get in it. Amen. Well, I'm excited tonight. I'm very grateful, very honored to be able to preach and pastors here so don't want to take the pulpit lightly, take the preaching of the word in any other way but what God has intended it for. and so I just need y'all to pray and I got a little congestion been really kind of pushing it out forcing it as much as I could today and and like the devil just always has to get involved with something it just seems like it just doesn't you know you get a little bit of a break maybe like the people in the book of judges then it just turns back around. Not usually on our fault, but something just popped up, and we go through that. So, you're familiar, I'm going to ask you, you can quietly say it, nod, yes, no, you know, whatever. But we are familiar I think a little bit with John chapter 4. John chapter 4 is basically the most portion of it is with the Samaritan woman there with Jesus going to the well. Then we come to the last part and Jesus leaves, and we read some of that there. And we have the story of the nobleman, and that's just kind of how it's titled, and I'm just going to keep that title if you will. Or we could title it this, The Nobleman's Walk of Faith. walk of faith is what we might say. And you remember in here, and we'll read over just a little bit of it because I want to kind of keep track of where we're at when we begin the message tonight. And the Bible says, now after two days he departed thence and went into Galilee. For Jesus Himself, verse 44, had testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country. And And then when he was coming to Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went unto the feast. Now verse 46 is where we are, and it says this, so Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine, period. And now we're gonna read where we wanna be, and it says this, and there was And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. Now, I want to have an understanding here that Jesus never does anything by accident. We may look at this sometimes and you may not quite understand the scriptures and we may say, oh, maybe he didn't really mean to do that or maybe he didn't really mean to kind of say it that way because it's kind of harsh, you know. And we live in a society today that says we need to tone all the harsh words down and be a lot more nicer to people and use different words and keep them encouraged instead of punishing them, you know. that. And I don't think that's the case. And we have to understand that nothing happened by cause of incident in the Bible. Alright? And so, if God had His hand on it, and we understand that, then nothing was by cause of an incident that God didn't know about. So, we have to understand that while yet there is a devil who the Bible tells us in Peter 5, 8 I believe it says that as a roaring lion that he seeketh, he's looking and he never stops looking. So, we have to understand that. The devil doesn't take a day off from us. And you may think, oh, I've got a little bit of reprieve. Don't rest in that moment. Keep your heart guarded. Even in the times of peace, keep your heart guarded, because I'm telling you, He's looking and He's walking in circles around you, waiting for you to drop just a little bit of that during your peace time, if you will. And here He comes. And we wonder how that happened in our lives. Even amongst solid Christian friends that we have, they're like, man, I can't believe that's happening to that person. They are a solid man or woman of God. They're who I look up to, and how can the devil get in? But we know people that are like that, that we've had mentors, or we have, can I say this, like spiritual idols, that we have men of God in the past that we kind of, wow, they really had a heart for God and His things, and then must have let his guard down because the devil came in and had something in sin there. Let's get to a crucial part of the Christian walk here in our faith. And it says this that in verse 47, when he, that's the nobleman, heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee. Right there we have to understand that he heard Jesus had come to Galilee. So if I want to get to the root of that, I have to understand that how he heard is by someone talking. And I think it is our job as a Christian to publicly testify or talk about Jesus daily. We ought to be mentioning Jesus in our daily walk as we just come around people. A pastor preached just not too long ago about how there were going to be these would you say 80,000, 88,000 people in our whole lifetime, just us, just each individual. Now, give or take, there's going to be some that are going to be a lot more, and then some that are going to be less, because we have shy people, and we have not so shy people, and we have people that are forced into it, and some that just don't want to go, and things like that. But it is our job. It is, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is our responsibility to take that and just talk about it. It's testify of how good God is, not how bad the devil's been. We can all do that on Wednesday night prayer time. I've done this and pastors heard me on Wednesday night in church, but I've done this and I've said, okay, we know how the pastor will get up here and say, yeah, who's got a blessing tonight? God being good to you all. And man, we'll get three, four, five, six hands up here and I'll say this, how many have been hit by the devil this week? And nobody wants to answer that. But can I tell you that you've been hit by the devil this week? There was a time you didn't smile, but you frowned. There was a moment in your life, and maybe it was just a whisper of a moment, but there was a time that there wasn't all joy. But we are to rejoice evermore, aren't we? So I think it's our job. The nobleman heard the only way he could know that Jesus ever left Judea to come to Galilee where he could get to him because his son was sick was that he had to hear somebody talking about Jesus coming to town. There are people out here. And I so wanted to come up this past week to go to the next citywide garage sales. I really did. And Lois said this, we don't have any money. And I'm like, but I can go look. And then you'll get tempted. And then that's not always the best thing. But can you imagine all these people, all these people here who don't know that Jesus has come to Nixa. And they're looking. They got somebody they need to pray for. They got somebody that needs to help them or intervene on their behalf to take whatever they have. Sometimes I'll sit down at a table and I'll ask the waitress. I said, hey, we're about ready to pray for our food. You have a prayer request that we can add to our prayer. And I've never been told no. always had a waiter or waitress give me a person, a relative, or something that they're working on for school or whatever, and we had it to our prayer. I had one person one time ask me, do you mind if I join you in prayer when you pray? We'll just stay here. I said, yeah, absolutely. We're about ready to pray. Just hang on. It's great to publicly talk about Jesus. It is not as bad as what people would like you to think that you can talk about Jesus. It's okay. And it's just a wonderful, wonderful testimony of who you are in your walk with the Lord. Let me ask you a question. Do you find it easier to talk to strangers about Jesus or your own family? Because there's a difference. There's a difference. The Bible says that he would go to Jesus and he would beg Him to come and heal him. Would Jesus go? Well, we've read that, but we already know. But would Jesus go and heal his son? Well, you would need to think by reading the Bible and all the other miracles that Jesus has ever done that he would have to walk into the guy's house, the nobleman's place, and touch his son or pick him up or stand outside the door and speak like he did with Lazarus, come forth. He would be present there for that person. You would think that. But that's not what he did. And I kind of wonder if maybe there was a little bit of a shock. to the nobleman when he just told him to go. Thy son liveth. You don't need to come. You don't need to be there physically in front. You don't need to put your hand on my boy and say something. You don't need to wipe your mud or whatever you need to do, touch. The physical touch. Jesus is there physically. He's not yet done this type of a miracle where he's done it from such a distance that the dad is, but all I've ever heard you do is you've been there. You've been there. You were there. And now you want me to go without you? But Jesus simply told, go, verse 50, your son will live, and that's all Jesus did. Jesus spoke and He expected the man to believe it. That's what He expected. You know when you take your Bible and you read your Bible, I'm still in the introduction by the way I'll hurry up and get to the point. But when you're in your Bible and you see something and you're like, oh that's what I'm supposed to be doing. God expects you to do it. It doesn't get any more simple than that. When He said, go ye. Who's He talking to? Well who read that? got the Bible when you are reading your Bible through and you read this, right? Take up thy bed and walk. Well, okay. Well, what does he mean by my bed? Well, take up your belongings and go. Go share Jesus with somebody. Put on your coat. Put on your shoes. You are at that point. Call somebody. Say, hey, I just read a passage of Scripture here and I really believe I'm supposed to talk to you right now. going on? Is there something happening? You got something we need to pray about? You know it could be a brother in Christ, a sister in Christ, it could be anything. But there is always a command in the Bible for you and I to reach out to somebody. Almost every page you turn in the Bible there is something there that will include you reaching out and touching, or physically somehow praying for a person. It's amazing that God is a people person. He's a people person. I've been, I've got photos on my phone of planets that are, that make the Earth invisible, that they've been able to see, and they've marked them. And they have even found another planet that is almost to the pinpoint like Earth, but it's like 10 times larger than Earth. 10 times larger. he thinks about me. The wonder of it all. Of all the wonders. You know the world has its seven wonders of the world. Can I tell you the first and most important wonder that the world has ever seen? His name was Jesus. How come? Anyway, let's move. Jesus told the nobleman to go his way. Well, the Bible says He did. He just left. He went His way. John 4.50 tells us, and this is the verse I kind of want to stick in tonight is this, Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. had traveled approximately 12 miles from his place to get to where Jesus was and begged him to come back to his poem to heal his son. Now, it's not the fact, don't put this in your head, well 12 miles is a long way, Jesus didn't have time to go 12 miles, that's not the point here. It wasn't the fact that Jesus was like, well you know what my legs are sore because I'm in the flesh of man, I've been walking all day, I came here and no, listen, Jesus can do anything and go anywhere and be anywhere anytime He chooses. Which is why earlier in the Bible it says, I must needs go to Samaria. That wasn't the course they were on. But in the middle of that course that they were on He just immediately, He just stops and tells His disciples, hey I need to go this way. And Jesus will do that in our lives too. He'll be you'll be heading somewhere that you think that God has prepared God has set here I go and all of a sudden he says turn I Want turn God we've been good I've been praising you. I'm in service. I'm walking with you. Well, if you're walking with me, turn. But the Lord, the blessings have been really good right now. I've not had any hiccups, if you will. Everything just seemed to be smooth. There's been no storms in my life. And now you want me to turn? I don't like that direction. It doesn't look good. God says, trust me, turn. Now, see he didn't have to tell the nobleman to trust him. The nobleman had already heard about Jesus. He had already heard who Jesus was, and who Jesus had claimed to be. He didn't ask any of these questions. Well, who are you to say, or who? He didn't go there. He already knew all of that by people talking to him. about the wonders of Jesus. Can you just imagine, can you just imagine, hmm, okay, He's in reach. I can get to Him. And he goes, I don't know. You know, they didn't have a stick shift camels and things like that to ride. But I'm pretty sure he either walked or had a donkey. And I'm pretty sure he probably had a few people go along with him and said, listen, we have to go. We got to go now. Jesus is there. This is the only time I can get him to heal my son. He's a nobleman. He's rich. And he probably spent some money on his own physician. He probably had a personal physician there in his estate. And his own physician said, hey, I've done all I can. This is where we're at. This is my diagnosis of the patient. You ever have one of them doctors? And then you're like, all of a sudden, that wasn't what it was. So here he is. And he probably said, hey, I recommend this physician down over in that village over there. So he probably had him come up, pay him a little bit, and try to do that. He probably went into Hills, Arkansas, got a home remedy from somebody, came back and tried it on him, and that didn't work either. But then he heard all the things that Jesus could do. And he heard witness accounts of healings First person, witness accounts of healings. And he believed that if he could just get to Jesus, Jesus could fix, heal his son. He wasn't looking for anything for himself. But you ever notice that when you go to Jesus, Jesus gives you a whole lot more than you expect. He always does. He'll always give you more when you go to him first. It's amazing. It's amazing that I didn't bring it up back yet, Lord. I'm full. I'm running over. We should have known better than to bring a small basket when we go to Jesus. But we go just with a little why because sometimes we don't always expect Him to fulfill what we're asking. There's that little seed of doubt in our lives even while we're praying sometimes. We're praying just on the hope that this works this time. That's the flesh. That's what gets into our heads sometimes. I'm getting ahead of myself here because I have a point called the physical thought, but we're going to get there in a moment, I promise. So, the man believed what Jesus said, "'Go thy way, thy son liveth.' And the man went." No, the Bible doesn't record any type of conversation after that. He left. And he began, this is where I want to actually start preaching, he began his walk of faith. You and I have a walk of faith tonight. We have met the Savior. Now, I've not heard everybody's testimony tonight, so I don't know the heart. I know the outward appearance, I can see that. And I think we're all good people. But good people don't all get into Heaven. People who know Jesus Christ as their Savior get into Heaven. We're going to be surprised, I think, who's there and who's not there. But anyway, move on from that. Now the man has 12 miles to go back home. 12 miles to go back home. I drove 43 miles to get to church today to meet with Jesus. And you know he was here. You know he was here. He was here in the singing. He was here in the offering. He was here. He was here in testimonies, prayer requests. He was here. And I'm thankful for that. And you need to know that when you come to Crimson Avenue Baptist Church, you're going to meet with Jesus. And my prayer is that you've met with him before you even get to your seat and the preaching starts, because he's here. He's here because somebody else shook your hand and said, hey, welcome. He's here. You better meet with him. He'll give you, you didn't want to shake anybody's hand. You didn't even want to smile, but Jesus took over and all of a sudden you smiled. Isn't that how that works? I know it is. Listen, so we're going to talk about your mind for just a minute here. You ever let your mind wander when you travel? We take a little trip. I have an illustration about a tunnel. I've used it before. A few of you have heard it here, but, but listen, the idea of going through a tunnel, And one of my favorite tunnels is Eisenhower. Now, there are a few other tunnels. There's one that goes under the ocean and comes back out. That's kind of a cool tunnel. I like it. I just wish they'd make it glass so you could see things. You know, I'm just telling you, that'd be the coolest thing is to do that. It's like, whoa, what's the size of that shark? He's coming straight at me. Drive. OK. But anyway, the idea is that when you enter that tunnel, it's to come out the other side. That's the idea, all right? That's why they dug them at one side to be able to have a hole on the other side so they wouldn't have to go up and then back down. I like tunnels. I grew up with honking horns in tunnels, going under railroad tracks that were a long bridge and you just honk you and all kinds of things like that. It's just a lot of fun. But here's what I want to ask you. When you all came in here tonight, who here had no faith? All right, nobody wants to answer that. That's cool. Who here took your chair before you sat in it and inspected the four legs in the back to make sure it was still in place to hold you when you sat down? How many of you here just plopped? Yep, because preachers fall if they fall, right? So we trust you to have good chairs in here. But that's not what we did. We don't do that. Well, I don't think about my truck. I put my key in it, turn the key, it should start. I don't even think about it. It's not even a thought process. I just do it. Going through a tunnel is the same way. I expect that the people did their job right, and I'm going to go from this end to that end. I don't focus on the walls and sweat bullets as I'm going down there, and I see water trickling down the walls from the mountain because of a leak somewhere or a crack or whatever. I'm not thinking about those things. I'm not thinking about that boulder that's laying there on the fast lane as I'm going through that. Where'd that come from? I'm not thinking about those things, you know? And all of a sudden, I can see daylight. Isn't that awesome? Let's turn that tunnel into a situation that came up in your life, and it got a little dark up front. But you know that if you can get through that, there'll be a light at the end of the tunnel. There's gonna be a light at the end of that situation or that circumstance that's in your life. That you know that if you just hang on to Jesus just a little bit longer, that faith that you have, he's gonna take you through there. And you're going to end up on the other side and you're going to... Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It just depends, but listen. And so, I don't think about going through the tunnel. Man, I hope that car is paying attention. Is he going to hit the wall or not? I watch too many movies. I don't think he's going to do that. I'm sorry, okay, but I do. All right. I used to a long time ago. I don't do it as much anymore, but moving on. All right. But most of the time, we never think about that. People have driven through those tunnels thousands of times, and we never think anything about it. We just do it. That's called faith. You sat in your chair without even looking at it. It's called faith. It's faith. We have faith every day. I think our passage teaches you and I about faith. Not faith in tunnels, but faith in a person. And that person being the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I want to see what we can learn about walking a life of faith in Jesus. So, imagine with me, if you will, the Bible doesn't give us any insight into this, but you know that just because it says it, there are some things that needed to happen between there. He had to get from Jesus back home 12 miles. His son was desperately ill, unto death. He needed Jesus to heal him, get him better because that was, that's his heart. His child. I know it's Mother's Day, but put yourself in the same situation. That's your heart. That's your, you gave life. That's your life. That's a piece of you. And you wouldn't do anything to make sure, I mean, you would cross all barriers if you could physically, willfully do so to make sure that that child got better. And you expended yourself in so many different ways. And now Jesus is on the scene. And you prayed. And Jesus says, yeah, I will. Not on your time, but I will. The hardest thing for you and I as a child of God understanding God's will for our lives or in our lives, but accepting what He says it is. Because sometimes it's not what we picture. Sometimes it's not what we expect to hear from God. I like to think I have a good walk with the Lord. I like to think that we can talk about things, you know. And a lot of times I'll be walking in a store or outside around the outside mall down in Branson or whatever and something will happen in front of me and I'll go, Lord, did you just see what I saw? Well, of course He did. Who talks like that? Well, I do because I want to have a conversation, you know, and I'm by myself sometimes. And it makes it sound better that I'm not talking to myself, I'm talking to God. I'm just doing it out loud. And I'll probably be in a white coat one day, but that's okay. I can handle that. But what do you think the man thought about on his way home? He had a heart for his child. And he went all the way to see Jesus and he said, go home your son liveth. And the man took it by faith and he went home. Now, I can tell you exercising faith can be physically draining a lot of times because emotions come in play. I mean, he couldn't just jump in his car and grab a plane home. He either walked or rode a donkey. And he had all that time to think about what was going on at home. How was his son? How was his son? When did the healing take place? And all those things that are in his head, and the walking home, and 12 miles, it was going to be alone, and he was going to be maybe at nighttime, and maybe there was a wild animal. Maybe he would never make it home. But he went by faith that Jesus said, Thy son liveth. And he went home. But we're human, we're fleshly people. We're gonna leave. The doctor's gonna come out and he says, you can go home now and rest. We've got it. And you're driving home with your child in the hospital. It's a hard thing. Separation. Your heart, your emotions, your thoughts. And then you think of Jesus, oh Lord. I will lift my eyes upon the hills from whence cometh my help. help cometh from the Lord." When you get to that valley or that dark place where you don't think you can see any daylight why don't you pick your eyes up off the ground where the daylight is not and look up where the Son, Jesus, shineth. My help cometh from the Lord. When we get to that place, when we get to that tunnel of life, that situation and things that we don't know if the tunnel's gonna turn or what or where the light's gonna show up, but we know that Jesus said that I am the light of the world, that there will be a light, I've just gotta walk with him through this. A lot of times he carries me over things. I never knew we're down there to be in my way. But sometimes we've gotta go through some stuff. And like the disciples, we may even in the midst of a storm have to call out to Jesus and say, Lord, increase my faith. I've got faith. I've got faith. But it feels just a little bit weak right now. We can go to Jesus and ask Him to increase it. And He'll encourage us. And He'll strengthen us through His Word. A lot of times people even at cemeteries and at funerals they'll go to Psalm 23. But can I tell you, you don't need to wait until you're being buried to go to Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I, I shall not want. Why don't we just take that out of there and just say the Lord is, comma, I shall not want. I was doing bulletins on the outside sign at church one time when I was a youth pastor. And I got up there and I said, God is, that's all I put on there. We had people stop daily. God is what? what? These people have never come into church before. But they read that sign every day. What are you saying God is? Well, I really intentionally did, or not I'm going to say intended, but I had no idea that I was going to be able to share the Gospel every day, almost every hour that I was there. People were coming in on bicycles, God is. Several people were like, hey, that is cool, we like that. Some people thought then that's the truth. God is. God is. I shall not want. I'm not lacking comfort because God's my comfort. I'm not lacking peace because God's my peace. I'm not lacking joy because God is my joy. I'm not lacking to be cured because God is my great physician. All of us have problems. I would say that would be 100%. We all have a problem. Some of y'all have one extra, me. That's OK. We work with that. Some of us have family members who are in desperate situations. We have some relatives that may be under economic, financial issues, that may be health issues, just may be emotional type things. They may have the biggest issue of all. They're lost and without Jesus. But we got somebody in our lives that are in a desperate situation. Some may be physically sick. Some may be going astray in their lives. And we may have the problem ourselves, but we don't really want to share that burden. I know Jesus. He can handle it. I don't need to give that burden to anybody else. But I think the Bible helps us understand that I should be glad to help take that burden from someone and help you go to the Lord with it and pray and weep with you and listen with you. And listen, we're going to have a walk someday in our lives. We'll have a walk like the nobleman had. And he'll walk through darkness and he'll just have his mindset on what Jesus said and what could be. So life is not easy. Faith doesn't guarantee life will be an easy go. I mean, if you ever thought it was that you're living that easy life, I don't think you've got the faith that I have. I'm just saying you may not know the same Jesus. But this world has another type of faith they want you to believe in. And it's a faith that has a hole in the bottom of their bucket. It don't hold nothing. I wish I could always see around the corners when I take a walk. I'd know what's coming. Kind of like taking that step with God. He just says, you just take a step by faith. I've ordered the paths for you. And I'm just supposed to walk by faith one step at a time and stay in the light. Well, I wish I could see sometimes three, four steps down. just so I can kind of understand what's coming up so I can prepare. You should already be prepared. You're supposed to be in this daily. You're supposed to be praying daily. You should be in your church every time the doors are open. That's your preparation for what's coming. God has been trying to prepare you every day, every week for what's about to come. And there's nothing that should, man, oh, I got a hard time coming, but man, I should be glad that, you know, the preacher just preached on this. You know, there's a reason why he preaches what he preaches is to help us get to what's coming ahead. Life drags on and everything seems to go against us. What keeps you going? What keeps you going when when it just seems the weight of the world? I want to make sure I say that right. When the weight of a world just seems to hit, what keeps you going? Well, if you're saved there's Heaven. There's nothing better to think about when the weight hits you is a place called Heaven. And the glory there is because one day you'll be there. And you won't take, listen, listen, and you won't take that weight with you. That weight's not allowed in heaven. That shadow's not allowed in heaven. And there's no sadness, and there's no discomfort. Nah, there's no need for these. Y'all should respect me. I paid good money to see ya. All right, now listen. What's going to give us that light When you get told you walk into work and you've been the most faithful worker that job has ever had, you've never complained, you've been on time, you've done extra work, but they've decided that you're too much for what they need and they're gonna let you go. No warning, no notice. Sayonara. Man, that's a dark cloud. Especially today. What you gonna do? Lord, I know it's yours, and I'm yours. It took me by surprise, but it did not take you by surprise. You see, the walk of faith calls for you and I to believe that Jesus is who he says he is. You have to believe that who Jesus says he is, he is. There is no question about that. The Pharisees have tried to trap him and circle him on that back and forth throughout his entire ministry life. But he is exactly who he said he was, he is. And it happened. And he'll do the same thing for you if you'll just learn to put that first step, take that first step. So who did Jesus say he was? Well, we can go all over the Bible to tell you who Jesus personally said he was he was said he was the bread of life He said he was the Son of God. He said he's the Good Shepherd. He said he is the door He is the way he is the truth. He is the life. He is the light We can go on You know that If I want Jesus the door, I get him as the way, the truth, and the life, and the shepherd, and the bread. And I get all of that with him. You see, when you get Jesus, you get more than what you're thinking you're going to get. I want abundant life. Yeah, well, you're also going to get blessings, peace. Can I tell you there's really no recipe for peace outside Jesus? People pray, what are you praying for? Or if I can say the word, they like to toast. What are you toasting? I'm toasting and praying for world peace. The Bible says you can't have that type of peace until you have his grace. And if you gotta have world peace, you gotta have all the world in grace. And as long as the devil's running foot, it ain't never gonna happen. He's already got his foot in some homes around here. They're shattered. He's already got his foot in some young people around here. I say some, probably more than that, but yeah. Lives are shattered. Young people shacking up more than they ever have before. people are running from the Lord, they don't even know it, and they're running from the Lord, and they need Him more than anything, but they won't accept it. They reject it because they think CBD will help them out. They think that a bottle of beer will help them out. They think that some type of drug is going to help them out. They think that their friends know better than anybody else because they live their life. I'm too old to understand their life. Well, I'm sorry. I've been 23 once. You've not been 59. I think I've got something on you. here. We have promises. We have promises because the walk of faith calls for you and I to believe that Jesus will do what He said He will do. And the promises go like this, Jesus said that all who trust in Him will have eternal life. All who come to Him will not be cast out. He said, oh, I like this even from today, His truth will set us free. What is the opposite of truth? Lies. You have the devil, the liar, and Jesus, the truth. You can't have them both. If you say that you have trusted in Jesus and you have given your heart to Him, if you have given any one place of rent to the devil, you have pushed Jesus out. But I only gave Him like this much. No, He can't have that much. They can't exist together. You pushed Him out. So you're either gonna choose to live in the world by fear, not faith, or you're gonna choose to live with Jesus by faith, get through your tunnel, your situation, get back to who you've been praying for, and find the promises of God. He said He'll freely give to those who ask and seek and knock. He said for the tired and weary to come to Him and He will give them rest. Walking in faith calls for you and I to believe that Jesus will do what He says He will do. We can face anything. I promise you, you can. You can. You can face anything in life with Jesus by your side. I've said it before, I think I've said it once here, is I don't understand how anybody goes through life and not know Jesus. I don't know how they get to the next day. I don't know how they can exist the way they do and keep going without knowing the Lord. Oh, my friend, people need more than anything Jesus today. The doctors may say one thing, but Jesus says, believe in me and live. The world may say that all truth is relative, but Jesus said he is truth and it is freedom. We may not know where to turn, but Jesus says, all you got to do is just knock. I'm right there. Call my name. I'm available. Any time we have someone above all the powers of the world waiting to hear from us, when's the last time that we have personally had a talk with God about the tunnel of the situation or the area of life that we're going through right now? Moms and dads, your children need you to walk with Jesus. Your children need you to have an establishment that they can see that you go to Jesus, not only when you're on the mountain, but when you're down in the valley trying to figure out where the next meal's coming from, when the next paycheck coming from, that everything seems to be uncertain in the world, and you're not wrong there, but man, I'm telling you, Jesus has got it all together. Husband and wives, you need the same thing. You gotta be able to connect together with Jesus. You can't be running in opposite directions and not knowing. You can't have one having this darkness in their life while you're just having all the light. You've got to share that light with the other to say, hey, it's okay. The Lord has this. We're just gonna take the next step by faith. I've been talking with the preacher. We're going to take the next step by faith. Well, my life isn't any of the preacher's business. Okay, you can continue to think that. Jesus, Jesus has never broken a promise, my friend. He's a, not to give any credit to the movement that was 10, 20 years ago, but Jesus is a promise keeper. He is a promise keeper. You want to model yourself after somebody that is the truth and has a ground, a foundation that can be stood on? Please, why don't you pick up Jesus and model after Him for a little bit. We can make it through life, my friend, because Jesus has already walked tomorrow for us. believe that? Tomorrow is Monday. Jesus has already checked it off. He's already walked it. Oh, He's already done that. I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring for anybody. But He has already walked there. And that light at the tunnel is Him. And you're going to go through Sunday night to Monday morning and He's going to be there to greet you. And He says, I've already taken care of today. Just follow Me. Who else can do that? Who else can come to you and say, I have already put peace in motion for today. You just follow me. Man, I'm sure glad Jesus tells me that. Does he tell you that? All you gotta do is follow him. Husband, wives, couples, all you gotta do is just follow him. He's already taking care of the day. Families, he's already taking care of tomorrow for you. Just trust him and go. And that's what this nobleman did. He just trusted Jesus. And he went, and he met his household on their way back. And they said, hey, your son liveth. And he said, tell me what time was this notice? And they told him, and it was the exact time that Jesus said, thy son liveth. And the man knew right away, that's a man I can trust. That's a man I will put my life in. Can you imagine that? My family, my family's gonna get saved now. And the Bible says in verse 53, and himself believed in his whole house. How did his whole house know about what Jesus did? The man had a testimony. The man had a testimony. My friend, if you're saved today, God has given you not only a song in your heart, but he's given you a testimony to go share to somebody else so they can know Jesus. The walk of faith requires you and I to take the first step. I'm done. Listen to this. All the noblemen had to do was talk to Jesus. Jesus said, go thy way. Thy son liveth and amends. Never looked back. Went straight to the house. He didn't have any reason to look back to Jesus. He took Him at His word. He didn't have any reason to go back to Him and say, oh, what about, what do you mean by, and he didn't have any of that. He just took Him, you know how much time gets wasted when you and I talk back to God? You know, aren't you glad that there's some people in the Bible that did not discuss the situation with God after he told them? Because, hmm, how many people died when Jonah ran before he went back to Nineveh? And had he been there when God told him to? The Ethiopian Enoch. Had Philip not left when the Spirit told him to? He would have missed the eunuch. Had he questioned one thing, I think, I think he would have missed that. Had he sat there and just talked to God about why he, what's in the desert for me? Why should I get up and go? I mean, like, what's there? I have a person for you to meet. You're going to change their life forever. That's why we get up and go. The walk of faith just requires to take the first step. We just need to take a step, putting the first foot out in the thin air and trust in God. For you and I, as children of God, as Christians, this means that we need to take a step toward Him and let Him carry us through the tunnel. Let Him carry us through our situation. Let Him carry us through whatever circumstance we might be going through. For non-Christians, that means the unsaved, the lost. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, listen, that first step is taking a leap into the arms of Jesus and receiving Him as Savior. I don't know where we are tonight in our walk with the Lord, but you have one You you have everybody here has a walk with the Lord But I'll tell you it can always be better We can always better our walk. I Want to be found in heaven that I was running for Jesus and toward Jesus in my walk Are you looking for him? Are you looking for him? Are you walking towards Him? Do you have enough faith to think that one day Jesus will come again? Are you looking at the end of this world tunnel and saying, there's my light, it's Jesus, and I'm just going to walk this way, come what may, Jesus is my Savior? You're going to walk that way? That's where your peace will be found, walking toward Jesus, step by step. Father, we do thank you for today. tonight, really, and thank you for those that have come. God, we want to honor you tonight, Lord, not only through your word and message, Father, also that we might have opportunity to respond in our hearts, Lord, that whatever you have given us to pray about, whatever person or situation that we might be with as a burden that we might share with you, Father in Heaven, that you might take that and ease our load. we look forward to what we can do in our walk with you, to the next person we can share testimony with, to how we can be more of a light in this dark world. Help us, Father in Heaven, to have a faithful step as we turn towards you. And I'll ask all of this in Jesus' precious and His wonderful name. Amen. Pastor. I'm gonna play and the invitation is open. Do you have a need tonight? Would you go to Jesus? Right now, just go to Him. The invitation's open, people are praying. I don't know what your need is, but He has the answer. I wrote a couple things down, I was thinking about this, and what a great message tonight, what a great reminder tonight. You know, that man went home and he had a testimony with those that were around him at his household and they all came to Christ. You know, maybe we don't have an exciting word anymore because we're just not walking by faith. We've got everything we need. We got all the money we need. We got all the food we need. We got all of this and all of that. And listen, there's still areas of our life that we have got to follow God by faith that he has put out before us. And so often we just kind of back away from it. And then we wonder why we don't have a testimony. We don't have our exciting story, right? Maybe we don't have anything great to say about Jesus because we're not risking everything on him. This is what this man did. He risked everything, his life of a son. He risked it all on Jesus. And he walked away in total faith. No, he never saw the process. He never saw the process of healing. All he had was the word of God and he saw the end of it just as Jesus said. And that's what we have tonight. I don't know what you need tonight. I don't know what's ahead of you. I don't know what the Lord has put in front of you, an area that you need to walk by faith. Maybe it's something the spirit of God has been working in your life to become more like Christ and you've been hesitating and hesitating. I'll just step out and trust him, trust him tonight. Amen. Thank you, brother. Thank you for that reminder. And what a joy. Just keep looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Amen. Thank you for that. Let's sing a song to be dismissed. What do you say? Page number nine. God can do anything but fail. Amen. Amen. Find that in your book. Do you believe that? Are you sleeping already? I know the message is over. Come on, you should have had coffee. I had coffee and sugar today. I'm still awake. Remember, it comes back, you sing that first line, it comes back, and you sing that second line, and then we'll sing the chorus. Page nine, here we go. God can do anything, anything, anything. God can do anything but fail. He can save, He can keep, He can cleanse, and He will. God can do anything but fail. He's the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. God can do anything, anything, anything. God can do anything but fail. Now if you believe that, say amen. Amen. All right, amen. What a good service tonight and we had a good day today. Let me leave you with this. I was in Jackson, Mississippi this week, actually in Pearl, Mississippi, and I was driving down to get some paint. on the side road, and I passed this church sign, First Baptist Church there in Pearl, Mississippi, and I saw the little sign. You talk about it, you said just God is. Well, this is what this one said. I've got it right here. I can even show it to you later, right here. Having a weird mom builds character. That's all it says. Having a weird mom builds character. What a blessing that is. Amen. I'm like, what on earth? But hey, I've got a picture of it. And it's I'm sure it's true. But happy Mother's Day. If you're a weird mom, you're just building character. Amen. Thankful for that. All right. Let's be dismissed in a word of prayer tonight. And we'll we'll go on our way for the Bob Healy. Good to see you tonight, brother. Would you close us in prayer?