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[0:00] we have, we've all had different experiences in life where we have moments of desperation. I believe we can relate it to various seasons, different circumstances in life, obviously. They vary from severity.

[0:23] But often, out of these desperate situations, we go high and low to possibly find a solution to overcome our desperate situations that we face. My children, for instance, they come to me often with desperate situations of broken toys. You know, that little rubber ball that's broken in half. There's no way to fix this rubber ball, but they bring it to me because they truly believe that Daddy can fix anything. And so they bring that to me. When we're sick, even we often resort to the most extreme measures of, we become like FBI investigators on Google when we're sick.

[1:14] Like, we figure out all the symptoms, we figure out the remedies, we figure out the possibly, we, I think we tend to have a tendency of looking at the worst case scenario often with sickness.

[1:26] Like, oh my goodness, I have a runny nose, I'm gonna die. And we kind of are a little bit too dramatic at times. But we'll even go to great lengths of traveling to solve these desperate situations to receive the best care possible. And similarly, today we will see and meet, personally, a government official. And he was in quite a desperate situation, very desperate situation, as his son has been fatally ill in this passage. And upon hearing that Jesus is in town, maybe, maybe, just maybe, this might be a time for a miracle to happen. After all, he's exhausted all of his resources, being a local government official. You could imagine the care, the medical practice he had available to him. You could imagine the people and the resources he could have exhausted.

[2:28] He came to an absolute standstill, and then he heard Jesus was in town. What was this man looking for? What this man will find that is, that Jesus is far from just another solution on his list of possibilities of who can help his son. He's not just another hope.

[2:57] What this man will find is that Jesus is the greatest hope, and not just a miracle worker, but he is indeed the Messiah. And so my aim today in the passage is to persuade you through the text that Jesus is divinely unique. He is divinely unique, and authentic faith is grounded upon Christ's uniqueness, regardless of anything apart from his word. Okay?

[3:27] So let's go into the first section of passage. It's sort of like the calm before the storm. And I want to go back before, a couple verses before today's passage in 46. I want to look at verse 43.

[3:43] Hopefully it's up on the screen. It'll be 43 through 45. Perfect. And it says, after the two days he departed for Galilee, for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own town. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they had two gone to the feast. And this passage is actually interesting because it holds one of many contradictions that, assumed contradictions that atheists usually hold, with a knife at a Christian's throat saying the Bible is full of contradictions, and here's one of them. This is one of the contradictions. However, within the context of this passage, within the larger scope of where the gospel of John is headed to, you're going to realize that this is no contradiction. However, there will be a change in disposition. When we understand that their welcome, the basis of their welcome, and how their welcome was motivated in this passage is crucial. Because sadly, as the series progresses, we will see that these people who welcome him will also despise him, regardless of his signs and wonders. And just as Jesus spoke that a prophet would have no honor. This passage anticipates that. So within context, stripped away, cherry-picked out from everything else where it belongs, yeah, it looks like a contradiction, but it is indeed not. And this was not an honorary welcome, but it was rather dry. These people were marveling at what Jesus could do.

[5:28] What can you do for me? Type of welcome. I got this laundry list here, Jesus. It's a little bit long, but I know you could do it, right? This was a show-me-your-power welcome. None other than a welcome that we usually have when we enter some sort of magic show of expecting to be entertained. It was a dry welcome. It wasn't a substantive welcome for who he is. So John sets this scene up with various contrasts, as John does. He's a very contrasting sort of writer. And the rising action will soon begin, actually, in verse 47. But John sets up this narrative and introduces sort of what we're calling in section 2, counterfeit belief in section 2. Counterfeit belief. It says in verse 46, So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum, there was an official whose son was ill. This scene, as we observe, the developing rising action in this narrative brings in a somewhat familiar experience that we've all walked through in various seasons of life. You have what we see here, a concerned, desperate parent and an ill child.

[6:58] Once upon a time, there was a severely ill child. He was 10 years old. And he suffered from an unknown condition at 10 years old. With each misdiagnosis from the doctors, this young man was weighing in at 57 pounds at the age of 10 or 11. And this is a man that you know by the name of Pastor Brent.

[7:31] Illness can create the most desperate of situations. I could almost see it in my mother's face in the hospital with IVs all throughout my arms, looking for an answer. Mother looking at the doctors like, Do something! He's sick! There's got to be something that you can figure out.

[7:56] That's a desperate parent perspective. We can all kind of, various levels of severity, understand that. But I often, I even can see the perspective of a concerned parent myself, being a parent of four young children, all under the age of seven. It is quite the chaos at our house.

[8:19] It's good. And unfortunately, I experienced a very, very desperate situation as well that I read this passage and I'm like, man, I feel this desperate situation.

[8:30] It happened at a time when I misplaced our second son, Levi. I know, don't call child services yet. Hear me out. We were at a soccer game. My wife was packing stuff up.

[8:43] Micah just got done playing soccer. And my son had a way of just disappearing. If you weren't keeping track of him for five seconds, he'd be gone.

[8:54] And here I am, you know, packing up chairs, telling Micah to come back, stop playing with his friends. You know, we got to leave. And I look around and Levi's gone. Literally, we can laugh about it, but in that moment, when my wife found out that I misplaced our second child, she looked at me like, where's Levi?

[9:17] And I'm like, I don't know. And so she's like, we'll do something! Because I'm like, I'm going through all those things. You know how we respond as parents? And just even in like, in circumstances in life, we start going through like different scenarios.

[9:32] I'm like, he could, what if some kidnapper was watching this situation and found an opportune time and snatched him? What if he got ran over in the parking lot? What if he wandered? We're looking all over, literally for 15 minutes.

[9:44] And then we had no idea what to do. And we were about to call the police. And then, thank God, somebody returned him to the concession stand.

[9:55] He was wandering in the middle of a soccer field. And they saw us. They must have knew that we were the frantic parents in a desperate situation. We must have been really visualizing that because they're like, are you looking for your child?

[10:09] We must have been very transparent with how we were handling that situation. Yes, I love my children. Don't call social services.

[10:19] We've all had these experiences. I've heard a lot of different situations of the grocery store, okay? Don't throw that stone. So what I'm trying to do for you is to bring this situation in front row view.

[10:37] I want you to see this situation from a concerned parent standpoint. I want you to see this situation from a very ill, desperate child who is facing his death, okay?

[10:51] I want you to feel that in this narrative. I want you to experience God's word and feel the official's great concern of hopelessness in this passage. This nameless official, we don't know his name, was a government official.

[11:06] Higher up on the food chain, probably being employed by Herod and having many servants. And we can imagine that he exhausted all his avenues, resources. He jumped on the internet.

[11:18] He scoured WebMD for all the symptoms. He's given Google every sort of search, trying to figure out what to do with his sixth son.

[11:30] Sawed out every specialist being in his high position. And we see in verse 47 with me, look. It says, And so we can assume, based on this passage, that word was spreading.

[11:52] In verse 45, the man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee. Word is spreading very rapidly. And this drew the man with a desperate need to Jesus.

[12:07] Jesus was his absolute last hope at this point. He's exhausted everything. Think about this for a minute. Think about this situation from the official standpoint.

[12:19] with all the resources completely exhausted. Leaving a home of your sick child, knowing they're on the verge of death.

[12:35] You can imagine peeking through the doorway as this child is probably sweating with a fever. No hope whatsoever. Saying possibly, I love you for the last possible time.

[12:48] And you leave and go on this 17-mile journey from Capernaum to Galilee. Think about that situation. He was in a very desperate situation.

[13:01] He was on a mission to bring Jesus back to heal his son. This official brought this matter to Jesus.

[13:12] Literally, in this context, he was begging and urging Jesus in this passage. Come with me, he begs Jesus. Come with me. Hurry.

[13:22] Time is running out, Jesus. You are a miracle worker. I have heard all that you have done. You are my last hope.

[13:34] Do you feel the desperation in this passage that this official is experiencing with his ill son? Jesus, however, responds not so urgently, but offers actually a rebuke.

[13:50] In verse 48, Jesus said to him, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The words of Jesus caused literally, I could imagine it caused literally everyone who was around, who were raving about the signs and the wonders to come to a sure halt of his words.

[14:15] You could probably hear a pin drop in the silence which follows that rebuke. Because, it's interestingly, interestingly enough, he was rebuking, not this official, but the you in this is not singular, but it's plural.

[14:32] He's essentially saying, unless you all see signs and wonders, you all are not going to believe. Pin drop.

[14:47] Is this situation about a matter of life and death of a son now? Or a matter of this man's belief in not only what Jesus can do, but who Jesus is in the salvation he brings?

[15:02] Notice, Jesus actually did not grant this official's request at first. I'd imagine being in Jesus' shoes. He probably, I'd probably imagine, you know, Jesus is compassionate.

[15:15] He was often moved with compassion. Why would he rebuke this desperate man? You could probably see it on his face just like people could see it on my wife and I's face looking for our second son.

[15:27] Wouldn't he be moved with compassion because of that and not rebuke? I'd imagine that I would probably read in a text like, I don't know why Jesus just didn't go with him and just hold his hand and help him, maybe carry him along the way and say, it's going to be all right.

[15:42] I'd imagine most of us would have played this story a number of different ways, including Jesus leaving to give this man great and undivided attention to address his desperate situation.

[15:54] Jesus did not grant this man's request at first because he disregarded the spreading fame. Jesus was not concerned about his fame.

[16:06] He was not concerned in how awestruck people became of what he could do. But Jesus, being God, saw the heart. What drew this man to Jesus was indeed a physical need that his son was sick, which Jesus spun around as he does.

[16:28] It turns this into a spiritual, deep spiritual conversation. Within this concerned official was a heart that the Holy Spirit drew to come to Jesus for what seemed to, in his mind, was a physical need.

[16:44] Similar to that of the Samaritan woman. You understand what's going on in the text. The Samaritan woman was drawn to the well based on a physical need as well. And they had no idea, the Samaritan woman or this official, that this was a divine appointment.

[17:03] Whether Jesus rebuked this concerned father sternly or gently. Actually, commentators are split on that. One thing is for sure is that Jesus had to correct something.

[17:18] Regardless if it was stern or gentle, Jesus had to correct something in this official. So this man came to Jesus with faith. Yes, that Jesus was the last hope.

[17:31] However, this faith was not authentic, saving faith. It was sort of like the faith that you go to a doctor saying, I've read the reviews, I know that everyone else has said that you could do this, so I'm coming to you with faith.

[17:46] It wasn't saving faith. It's Miss Cleo faith, knowing that you can approach and get something in return. This man heard of Jesus being in town.

[17:57] Obviously, this official exhausted his resources, remember. He called his physician list, and now maybe a miracle worker will do the trick. He's the next check on the list.

[18:08] This is not a God-honoring disposition. John's gospel actually refutes this type of faith. One commentator said, faith based on signs and wonders must not be mistaken for true faith.

[18:27] However, which is why Jesus does not encourage it. It fails to honor God, since by it, it serves us rather than the other way around.

[18:40] We are left with the mistaken notion that we are in a position to dictate terms to God. Miraculous signs and miraculous answers to prayer, such as modeled here, may have a certain value as a starting point, making us aware of God's reality, but they remain sterile unless they lead on to a concern of the Christ to whom these miracles point to and whose glory they signify.

[19:13] Church miracles, apart from trusting in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, have no value whatsoever. This is dead faith. And we exist for Him. He does not exist for us.

[19:25] The Holy Spirit works according to His will within us, through us, according to His will, not according to our urging and our begging as this official was.

[19:37] And this hometown of Jesus was, His popularity grew because of what He could do rather than who He is. They were mistaken greatly at the whole purpose of Him being on this earth.

[19:54] And based upon John 2, 23 through 25, we know that Jesus doesn't respond. He doesn't commit to people on that sort of superficial level of faith.

[20:05] It's very shallow. Remember John 2, verse 24 through 25. It says, But Jesus, on His part, did not entrust Himself to them after they saw all that He had done, because He knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about Him, for He Himself knew what was in man.

[20:24] Jesus wasn't concerned about them marveling at His signs and wonders. And the problem of this type of faith is because Jesus is not just any miracle worker.

[20:37] That's the problem in this passage. He's not just the next check on the list for people to marvel at what He can do. But according to John in this passage, His miracles testify to who He is.

[20:50] John MacArthur actually comments on this passage that the response of the Galileans was fundamentally flawed because it disregarded the person of Christ and centered in the need for a constant display of miraculous signs.

[21:09] Such an attitude represents the deepest state of unbelief. belief. The saying, believing only what you can see with verified evidence is false faith.

[21:27] The basis of Jesus' rebuke is that it is better to believe without the seeing. This is not a matter of life and death of a son, but a matter of belief, also known as faith.

[21:40] And we see that this father was very persistent. In verse 49, the official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Still stuck in the physical dynamic of this conversation similar to the Samaritan woman.

[21:57] Following such a rebuke, the man's response is completely opposite to what I imagine we would respond. It's sort of calm. There's no exclamation point.

[22:09] There's no, are you kidding me? Do you not care about my son? Think about it. From a standpoint of a frantic mother looking at the doctors who can't figure out a diagnosis of their child, it's sort of like this would be a moment where most of us would probably be like, do something.

[22:26] I don't even know if my son's alive right now, Jesus. What are you doing? You're wasting time. Do something. Sadly, this official is still in unbelief.

[22:40] He's still in that superficial faith. What can you do for me? Trying to get Jesus to come with him back to his home as if Jesus is limited to time and space.

[22:52] And he was indeed blind. Being stuck in the physical realm of the conversation, the official reduced Jesus to restricted by his physical being to be a certain, to being in a certain location.

[23:05] possibly equating Jesus to the powers and the wonders of those sorcerers downtown in Capernaum that stand on the street and they do these same signs and wonders.

[23:19] But Jesus, man, he did something that nobody can do. He turned water into wine. Let's, okay, I won't go to them. I'm just going to go to Jesus first and then maybe if Jesus can't do it, I'll go to them. Okay?

[23:29] There was something wrong with his belief. It was counterfeit belief in section two. And as we enter into this final section of the passage in the verse 50, we see something completely shift in this narrative.

[23:42] The object of belief changes within the official's life as Jesus responds in this passage in the section three, which is authentic belief in verse 50.

[23:56] Jesus said to him, Go. Your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

[24:16] Look at what John is trying to say in this passage. Essentially, true belief developed by nothing outside of Jesus' word at this point.

[24:28] And he believed. This is the belief that Jesus was after. And this official, by the power of the Holy Spirit, began to see that Jesus is truly not just his last hope, but it is his only hope.

[24:46] Jesus is unique in the hope that he brings. He's not to be compared to anybody on this earth. The official, official's faith derived from solely the word that Jesus spoke and he had faith.

[25:06] This is similar to the Samaritan woman coming to faith. It was no longer at a certain point the testimony of this woman in Samaria that people believed. It's that they believed because they heard the word of Jesus in the passage.

[25:21] Remember that last week. Doesn't that define what faith is according to Hebrews 10, 17? Now faith is the assurance of things, hope for the convictions of things, not seen.

[25:35] Meaning faith is derived from the word of God. This official trusted in God's promise and his response to this promise, church, was the fact that he didn't continue to interrogate Jesus.

[25:50] He didn't take Jesus and say, okay, that's it. I'm going to have to use some physical force. Excuse me, Jesus, but you're going on my shoulder into my trunk. We're going back to Capernaum. I don't even know if my son's alive.

[26:02] Stop fooling around with this. Come on. He simply believed deeply. He believed authentically in Jesus' word.

[26:15] And he left. Simple as that. His response to that belief was, was action. It is easy to read this sort of disconnected and not have a sense of awestruckness in this scene.

[26:31] But just imagine what peace of mind had to come to this frantic official to just come this four-mile trek from Capernaum, have this intense conversation with Jesus, and all of a sudden be relieved to come to all his frantic, all his panic, all his fear, all his concern, and to just turn around and make his way back.

[26:59] To compel this man to just leave home after possibly saying I love you to his son the last time he turns, I could imagine with an abundance of peace.

[27:10] We don't know what the Holy Spirit does often in our own lives and when he draws us. We know that he does and those who experience that can testify. And we have a hard time I think reading text and interpreting tone.

[27:26] I'm horrible at it. I'm a bad texter. I'm still waiting for Apple to come out with a sarcastic font just to make people not offended at some things that I've mentioned in text.

[27:37] Or like vice versa where I'm like how? Are they mad at me? And just not understanding the context or tone. But wouldn't it have been fascinating to hear the words from Jesus coming straight from his mouth in this passage?

[27:53] Go, your son will live. Who turns this begging and panic stricken man into a man of great assurance. Church, this is true faith.

[28:07] Which has brought the peace of God and those who have experienced it can testify. the working of the Holy Spirit. And this is the gospel.

[28:18] When you encounter God rescuing you as a sinner there's nothing like it. You know deeply when you have come to the end of yourself where everything that you've been trying to replace with Jesus Christ within your life has fallen short and you have come to the end of yourself and you're saying God, here I am.

[28:40] You replace your idolatry for submission to him. To giving your sin to him. Words just can't explain that type of transaction.

[28:54] And on the road back we get a sense of a time frame in this passage and fulfillment of Jesus' words. Because we see in verse 51 somewhere along this journey back home after he turned and went back to his home.

[29:11] This was, keep in mind, a 17-mile journey. Probably took about four hours walking from Capernaum to Galilee. And this man was met by his servants who brought such a great message back to him about the improvement of his ill son.

[29:30] What great news. And notice the time frame here. This is important as a response to his belief. Notice the time frame.

[29:41] This man made the frantic journey in just four hours to Jesus. And look in this passage. We don't know exactly the time that, we don't know exactly what he was doing in this passage on his way back.

[29:57] We know that he left and his servants met him on the same road that he traveled to Jesus the day after. There had to have been something stirring within this man to not make maybe a running journey back to verify that what Jesus said was true.

[30:17] He believed in the word of Jesus. He didn't need verification of that. What faith this man had.

[30:28] What an incredible discovery from his servants as he was moseying along home the day after. And when he got back home it says that he himself believed and all his households.

[30:43] Word spread similar to that in Samaria with the Samaritan woman. This brought not only faith in the official but testimony about the faith of his entire household.

[30:58] And this official enjoyed the tremendous benefit that he had received from Jesus. Though he did not need it. In that act of mercy and compassion the man came to understand who Jesus was.

[31:19] He knew who Jesus was at that point and he believed in him without a verification of signs. Meaning we often come to Jesus with false motives, often in our desperation at various times in life.

[31:32] So fixated upon what is seen in our natural realm of what we're facing, different trials and situations, that our dispositions reveal a feeble faith towards a holy, sovereign, completely in control God.

[31:51] In this we ought to allow to be corrected by his word and repent of this unbelief. The gospel message we find in the book of John points beyond just mere trust in Jesus for a miracle.

[32:09] Points beyond that or anything else apart from his word you can replace I think in our culture very easily with what miracles, you can replace miracles with something else in this life that replaces, that kind of encourages us apart from God's word and who Jesus is.

[32:28] You remember the thesis statement, remember ten sermons ago when we opened up this series, we talked about the thesis statement. John reminds us the purpose of these miracles, which bring into context the passage today according to John himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

[32:45] It says in John 20 verse 30, the thesis statement of this entire book. He did these signs and wonders that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by that believing you may have life in his name.

[33:02] Verse 54 ends, this miracle was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. And then chapter 5 picks up in another time.

[33:18] But isn't it interesting when we recognize these miraculous signs in comparison to one another? Because that's important too. John mentions them for a specific purpose, so we have to look at it.

[33:32] The water into wine and now this miracle. Because they have various similarities. They are sort of hands-off miracles. Jesus really doesn't have to do much in them.

[33:44] And both contain a certain level of rebuke to somebody who's serving their personal needs. And both were in Galilee. But maybe the most significant is the differences in these two miracles.

[34:02] Because one was a time of celebration, the water into wine was a wedding feast, seven-day party, it was a good party, and the other being a time of sickness and possible death.

[34:14] the first sign was Jesus about proclaiming through that miracle, saying that I am the creator and transformer of elements, water into wine.

[34:28] You can look at your periodic table of elements all you want. I'm not limited to that. I'm the creator of all things. And I transform substances. And then we also see in this that he is the transformer of biological illnesses.

[34:43] he can heal. He's saying, I am God of all creation in these two miracles. They pointed to who he was.

[34:54] Most of all, he is the Messiah. Far from the last hope on our list that we approach him, he is the only hope. Yes, Nicodemus in the night, he is your only hope.

[35:07] Trust in him. Yes, Samaritan woman who thinks she's thirsty for water, but you're thirsty for eternal life. Yes, he's your only hope. Yes, official, government official with feeble faith, he is your only hope.

[35:23] This is Jesus. If the source of your marvel rests upon miracles, let your marveling turn to absolute mourning. Instead, allow this text to correct us today.

[35:37] Rest our faith upon who Jesus is and the power of his word. apart from that, our faith should be expected to be futile. There is no one like our God, church.

[35:49] There is no one like our God. Charles Hodge comments, when faith is genuine, it is founded on correct apprehensions of the divine character and has a controlling influence over the heart and life and how true that is.

[36:07] faith. So, surveying this passage, standing back a little bit and seeing this whole thing unravel before us, we can see that authentic faith is not a blind leap in the dark.

[36:23] It is informed. It is not a ride on the crest of an emotional wave or spiritual high. Yeah, if you want that type of faith, it exists in like a New Ageism sort of cult, but it is not found in the Word of God.

[36:41] And it is a dead-end road according to, not my opinion, but John's inspired gospel. Authentic faith is, however, instead, informed belief about who Jesus is.

[36:53] The source of this belief is testified within the inspired Word of God, known as the Bible. And this never changes and brings about saving faith.

[37:04] This is called special revelation. This brings about the sinner to the saints. And now I just want to warn you, don't hear something that I'm not saying.

[37:15] Please don't take this narrative and my tone in this passage as I'm communicating as a complete disregard for miracles, though. Because we ought to pray for God to miraculously come through in this life.

[37:28] We should pray for miracles. Understanding that sometimes we see a miracle and sometimes faith in God revives as he deems fit.

[37:39] Those still yet eyes of faith, believing without seeing, can see God's hand at work regardless of the miraculous, regardless if God responds, regardless of if our son gets healed or not.

[37:55] I do believe that God works miraculously according to his word and will for the purposes he deems necessary in this life. I do. We ought to pray that way. We should pray fervently and big for God to do things that exceed man's natural law.

[38:14] Whatever Darwin has, throw it away. God can do anything. I have personally witnessed the miraculous outworking of God with my own two eyes, and I've also seen the same level of miraculous happening on the inside of people, within their hearts as the Holy Spirit is stirring and regenerating a sinner to the light of the gospel.

[38:40] Both are equal miraculous signs. The commentator says, beyond the miracles, we seek the Lord who works them. You don't seek the miracles.

[38:50] It is in obeying his commands and trusting his promises that true faith is expressed. Now we have ceased to dictate the terms of our relationship. We exist for him, not he for us.

[39:04] Now we believe. Likewise, our faith should not be contingent or dependent on what we see or experience in this life, lest we fall into idolatry and enter into a false gospel of works, of highs and lows, replacing his word with an idol, as is common in our day and age.

[39:25] church. As we close here, if there is any inspired application of this text, there is many different ways that this text can variously apply in our life.

[39:43] But I have three that I want us to focus on as we reflect on what this means for us today. The first thing that this should bring to us is comfort.

[39:55] The text today should bring us great comfort. Comfort knowing that God is merciful. And we ought to pray for God to intervene.

[40:08] We ought to pray that way. This text brings comfort because it speaks boldly about coming before Jesus in the midst of our desperate and sometimes false motives.

[40:20] Knowing that even if we are coming to him with a false disposition, he will correct us. And we should anticipate that at times. Coming to him with a need and him knowing what we truly need and desire.

[40:33] It should bring comfort that even if we have a tendency of getting our faith wrong at times as we do in our sanctification, Jesus still hears us.

[40:45] And we should have comfort in that. He still hears us. And he may take the little faith that we have and use it very mightily.

[40:56] It's the story of the Bible. The second sort of encouragement to us, I believe, is correction. Encouragement through correction. Everybody loves that good burn.

[41:10] Correction, because does your faith require anything outside of God's word that is revealed within the Bible? Are you that official coming to Jesus in a counterfeit faith or going from Jesus with an authentic faith?

[41:27] Which one are you? correction by do you find yourself needing something other than the power of his word to ignite your soul and passion for him?

[41:43] Correction, as in do you treat God as one of the many problem solvers in this life? This is probably a big one for us today in our culture, such as seeking out physicians or different medicines and that being on the forefront without even coming to God in prayer and saying, God, help me.

[42:06] Is he just one of the things on your list or is he your only hope? And have you been convicted of maybe feeble faith, thinking that God exists to serve us, that he's just standing by our door like a faithful butler waiting to beckon our call rather than us existing for God?

[42:28] And I think there's also different lines of correction because not everyone can be corrected in searching for signs and wonders. Sometimes we can often express feeble faith through superstitions in this life.

[42:44] Praying to God for it not to rain so you can finish the lawn. Like, really? That's your concern? Superstitions.

[42:55] You know, trusting in God, coming up to that light. I've kind of done this as a kid. But, you know, coming to this light and saying, if this light's green, then I'm going to, I know that you're telling me to do this or, you know, that.

[43:07] I'm not saying that God doesn't speak to things in this life. Often, sometimes on the radio will come a song that encourages my soul deeply that I need it to hear. And God sometimes works in that.

[43:18] But, does my faith require that song to come on? Does your faith require to move forward unless that light happens how you think it should happen? Does your faith require it to stop raining so that you can finish your lawn?

[43:33] Superstitions. I'm going to ask that we all, if anything, if any correction needs to be done in this church today, that we repent together and believe solely in His Word.

[43:44] Repent of this immaturity and rekindle true enduring faith in Him alone for who He is. And the last encouragement, I believe, in this passage is an encouragement of confidence.

[43:59] That God is not only the transformer of elements, water into wine, but He is also the transformer of our physical lives. God can easily, at any moment that He speaks a word, reverse the natural order of creation, to obey the sound of His voice.

[44:19] This is our God. And most of all, God can also transform our feeble faith into great faith that brings about great revival to those around, regardless of a display of signs and wonders or not.

[44:37] Regardless if the healing comes or not, we are not in charge. He is. And this should bring us joy. We just had a men's breakfast yesterday, and we read over 1 Peter chapter 1 together.

[44:50] And just so you know, we have a men's breakfast last Saturday of every month. And 1 Peter encouraged me. And actually, I told the guys that I'm probably going to have to use this.

[45:01] This is exactly what we're talking about tomorrow. It says in 1 Peter 1, 6-9, I want you to be encouraged in this, because true faith should bring us joy. 1 Peter 1, 6 says, In this you rejoice.

[45:16] In knowing all that God has promised previously, knowing that He has sanctified us and set us apart, verse 6 continues. In this you rejoice. Though for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

[45:43] Though you have seen Him, you love Him. Though you have not seen Him, sorry, in verse 8, though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible, filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul.

[46:11] Let me leave you with this. May our faith be grounded upon Christ's uniqueness and salvation that He secures for us. Jesus is not one of the many sons of God, not one of the many solutions that God brought to this earth.

[46:28] Jesus was God's one and only Son. He is unique in that. And let our faith be grounded upon the Word of Jesus that we find in His Word and exercise that faith in trusting Him regardless of what we are able to see and experience.

[46:49]  Let us be grounded upon the Word of God. Let's pray. Let's pray.