CHAPTER 3
ROLLING WITH JESUS
Psalm 37:5
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
and He will do it.
Combine together with the Lord your ways and your works.
Trust means to feel safe (and this is important) IN HIM.
He will do it means to bring it to pass, God will make it happen.
Simply put,
IF YOU
1. Roll with Jesus.
Include the Lord in where you go and what you do.
2. Know
(believe) that Jesus has everything under control.
3. Trust
(feel safe) that the Lord is causing things to happen.
4. Then Jesus guarantee’s that He will finish the work that He has begun in you.
5. Then Jesus guarantee’s that your thoughts, purpose and intentions will become and remain firm and stable.
I need to make a point here.
In every case you will find that it is always God who is and remains faithful. Us, well, we get up and keep running the race to win.
We need to take note of a simple but HUGE truth stated in Matthew 17:20
if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain
Lets read that verse again…
if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain
What we have here is simple cause and effect.
Most everything that God does or will do will depend on you.
That is, if you have faith.
Guess what? No matter what you think, you have faith.
Romans 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
The measure of faith that God gives you is determined not by God, but by the size of the container that faith will fit into.
EVERYONE starts with a small container.
EVERYONE starts with a small portion of faith.
BUT
If you have faith, you will say…
You will say means, you will agree.
To confess your sin means to agree with God that you are a sinner.
So the question is, how much do you agree with God?
Speaking out loud is how you confess.
Speaking out loud is how you agree with God.
If you have faith, you will say to this mountain…
Is your cup so small that you have to say, sprinkle it on God?
Or, are you a very thirsty 5 gallon jug that cries out,
POUR IT ON GOD, POUR IT ON!!
And since it was Jesus who brought up the subject of mountains, ask yourself what is your mountain?
What was a mountain to the apostles?
What was the mountain that they faced?
A mountain is an immovable object.
Understand that a mountain that moves without the presence of an earthquake is an impossibility.
But guess what, that earthquake that moves that mountain is your faith.
It’s your faith that shakes things up!
How do you shake things up with your faith?
How do you move a mountain with your faith?
YOU SAY IT!
YOU SPEAK IT!
YOU PROCLAIM IT!
YOU LET IT BE KNOWN!
Speak your faith in God to that impossibility that faces you.
James, the writer of the book named after him had a nickname,
He was called “old camel knees” because he spent so much time in prayer that he had the knees of a camel.
And here is what James has to say about faith.
James 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Trials, tribulation and testing are all faith builders.
They are the dumbbells of faith.
Grab a dumbbell and exercise your faith in Jesus TODAY!
Who wants to be double-minded and unstable anyway?
Double-minded is a mind that is doubtful and uncertain.
Unstable is a heart that is restless and inconsistent.
How do you know if your mind is not made up and you heart is unstable?
Are you restless? Consumed with worry and impatience?
Are you finding it difficult to live in harmony with God?
What is asking without faith?
It’s being uncertain of the outcome; it’s a faith that is not fully confident.
Read the following list of character traits.
Double-minded,
Doubtful,
Uncertain,
Unstable,
Restless,
Inconsistent.
Do you realize that these words describe the born again Christian who prays without faith?
For those of us who are like me and need someone to spell things out for them, let me put it this way…
Do you realize that those words describe you when you pray without faith?
Double-minded,
Doubtful,
Uncertain,
Unstable,
Restless,
Inconsistent.
Let’s take a short look at prayer in the Bible.
This first passage is possibly about the first gentile convert named Cornelius. Interesting enough his name means, “horn”, as in blowing a horn. Hard to pray quietly and without faith when your name means “horn”…
Acts 10:1 NOW there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort,
2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.
3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, Cornelius!
4 And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
We know that prayers and alms are acts of kindness and charity. A memorial is something intended to celebrate or honor the memory of someone or something.
Simply put, Cornelius did not just pray to God. Cornelius acted out his faith in God by performing acts of kindness and charity. Kindness is doing favors, charity is doing favors when you know that there is no pay back. It was Cornelius’s prayers and acts of kindness that celebrated and honored God.
This is what James meant when he said, “let me show you my faith by my works.”
Think Paul had an effective prayer life?
Here is a small insight into the way Paul prayed.
Philippians 1:3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,
Excuse me for interrupting, but did Paul say “offering prayer with joy”?
Ask yourself, do you pray only when you are desperate and needy or do you pray with joy?
Take a good look at what Paul says in verse 4 about how he prays…
4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,
always offering…
prayer with joy…
in my every prayer…
for you all…
Does every Christian you know cause you to always pray with joy
IN EVERY PRAYER YOU PRAY?
How did Paul do it?
How could Paul have joy when he prayed for everyone and remain sincere? Here’s how.
5 in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.
6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Paul was confident in his prayer life.
Confident of what?
That He who began a good work in you,
will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
What was Paul so confident of that it caused him to pray with joy?
Paul knows, that he knows, that he knows, that God isn’t through with any of you until the day you come face to face with Jesus.
What did Paul believe?
What did Paul know?
What was Paul confident of?
That there is always hope for every one of us!
Paul’s life truly demonstrates believing as if you have already received!
What caused Paul to pray this way?
Where did Paul get the strength?
Because of what was in his heart…
7 For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.
8 For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Excuse me a minute, I need to pray…
Father, forgive me for not loving those whom you love.
Father, forgive me for judging and condemning those whom Jesus suffered and died for.
Father, forgive me for wishing vengeance on my fellow fallen brothers and sisters.
Father, cause me to love others like Jesus loves me.
Father, give me a godly affection towards my fellow man.
Father, forgive me for I have sinned against you and worked against the forgiveness that You have freely offered to all.
I am sorry Father, please, forgive me.
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Paul even tells us specifically what he prayed for.
1. That your love may abound more and more
2. That your love may be founded in real knowledge.
3. That your love may overflow with discernment.
4. That you may recognize and up lift all that is excellent.
5. That you may be and remain sincere.
6. That you may be and remain blameless.
7. That you may be filled with the good fruit of righteousness.
8. That you may never disconnect from Jesus.
9. That your life may result in glory and praise to God.
When Paul prayed, what was on his mind?
That same thing that is on Gods mind,
You.
What motivated Paul to be this way?
1 Timothy 1:5
But the goal of our instruction is
love from a pure heart -your pure heart
and a good conscience -your guilt free mind
and a sincere faith. -your real motivation
Jesus said to the people who followed Him,
if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say…
So, I ask you my fellow follower of Jesus,
what do you say?
John 14:1 says,
Do not let your heart be troubled;
believe in God,
believe also in Me.
What Jesus was saying is look you guys are Jews, you believe in God. You know the stories of the Old Testament; you believe it to be your heritage, it is a part of who you are. You know about Abraham and faith and righteousness, now believe that I am the fulfillment of all of that. Believe that all of God is wrapped up in me.
Have you ever prayed in Jesus name?
If you have, what you were saying is that this prayer is said through and accomplished by Jesus, by His will, by His authority and by His power.
Trust God that Jesus is the cure for your troubled heart.
Trust God that Jesus is the Way,
Jesus is the Truth, and
Jesus is the Life.
Look at what a tiny bit of faith can do.
Look at the amount of faith that it takes to move a mountain and to accomplish the impossible.
According to Jesus doing the impossible takes a mustard seed sized faith.
A mustard seed weighs about 2 milligrams.
That is 0.000 070 548 of an ounce.
The usual dosage of aspirin is 200 milligrams, that one aspirin is 100 times bigger than a mustard seed!
Think about that for a moment.
The problem with faith is that the faith required to do the impossible is so small that you can barely see it!
Yes, you can quote me on that one. Thought it was rather nifty myself.
How important is properly placed faith and belief?
2 Corinthians 4:17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, (something yet unseen)
18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; (like our faith) for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen (like our faith) are eternal.
Does it help you to know that
faith is eternal
faith has no beginning
faith will never come to an end
faith is a gift from God?
Actually, it shouldn’t help at all.
If it did, you would already be praying with faith and you would already be moving the mountains in your life!
Possessing faith is not what is important.
Using the faith that you already possess is when the miracles take place, and prayer is the first step of using faith.
According to James, faith without works is dead.
But if you dare to place your faith in Jesus,
what you will find is a miracle in the works!
Faith may be found under a heavy stone,
but faith will always end up on the rock.
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