And we're going to read through this. I want you to pay careful attention to the situation from Jairus's perspective, because this is a miracle that is seemingly interrupted. Anybody ever had an interruption? OK, and I probably should have planned for someone just to interrupt me right in the middle of the sermon and bring up something totally irrelevant, but that fits the point of the sermon. Because that would perfectly illustrate what happens here. What happens here is a divine interruption. And it's an amazing thing because all three accounts of this in the three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all account this, and all three of them account for the so-called interruption that occurs in the middle of this. And I'm going to show you then how Jesus actually works in our lives. Well, let's read together there, verses 40 to 56. Okay, it starts off, and this is in Capernaum. They just went across the Sea of Galilee. They stirred things up across over there. He cast demons out of a man that created quite a stir over there in the area. They came back across the sea, and now they're back in probably Capernaum, right there on the Sea of Galilee. And this is where it begins. Now, when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him, and there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, Who was it that touched me? When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you. But Jesus said, Someone touch me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me. And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, Do not fear, only believe and she will be well. And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, Do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand, he called, saying, Child, arise. And her spirit returned and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them not to tell to tell no one what had happened. Let's pray. Father God, as we have opened your scriptures this day, I pray that you open our minds and our hearts to receive the message that you have for us. Help us to understand and help us to respond in faith as this woman and as Jairus did, Lord. I pray that you will help us to respond to things in faith and take our problems to Jesus. In his precious name we pray. Amen. Well, first, let's take a look at this from Jairus' perspective. What did he do? Well, the first thing he did right, verse 41, he came to Jesus. He simply came to Jesus. He had a situation at home. His daughter was dying. It doesn't say she was sick. It says she was dying. And you might think, well, 2,000 years ago, how much did they really understand? Look, they understood. You look at someone, you know when they're dying. And she's dying and he goes to Jesus about this situation. That's the first thing he did. The second thing he did is he humbled himself before Jesus. He humbled himself before Jesus. If you look at verse 41, it says, he was a ruler of the synagogue and it says, and falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house. This is a man that would be one of the most respected men in the town. He's a ruler of the synagogue, okay? The synagogue was the Jews' home away from home. When they couldn't go to Jerusalem and worship, which is kind of impractical if you're as far away as Galilee, you're not going to go to the temple every week and worship. It's too far to walk on the Sabbath. So you're not going to go there every week to worship. You're going to go there for the high holidays. Meanwhile, how do you get fed the Word of God? How do you worship God? How do you commune with the other people and sing your praises to God and read the Psalms? How do you do that? Well, they did it in the local synagogue. It's something that God started with the people when they were in exile. They began that because they had no temple at the time. So this guy was a ruler of the synagogue, which means he would have to be one of the most devout and respected men of the town. A devout Jewish man who had a financial stake in establishing the synagogue and getting the thing running along with other men to get this thing going. And so here he comes respected. No doubt when he walked through the streets, people would recognize him, would acknowledge him, would call him the ancient equivalent of Sir. And here he comes and he puts himself on the ground at the feet of Jesus. That's humbling. What he does by that acknowledgement is I'm nothing compared to you." When people came into the presence of the King, they would bow. And the lower they would bow would be more of an indicator of how seriously in their heart they felt unworthy to be in that presence. And he comes to Jesus and puts himself at Jesus' feet. And then it says he implored Him. That means he begged Him to come. And how often we don't humble ourselves before Jesus How often we don't bow our heads to pray when we should. How often we don't, no matter how hard he's pulling at us and tugging at us, we don't go forward and kneel at the altar and pray when we should because we're afraid of what other people will think. How often we're inhibited. to go to Jesus to open up His Word, to study His Word, because we're afraid someone will give us a hard time. How often when things go well in our lives, we're willing to take the credit. And when instead we should say, well, Jesus has done this. He has blessed me in this way. This is an answer to prayer. Because they're afraid that'll freak this person out. They're not a believer. They don't think the way I do. Oh yeah, I did great, we'll say. He humbled himself before Jesus. No matter who he was, his position, whatever, he's got a sick child. And it doesn't matter how things look. Have you ever noticed when paramedics come, it's a humbling experience. Anybody here ever been ministered to by a paramedic? Rachel's like, I have no idea. I don't remember a thing. Have you noticed? That's a humbling experience. The first thing they do is they start ripping your clothes off. No matter who's around, whatever, they're poking at you. They're moving stuff out of the way. I mean, there's no dignity in that. But you know what? You need the help, don't you? You don't want that blouse on you when they put the paddles on and shock you. I mean, it's not going to go well with anything in the way. But you need it. And it's like, you know what? I don't care. Do whatever it takes to help me. And how often are we not willing to go before the Lord and spiritually expose ourselves? How often are we not willing to go before Him and just lay it out and say, look, I'm helpless to solve this situation? How often we don't go to our congregations for help when we really need it? How often we don't go to our brother and sister in Christ because of pride? He humbled himself before Jesus. He was acknowledging his inability to deal with this situation. There was nothing he could do to heal her. And he was acknowledging that quite publicly. So then, he asked for what he wants. He implored him to come to his house for he had an only daughter about 12 years of age and she was dying. He had an only daughter who was dying. He asked Jesus plainly for what he wanted. He doesn't beat around the bush. Jesus, I'd really like it if you could have lunch at my house today. I want to do something for you. I want you to come over and make sure you have a place to stay and whatever, thinking maybe while he's there, he'll heal my daughter. He's direct about it. He tells him, this daughter who's dying. And I want you to come to my house. So he asked for what he wants. And now let's turn to focus on Jesus. What did Jesus do? Well, Jesus responded to him and went with him immediately. As Jesus went, people pressed around him. You know, the implication is there. He went. And we need to understand that's what Jesus will do when we come to Him in faith, when we come to Him humbly and ask Him for things. He says, whatsoever you ask in my name, it will be granted to you. And how often we don't even approach Him because we think He's not going to come. But yet He goes to Him, He asks Him and He turns and He goes with Him. But now look what Jesus does. Jesus, on the way, He turns and He goes with Him. to save this young girl who is dying, all of a sudden stops and he heals a woman. So he responded to what Jairus asked, but then all of a sudden Jesus stops and he heals this woman. And I want you to see that this is not an interruption. Watch the action as it unfolds here. OK, I need Matt and Nate. And yeah, Ashley, come on up here. I need your guys help a minute because we have to be able to visualize this. And don't worry, guys, you don't have to say any lines or anything. I just want you to visualize this, OK? Matt, you're going to be Jairus, OK? You're going to be Peter, OK? You stand right there and we're going this way, OK? And Jairus is leading the way because he's excited. He's not dilly-dallying. He's leading the way. Jesus is going by and here's this woman here. All of a sudden, as Jesus walks by, she reaches out and touches the hem of his garment. You can just kind of touch my foot there or something. So she's low down. Don't worry, I won't kick. But notice what happens. Jairus is leading the way and all of a sudden Jesus says, What's a natural thing for him to do? Stop and turn around. Where's his focus now? Yes. She touched the hem of his garment, which meant she's down low somehow. I don't know if she's kneeling, if she's sitting there by the side as he walks by. I don't know. But then this woman is here and now she kind of backs up to kind of hide, you know, and she's like, wait, wait, somebody touched me. Peter, he's standing there. Go like this. The crowd's all around you. What do you mean somebody touched you? Everybody's touching you. It's jammed in. It's tight. The streets were narrow. Everybody's around him. So he's going like this. He's looking over here and he goes, someone touched me. And he goes, what do you mean someone touched you? He's like, somebody touched me. I felt that somebody touched me. And then there's this awkward silence. And all of a sudden a girl comes up, the young woman comes up and says it was me. And she tells, she tells everybody, where's he looking? She tells everybody, now the focus is on her, and she tells everybody what happened. Okay. I had this issue for 12 years. And the issue that she had was a bleeding issue. And it was a type of issue that would make her continually unclean. She would be unable to go into the temple and worship on the high holy days. And what rules they had for the temple, they generally applied to the synagogue. And if she were unclean, she probably wouldn't even go to synagogue. She was unable to worship. She's unable to approach Jesus. But that's a whole different sermon. But she shares what happens And here's Jairus watching all this unfold. Jesus looks at her and says, daughter, your faith has made you well. So I want you to look in your Bible and circle these words. I want you to circle 12. It shows up when he first comes to Jesus and says, this girl's about 12 years old. And I want you to connect that to how long she had been sick, 12 years. So there's a 12, a line, 12. Now I want you to circle the word faith. He says, daughter, your faith has made you well. The very next thing that happens is men come. Now you're going to switch from being Peter to being the men from Jairus's house. OK, so go over there because you're coming from the direction of that. You're going to come up to Jairus, okay? Now, Jairus' attention turns from here to there. From the great miracle that just happened right here, now all of a sudden his attention is over there and this guy comes and says, don't bother the teacher anymore. She's dead. Okay? And right away, Jesus says, hold on. Only believe, she will be well. Now, I want you to circle the word faith when he says, daughter, your faith has made you well. And I want you to circle the word believe, because believe and faith in the Greek language are the same word. She says, daughter, your faith has made you well. Turns around. Meanwhile, these guys come up. It says while Jesus is still speaking, these guys come up, say it's bad news. He looks at him and says, only have faith. and she will be well." So you can also circle the word well and the word well. You see how this is not an interruption? Look at all the key words. You've got the word twelve. You've got the word faith or believe. You've got the word well connecting the two. And there's one more word I want you to connect. That is the word daughter. A very specific word. Jesus addresses her as daughter. This is a woman who has had this issue for twelve years, which means this woman is at a minimum in her mid-twenties. Did you think about that? If she's had this issue of bleeding, which is a female issue, she's had this issue at least 12 years. That means she's in her mid-twenties. And Jesus comes and calls her daughter. How old is Jesus? Thirty-something in his early thirties. And He says, daughter. Isn't that weird? It's not weird at all. Go have a seat. Thank you all for your help. Thank you. Great job, Peter. Yep. Go catch some fish or something. Alright, so you see all the connections there. You've got daughter. You've got twelve. You've got well. You've got faith. And faith is the real key one. Because He says, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Lally's speaking. The guys come. Jesus turns and says, do not fear. Only have faith. She will be well. Look how Jesus orchestrated that. I think, here's what I think, and this is conjecture, and you can see if you agree with this. I think that when Jairus went to Jesus, he had enough faith to go ask Jesus to heal his ailing daughter. I think he had enough faith because the faith proves itself in action, right? We talked about that a few weeks ago. Faith always proves itself in action. The fact that he went to Jesus suggests that he believed or had faith that Jesus could heal his daughter. But I don't think this man had faith enough for Jesus to resurrect his daughter from the dead. And I think that's why we have this interruption. I think this man needed an increase in faith. And so, at just the right time, they're barreling over to Jairus's house, no doubt in a hurry, because he knew she was dying. The crowd's pressing in all around. All of a sudden, Jesus says, stop. And it's absolutely counterintuitive to everything you would normally do in a situation like that. And he makes this big deal out of someone touching him. Everybody's touching you, Jesus. You know, could he have just, that healing, could he have just gone on and skipped it? Maybe for the woman's sake, she was already healed. And she knew she was healed. She felt it. And she would have been fine. She would have been healed without the conversation. But the conversation was necessary for some reason. It was necessary to increase the faith of Jairus, who was standing there watching the whole thing. And Jesus uses the key word, daughter, in addressing her, which is kind of unusual. Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. And so when you follow the action, you begin to realize that this was not an interruption. This was a designed encouragement for this man because he was going to need more faith for what was to come next. When they get to the house, all these people are there weeping, and Jesus says, don't weep for she's not dead, but sleeping. And some people will say, oh, see that? She's really not dead. She's sleeping. No, her spirit was gone. Her spirit had to return to her, it says in the next verses here. She really was dead. It's like, OK, well, then why did Jesus say she was sleeping? OK, Jesus at the end of the story says, don't tell anybody about this. OK, I think he was covering. He went in and all these people are freaking out. Oh, no, no, she's not dead. She's sleeping. Now get out of here. So he'll go in and raise her from the dead and they'll be like, oh, Jesus healed her. Well, he said she wasn't dead. But the parents know better, don't they? Peter, James and John get to go along for the ride. They know better, too. They go in, they see she's dead. And he gave the man what he asked for. Even more than he asked for, didn't he? He went to Jesus with the intention of having his daughter healed. Now he's seeing his daughter resurrected from the dead. And that's a bigger deal. This all comes to us in the form of the lessons of God and the principles of God to teach us so many things. First of all, we need to make the first step. You say, well, doesn't God initialize salvation? And yes, he does. He draws people to himself. But there's no account of anyone in the Bible being saved that doesn't make some kind of a move to Jesus. It's not the move that saves them. Otherwise, they could boast about it. Read the book of Revelation. It shows us clearly what's going on in heaven. And nobody in heaven is saying, I'm so glad that I trusted Jesus. I'm so glad that I did this. I'm so glad that I repented. I'm so glad that I accepted salvation. No one's saying anything like that. They're all praising Jesus for having provided salvation. We will not be boasting about what we've received as a free gift. But nevertheless, there is always an action, always a move toward Jesus. Remember the four men brought their friend to be healed by Jesus, ripped the roof open and lowered him down because they couldn't get in. They were motivated. Motivated by faith. They made a move, that man was healed, and it glorified Jesus. We must make the first step. And too often we're holding on to a status of some kind. Especially men. You want to know why there's more women in church than men? It's simply this. Men have a status, a do-it-yourself, Independent. I've got this handled. I've got this life thing figured out. I don't need no crutch of religion to help me out. Great. Why you have that other crutch? Because everybody's got another crutch. They've got a hobby they hide behind. They've got a substance they abuse. They've got relationships they go to and fro through. Everybody's got a crutch. But they're too independent and they're saying, no, I can do it on my own. I'm not going to worry about it. And the guy's like, I'm the ruler of the synagogue. He could be all high and mighty and say, get every physician in town in here right now to heal my daughter. But he goes to Jesus instead. And he puts himself down at the feet of Jesus. And everyone in town saw that this man, respected ruler of the synagogue, important man in town, just put himself on the ground and acknowledged that this crazy Nazarene who walks around homeless, teaching radical things and upsetting the authorities, is greater than himself. And right there is the reason so many people are sitting home this very day. is that they are too proud to give control over to Jesus the Nazarene. They are too proud to think and to admit that they need love. They are too proud to admit that they need someone else's assistance to be approved by God. Many people still hold on to their status. Many fear. Many people fear. I think it's interesting that Jesus says to him, do not fear, only believe and she will be well. Many people are gripped with fear in their lives and it's this fear that controls them. And the interesting thing is fear and faith are almost identical issues. Fear and faith are almost identical. It's just one has a negative outcome and one has a positive outcome. And so there's fear in their faith. Faith has as its object, God. Fear has as its object, stuff. People, situations, other things. Things less than God. So faith is always higher than fear. And many people have a doubt. They have a doubt. What if I go and it doesn't work? I don't think it'll work. No, surely it won't work. Maybe God doesn't like me enough to heal my daughter. Maybe I haven't been good enough for Him to address my situation and to help me. And that keeps people from going and asking God. A lot of people don't ask God because they think they aren't qualified to ask God. Well, let me share something with you. You are not qualified to ask God for a single thing. Unless you're a believer in Jesus Christ. Then you're not qualified, but Jesus is. And his righteousness has been put upon the believers of Jesus Christ. And so believer, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you're not, you're still in and of yourself, not qualified to go to God for anything, but Jesus Christ is qualified for everything. You know, when he commissioned his disciples, he prefaced it. He said, go into all the world and make disciples. Right. But he prefaced it with something. He said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples. He prefaced the command with the authority. And His authority has no higher authority. No authority in heaven and on earth surpasses that given to the Christian believer. And so you say, well, I'm not qualified to go to the Lord. Great, don't. Go to Jesus. and He'll go. He's our intercessor. The book of Hebrews describes the fact that He's in heaven making intercession for the saints, for the believers. We're even told in Romans chapter 8 that we don't know how to pray because we're weak, because we're still dealing with this mind of the flesh that's conformed to the image of this world, that we don't even know what to ask for. But we're told that the Spirit intercedes for us on our behalf. You say, I don't know what to pray. Great. Pray. Because when you pray, The Spirit is interceding for you. Even when you don't know what to pray. Well, have you told God you don't know what to pray? Try that. That's a good place to start. God, I don't know what to say. And you'll be amazed all of a sudden you'll have something to say. Or you'll get the overwhelming feeling. It's okay. I'm just going to stay here and tell you I don't know what to say. And I still don't know what to say. But he'll honor that because he honors the approach. He honors the coming. And the thing is, Jairus came as an incomplete person. That's what I want you to understand. He came as someone who had so much faith. He had enough faith to go to Jesus, ask him to heal his daughter. But then along the way, he's going to receive the terrible news that his daughter is dead. And I don't think he had enough faith to deal with that. So Jesus provided for him. You know, it's fascinating. Jesus comes down from the mountain from being from what we call the transfiguration. It's in Mark chapter nine. And he comes down from the mountain and his disciples, you know, just the inner circle here, the same three, by the way, interesting, go up the mountain with him. They see Jesus with Moses and Elijah, and they're discussing something. And we're not told what they're discussing, but we can make some pretty educated guesses about it. And the whole situation is so overwhelming. Peter's like, look, can we just camp here? I just want to stay here with these guys, you know, Moses and Elijah and Jesus. And Jesus was changed and transfigured before them. And they realized this is not a man. This is just simply not a regular man. He's a man, but he's not a man. He's a God. He is God. And they had some overwhelming kind of realizations there. They come down the mountain and hear the other disciples are trying to cast a demon out of a boy unsuccessfully. And Jesus comes down, takes care of the situation, casts a demon out. But along the way, something interesting happens. The boy's father was there. And the boy's father, Jesus says, if you believe, it'll be done. And the boy's father says, I believe, help my unbelief. And it's like, what, is this guy confused? He says, I believe, help my unbelief. What is he? No, he had a level of belief. He brought the boy to the disciples. He believed they could do something about it, but he needed more faith. And he says, help my unbelief. And then Jesus casts the demon out of the boy. Did Jesus help the man's unbelief? Yeah, He sure did. Because he saw something done that no one else could do. And then Jesus says, some only come out by prayer and fasting. Disciples were confused. Why couldn't we do it? Jesus says, some only come by prayer and fasting. There's a lesson there. We must take the first step. And along the way, as needed, Jesus will increase our faith. And sometimes we want to see the next level. Why can't I feel this way? in my Christian life. Why can't I have what that Christian person has? They have all this peace and everything seems to be going okay. And when things don't go okay, their attitude is still great. I don't have that. My attitude stinks. What's the matter with me? Why can't I get there? You've got to first come to Jesus. And don't be afraid to ask Him to increase your faith. Many people are right on the brink of salvation. They're right on the brink. They recognize, you know, I know Jesus is the solution to this whole sin problem. I know Jesus has done something great for me, but I just don't think I'm ready or I don't think I'm worthy or I don't think, you know, that's a lack of faith. And that's OK. Go to Jesus, ask him to increase your faith. There's another instance when Jesus was teaching some things that were really hard for the disciples and others to hear. They're like, Jesus, you're speaking nonsense now. This is crazy. And the disciples asked Jesus, increase our faith. Isn't that interesting? So there's good news here. The good news is this. If you don't have enough faith, Jesus will increase it for you. But you first have to act on what faith you have. Jairus didn't have enough faith for resurrection, but he had enough to go to Jesus for the healing. Maybe you don't have enough faith for whatever problem faces you. Great. Just take that step to Jesus. Ask Him to increase your faith. Tell Him, I don't believe that you can do anything about it. I don't believe that you can really affect this. And he will find a way to increase your faith and then have your eyes open because you're bound to see something great. In the end, we're amazed. You look at the end of this thing and it says in verse. Ooh, I'm in the wrong chapter. Here we go. Says her parents were amazed in verse 56. Parents were amazed. Raise your hand if you'd like to be amazed by Jesus. I'd like to be amazed. Some people put two hands up. Yeah. I'd like to be amazed by Jesus. And here's what it takes. It took Jairus going to him. Go to him. Whatever level of faith you have, whatever you think he can do for you, go to him for that. And ask Him to increase your faith and He'll give you something more. Let's pray. Father God, we thank You so much for this account of Your servant, Lord. And Father God, I pray this day that You would increase our faith. I pray that everyone here that's facing an issue that needs to take another step in their faith, I pray, Lord, that they will come to you and ask for increased faith to take that step. I pray that you would give them a revelation either from your Word or through your other servants, or in circumstances, Lord, I pray that you will show them something that will increase their faith. Maybe they'll hear a testimony of somebody. Maybe they'll see you at work and they'll recognize that, Lord, you are all-powerful and you can affect whatever situation we have. I pray, Lord, that we'll understand this and that we will go to you more often and that we will begin to have victory over darkness because of you and your increasing faith. In Jesus' name, Amen.