July 26, 2026

Believe and Receive

John 20:20-31

Overcoming unbelief 

And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
Mark 11:22-23

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.  Hebrews 11:6

Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe           Hebrews 12:28

26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:26-29

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:01

I was just listening. There was a conference in Alabama, Pastor, that we had become familiar with, and we were listening to the conference last night. It was a live conference. And I was just encouraged in my spirit that we serve a true and living God who encourages us and strengthens us and renews us. So I just want to thank God for that human presence last night. And you know, we can experience God anywhere we are, right? And we don't have to be necessarily in the house of the Lord. It's good to meet and we want to meet and worship. I always tell people, I said, I like to go to, I like to go to my local church because there are other people that believe in what I believe in. And they're going through some similar things that we go through, and we can be encouraged and strengthened. And sometimes I'm on the side of being encouraged, and then I'm often on the other side I get to encourage someone. And so I hope today that as we open the Bible, that it's going to encourage you and strengthen you, and that you go away with the word that you can utilize for the days to come. Because I believe what God's going to speak through his word to us is relevant for each one of us. It is certainly for me. And I'm thankful for that. This morning we're going to be in John chapter number 20. It's a familiar passage to me. I've probably heard it preached many times in my life, but I'm not sure that I've ever preached from this passage of Scripture. But I can say that after today, I've done my utmost to preach for what God put on my heart. John chapter 20, we're going to begin at verse number 24. Give you just a moment. I'm going back up to verse 20. John chapter 20, we'll start at verse number 20. This is speaking of Jesus after after his resurrection, and it says, and he and when he had said so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. And then that the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus unto them, Again, peace unto you. As my father has sent me, even so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord, but he said unto them, Except I shall see his hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, Reach, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the Word of God. I thank you for the people that are gathered here today in this house, Lord. May you speak to our hearts. God, may the anointing of the Holy Spirit rest upon our lives, give us ears to hear what you would say to us, and a heart that is receptive, that may be fruitful and grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I ask you for help today for not only my life but for us all. We give you the praise in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. If I put a title to this sermon today, I would have it to be titled Believe and Receive. And then I put in parentheses overcoming unbelief. I think that what we deal with as believers is the opportunity many times to struggle in our faith. And the opposite of faith is not doubt, but the opposite of faith is unbelief. And it's really disregarding validated truth. Something that we have experienced that is true, and then to struggle with that is simply unbelief. I mean, Thomas is often called doubting Thomas in the Bible. Now that's not the only thing that we can bring back that Thomas is known for, but it's one of the main things that you will hear preach people preach about Thomas's struggle with believing. And I'm almost sure, I know in my life there are times that I have struggled in believing. I know there are times in my life that I struggle with doubt. They're not the same thing. But once we have experienced God in a miraculous way, once we've been born again, we as Christians should recognize any time that unbelief tries to overtake our mind, we need to overcome that unbelief. We need to have victory over that because that is detrimental to the life of a believer. In the Bible, we understand that unbelief means an active or a passive choice to distrust and reject God in this word. In the Greek, it means unfaithfulness or lack of trust, and it's not viewed as a weak mind, but as a condition of the heart. So unbelief is actually revealing what our heart is accepting and holding on to as being the ultimate truth. We don't believe. Thomas didn't believe that Jesus had been risen or rose from the dead. And so what we read in this text is that eight days before the encounter, Jesus has visited ten disciples who were gathered behind locked doors. And when he appeared in their midst, he speaks something that we all need today. He said, Peace be with you. They were troubled in heart, they were fearful, they didn't understand what the future may hold for them, because their Lord and Savior had been crucified, and now they're waiting upon their own lives to be threatened. And Jesus, when he comes, he says, Peace be to you, and he showed him, showed them his hands and his side. But what we read in the context is that Thomas was absent. And so eight days later, Jesus reveals himself to Thomas. But when they told Thomas, We've saw the Lord, he says, Unless I see his hands, unless I see the mark from the nails in his hand, and touch his side, he says, I will never believe. This is profound because he's walked with Jesus for three and a half years. He's seen Jesus do the miraculous. He has been part of the ministry of Jesus Christ and sharing the loaves and the fishes and feeding the multitudes. He has been experienced Jesus walking on the water. Jesus had told them that he would be crucified, but three days he would rise from the dead. But because of the trauma, because of what Thomas has saw and experienced, unbelief is now paramount in his life. And so he says, unless I see with my own eyes, I will never believe. Doubt is an honest struggle. We all have moments that we doubt. We may have a hesitation because we understand that this person's faith is so great that surely God can move in their life. But I could be struggling in my own faith, and I could let doubt persuade me that maybe God has allowed this in my life because of some displeasure I've brought to God. But doubt is an honest struggle, but unbelief is a settled posture. See, doubts, you can get over doubts. But if you allow unbelief in your heart and you allow that to settle into you, it will change your very nature, who you are, and your mindset is completely turned around in a way that God would never have us to walk as his children. And it turns away from believing God to believing a lie that is contrary to God. And one thing I want to bring forth today is to help us understand what unbelief does. First of all, unbelief limits, right? If you can't believe God, it will limit you in every area of your life. It limits us to what God wants to do in our life. Because unbelief rejects, remember what I said, it's a posture of our heart. It rejects and refuses to accept God's truth or his commands for our life. Even when there's evidence that God is a miracle-working God, unbelief will say yes, but. And so it's not just a doubt that we struggle with, it is a it is a complete turning our heart to believe that God is unable to do something or God is unable to raise Jesus from the dead. And what Thomas is dealing with is the effects of the crucifixion. They had saw people, the Roman soldiers had crucified before. This was not just a one-time occurrence. They had saw the ruthlessness of the Roman government to crucify the criminals in public. And they had seen from a distance that Jesus was taken. He was put through the trial and he was condemned to death. But now what we have are ten eyewitnesses trying to convince one who was not there that Jesus is resurrected. Have you ever tried to convince someone of a truth that they just chose not to believe? It's impossible. And Thomas fits this category. Thomas said, I will not believe unless I see it for myself. So unbelief, it limits us. Secondly, unbelief creates spiritual barrier barriers, right? As spiritual beings, we are born needing salvation. We are lost and undone without Jesus. But when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, the possibility to be born again is without hindrance. See, unbelief creates a barrier. Jesus taught us disciples in Mark chapter 11, verses 22 and 23. He said, if you can believe, nothing shall be impossible for those who believe. He's saying that if you believe God, believe in God, have faith in God, you can even speak to mountains and they will move. Now, I've never tried to do that. I've never went to the great smoky mountains and tried to move the mountains. Right? But there are mountains in our life that are that seem to be as immovable as Mount Vernon, right? Or the great smoky mountains or Mount Everest. They're just there. There's something we learn to live with, to deal with. But Jesus is saying, if you have faith in God, the way you speak to things will begin to change. If you have faith in God, you won't tell God about your mountain. You'll tell the mountain about your God. You'll begin to speak to things. And I know that God allows things in our life, correct? God is sovereign over our life. He allows things. But because he allows it does not mean that God is determined that that will always be in your life. We've got to find out, God, what is the purpose of this in my life? God, you allowed it, but God, is this a season that I'm going through? Is this something that you want to teach me through this, God, who you are? Do you want to reveal something to me? I'm not one of the people that they call the name it and claim it group, right? I don't believe that you can just name it and claim it. I don't believe that everything we say, that we can get God to hook his caboose, right, to our engine, and we just God goes where we go. I don't believe that. I believe that God has a purpose and a plan for our life, and God allows things into our life, but I also believe that prayer is effective and what we say about the things we go through matters. Amen. Thomas is a he's about to find himself in a place that no believer wants to be, struggling with the determinement, I'll never believe that God was able to do what you said he could do. If you tell me something that God did in your life, I don't want to be a naysayer or unbeliever. I want to be a worshiper. I want to thank God that he moved in your life. I want it to encourage me that if God did it for you, then he can do the same for me. If God loved you in such a way that he moved your mountain, then God loves me in a way that he can move my mountain. Is anyone listening this morning? Do you hear what I'm saying? God cares about you individually. He cares about us corporately. God cared enough that Jesus didn't say, Well, Thomas, have it your way. If you want to be unbelieving, just keep being an unbeliever. But the Bible tells us that eight days later, Jesus shows up when Thomas is in the room. I'm glad that we serve a God who doesn't give up on us. I'm glad that we serve a God who is not struggling with our unbelief, even if we struggle in unbelief, right? God is concerned. And unbelief will create spiritual barriers in our life. But I'm convinced that no barrier is impossible for God to get to us. See, in Hebrews 11, 6, the writer tells us, but without without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without faith, remember what I said? Doubt's not the opposite of faith. Unbelief is. So faith is simply believing God. Faith doesn't understand everything about the situation. Faith just holds on to we serve a God who is big enough, who is great enough, who is awesome enough to do whatever He says he can do. And he says, but we must exercise our faith. Do you understand today that one thing I see in the world is confusion? Anybody notice how many people are confused? They don't know what they believe. They change their thought pattern to believe something and then not believe it, but faith is to be a foundation that we have built our lives upon the word of God. You say, Well, I've never seen God. I don't know if God is who he says he is. See, you begin in faith. You cannot come to God without believing that he is God. Let's read on. It's verse number six, but without faith it's impossible to please him. Listen, for he that cometh to God must what? Believe. Believe what? That he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. In the simplest terms, faith is believing God. You can say faith is believing in God, but I'll take it further. Faith is not just believing in God, faith is believing God. Abraham believed God, right? Abraham, I mean, he's settled into life, he's acquired some things, he doesn't have a son, but he has servants, he has possessions, and we don't understand the reason that God singled out Abraham, but God spoke to him, he called him out to leave his homeland, to go to a place that he didn't know where he was going. And the Bible says in Romans that Abraham believed God. What did he believe? That God was leading him, and God was going to make him a great nation, and God was going to bless him. So faith is the same for us, it is believing God. I don't think that you are here today because you don't believe God. I I would not be here if I did not believe God, but I'm here as a seeker of God. But how many would say today, I don't understand everything about God, but I understand more today about God because He has revealed Himself to me as I've walked with Him. But when we find ourselves in unbelief, we must realize that God can remove the barriers. There's a story of a man that and his friend were walking down the street, and they both happen upon a, you've seen on on light poles and in buildings, people will paste uh a cell or a note and then put their address. Well, this one causes attention in bold letters. It said debt cancellation. So he stopped and they began to read. And in the note it said that if you had debt, any debt, you could bring it on a certain day to a certain address, and you could be relieved of all your debt. They talked about it, and the guy couldn't get it off his mind. And his friend said, there's no way that that's true. That's a scam. We live in a day of scams. That's no way. But he couldn't sleep. He just was stirred in his spirit. He thought, well, if I could get a clean start, if I could, if I could have all my debt forgiven and canceled, what a relief it would be. And so he gathered everything that he had, showing that he had debt that needed to be paid. And on that morning, at that time, at that address, he stood at the door. He and one other person. It wasn't his friend, it was a stranger. They looked at each other with their box full of debt. And he said, You're here because of the debt cancellation, aren't you? He said, I sure am. He said, I hope it's true. And this at a certain time the door opened, and an old gentleman, he says, Well, he said, I see there's only two men. He said, Would you like to come on in? And they they walked in the door and he said, Let me see your your papers. What do you have? And they laid everything out. And he said, I've I'm taking care of it all. And he he paid off all their debt. And when they left there, they couldn't believe what had happened in their lives. I mean, they were rejoicing because they're they're free of. All the burden of debt. And the man's friend, who was looking at the poster with him, called him that evening and he says, Hey, did you go to that man's house today? He said, I sure did. He says, Well, what happened? He said, He canceled all my debt. I'm completely free. He couldn't believe it. So he grabbed his box of debts and he ran to the house and he knocked on the door. And the gentleman opened the door and he looked at him and he said, Yes, sir. He said, I'm here to have my debts canceled. He says, It's no longer available.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

It was a certain time that you had to be here. And your unbelief was a barrier that has kept you from receiving the promise that I will pay your debt. Now, God tells us if we come to Him, all that come to Him, He will in no wise cast out.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

If you bring your burdens to the Lord, God can lift your burdens. But how many times do we believe that maybe He would do it for some, but not for me? But I'm here to tell you today that faith removes the barriers and opens the promises of God for our life. Unbelief limits what God wants to do, but faith accesses what God wants to do. I'm so glad that God stirring my heart to believe because I think sometimes our heart gets a little hard and crusty, right? We go through life and we think, well, I just got to deal with things. I'm here to encourage you today to believe again.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

Only the men who believe will show up.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

The kingdom of God must be believed in order to be received. God's not going to come in and to hold us at gunpoint. God's not going to come in and take us hostage. God simply says, if you believe, all things are possible to those who believe. The kingdom of God must be believed in order to receive. You say, Well, I'm struggling with some things in my life. I'm struggling with unbelief. I'm reminded of the man who had the son who needed a miracle, and Jesus' disciples couldn't help him. Remember that? And he came to Jesus and he said, I asked your disciples to help, and nothing's changed. They couldn't help him. And Jesus said, If you can believe, all things are possible. He said, Lord, I believe. Then what did he say? Help my unbelief. Do you realize it is possible to believe and struggle with unbelief at the same time? That's just simply a molehill. It's a barrier. See, what faith that you have in God, that's what you need to exercise. Don't focus on what you don't understand. Don't focus on what you're struggling with. Focus on the truth. Focus on what is true about God. Focus upon what God has done for you. Don't focus upon what you don't seem to have the power to access. Just believe. When Jesus came in, he said, Peace unto you. And the Bible says he breathed upon them. It said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. So this stood out to me because in believing we receive. Now Jesus breathed upon them, but he says this, receive the Holy Spirit. Is it possible for God to want to breathe on our lives, but yet we are hesitant to receive what God wants to do because we have a false belief about what will happen in our lives? Jesus said that our Heavenly Father would not give us a bad gift. It is virtually impossible for God to give you anything that would hurt you. He is a good father. He is a gracious father. So anytime that you have a tendency to think, well, maybe this will not be good in my life when it comes from God, we need to find a way to cancel that thought life out. Because God will never give us something that would destroy us. The Bible says that God gives us new life. And I thought when he breathed on his disciples, this is after the resurrection, this is resurrection life he's breathing in them. See, we are living in the day of grace. When God breathes upon us, it's the grace of God that's being breathed in our life. It's resurrection light, it's new light, it's spiritual light. And he tells us in the word, we're not left here as orphans. The Spirit gives us life. I'm sticking to my notes because I don't want to leave anything out today. I'm looking at my notes more than I'm looking at you. But this is all this that I have, and God wants you to know today that that thing that you may struggle with, and you've made it a barrier in your life because you couldn't get around that. All we have to do as Christians is to begin to believe again that with God nothing is impossible. I won't ask you to raise your hand, but I I could ask you to raise your hand and say, how many of you have have had suffered places in your life that you felt that you were stuck and you couldn't get out of that?

SPEAKER_02 28:10

And you may feel like you're still there today.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

But there are some of you that if I ask you that, and I ask you when you called upon God, did He help you? And you could say, I'll raise my hand to that. Because life is not just one moment, but it's many moments. Christianity is not just simply putting your faith in God, and then we get a golden ticket and we go to heaven, but we've got to live this life, right? We go to Walmart. In Walmart, we feel like we could lose our Christianity any second in Walmart some days, right? Especially when you got 50 people and one checker. But God has given us grace, and God has helped us, and God says that if we can believe, I'm I'm talking, I'm not focusing on unbelief today. I'm not going to make unbelief the greatest thing we have to overcome. Simply, what we have to do is to begin to exercise our faith and believe God, and it's impossible to believe God and keep a life of unbelief at the same time. I shared this with someone this week. I said, it's impossible to be thankful and complain at the same time. It's impossible to have a life full of gratitude and to be a complainer at the same time. The gratitude that the thanksgiving and the joy of that will overwhelm any negative part of complaining. You say, well, that doesn't mean all my problems are gone. No, it just simply means that it's in the right perspective. Hopelessness comes when we have no hope. But when you have hope in Jesus Christ and you believe in God, unbelief cannot stay there. And let me tell you this: Jesus will make it a point to show up again just so you'll believe. But he came back. And I'm here today to preach this message and say you may have struggled with unbelief. There may be barriers that have been in your life because of things you've had to go through. And you felt like that God could not move in your life, but God is coming back around today to remind you that with faith, all things are possible. If you can believe nothing is impossible with God, if you begin to start back at the beginning and just tell God, God, I need some grace and I need some help in my life, all of all of us will experience resurrection life once again. Jesus will breathe upon us. And the Spirit establishes us into all things that are accessible through Jesus Christ. Do you realize that God says He gives us everything we need to live a godly and overcoming life? Everything. Now that doesn't mean that we take that up, but it's available. Let me just say this as we come to a conclusion today. That when he gave us the Spirit, when Jesus breathed upon his disciples, they don't know anything that's ahead of them. They don't know what they'll have to suffer for the sake of the gospel. They don't know the rejection that they'll experience. They don't know the trouble that they'll go through. All they understand is the one who was crucified, the one who died three days ago is standing before them, and he's breathing on them, and he's saying to them, Receive the peace of God, receive the grace of God, receive the power of the Spirit, receive resurrection life. And when he did that, kingdom resources, strength, giftings, wisdom, overcoming and conquering power were made available not only to those men, but to all of us. And I simply came by here this morning to remind you and myself that we are people of faith. We're not people of fear and unbelief. I want to know a God who is mighty indeed, not only for my life, but for my family. Hebrews 12, 28 says, Therefore, let us what? Be thankful. For we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. See, if I don't believe God, then I can be shaken. If I don't believe God, everything I have in life is upside down and can get sideways really quick. But when I believe that I'm in Christ and Christ is in me, and that I and I'm part of a kingdom which God says in his word cannot be shaken, that means I can go through anything and nothing can take me out. You can be taken out, not spiritually, because Jesus said, He who believes in me shall never die.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

That means that there's an eternal life that he's already promised us, and I've got to believe that because that's the ultimate. Look around you.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

We were talking earlier about 1988. Seems like it was yesterday, but our bodies are saying you're wrong. These young people sitting here today that they'll know in 30 years what I'm talking about. They'd be like, things are changing. Things aren't the same. I remember the days when I were younger. I remember the the and there there's certain feelings. There's I want to say this to them, but but believe me, there'll be pains that that we get 30 years from now that's something we did today.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Right?

SPEAKER_01 35:05

A twist in your knee that you won't feel it for 30 years, but but it'll show up, right? But but don't be discouraged. Believe God that one day He says you're gonna have a new body. One day you're gonna have a new home. One day you're gonna have a permanent dwelling with God where He will be your God and you will be His people. And He says, I'll wipe every tear away from your eyes. But right now we we could get overwhelmed by life and we could stop believing and we say, God, it looks like it's never gonna happen, and that's gonna be a barrier for the joy and the peace. How many of you like to laugh? Raise your hand if you like to laugh. I I one of my favorite things to do is to laugh. One of the second favorite things for me to do is try to make my wife laugh. Because it's a blessing. Laughter is like medicine. I had a guy tell me one time, I was a young man, and they elected me to the church board. I was too young to really be an elder, but I have been in church my whole life, so they thought that counted for something, and they made me a part of the church board. And one day as I sat in the pastor's office, I must have had a scowling look on my face. And one of the men, older men, looked at me and he says, Don't be so serious about everything. I thought, well, this is serious business. And there are days when it is serious. But never let the way of life burden you into a place of not laughing and believing that the joy of the Lord is your strength. See, the kingdom of God's got to be believed in order to receive. And if you're a child of God, you ought to be joyful.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Right. So your challenge today for the next week is to work it into your heart that in God I'll never be shaken. And watch what happens.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

I believe what happens is your joy level is gonna begin to go up. You're gonna begin to feel the presence of God working over your life, the resurrection life, the breath of God, that you'll never be shaken. The unbelief has to go. Your life is a life of faith, and you are receiving the kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ. This faith is established, and then I want to I want to tell you how to keep this faith in Jesus Christ. Renew your mind daily. I want to ask you how many people watch the news four hours a day. I've been in homes where I mean it's just a constant cycle, the news, right? I'm convinced that we can watch the news once and in about a month you can pick it back up, and it's pretty much the same, right? It's kind of like some of those uh daytime story shows. You cannot watch it for a year and you come back, and the only thing's changing is relationships, and they're all the same people on there, but now somebody is seeing somebody that it just doesn't change much. The the plot is the same. But I'm here to tell us today, I'm here to speak to myself that the way that we live a life of overcoming belief in God is by renewing our minds daily through the word and worshiping God on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_02 39:03

Now, when we worship God, something happens. You know what happens, God shows up.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

How do you know that? I know I'm preaching everywhere this morning, just bear with me. Because he said he is seeking for worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth. So if you feel overwhelmed, you feel afraid, you feel like God's not here, God doesn't care, just stop and begin to worship God and watch what happens.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

He'll show up because he's looking for you.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

I believe he's looking for Thomas. Thomas, when's Thomas gonna be back there? When's Thomas gonna be? Father, when's Thomas gonna be with the other ten? I need to I need to meet him, I need to show him, I need to let him feel my side. I need he needs to see my hands. But he says this to Thomas. He says, Thomas, because you saw me, you believed. But what did he say?

SPEAKER_02 40:16

But blessed are those who haven't seen, but they believe. I've never seen Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

I mean, I've seen paintings, and what people would say, this you can see a painting say, This is a painting of Jesus. Well, it's not literally Jesus, it's a art. But I know Jesus is real because he met me when he came into my life. When I called upon him, he came into my heart. I haven't seen him yet with my eyes, but I believed. And when I believed, he became real to me. He came into my life. And I'm here to remind you today if you're a believer, he's real in your life. Yes, you'll have an opportunity to doubt. Believe you'll have an opportunity to be confused, you'll have an opportunity to doubt. But cast that aside, renew your mind, put faith in God, and you will see God. He'll show up every time that you worship him.

SPEAKER_02 41:20

One last thought as we close. Ephesians chapter 6. You need to put on the whole armor of God every day.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

And a part of that armor is called the helmet of salvation. That means our mind needs to be protected with a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand. How many would say, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ? Let me see your hands to everyone. So we're all believers and followers of Jesus. And he doesn't say take that helmet off, he says to put it on. Because our mind is constantly under assault. And I'm as I'm as sure as anything today that there are times in our life that the enemy wants us to not believe what the promises of God declare. And God is encouraging us today, believe again. Don't be unbelieving, but be believing. It's to worship and it's to renew your mind. And as you do those things, you'll find that the helmet of salvation is protecting you, and just get ready because you will go places with God that you would never go without believing.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

Thank you, Father.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Would you bow your heads with me this morning as we close?

SPEAKER_02 43:21

Father, I thank you for this word, and I thank you for every life, every person, every child of God in this room.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

And God, I understand, Lord, we have an adversary. And at times, God, we're our own enemy, Lord, when we allow our minds to go places that you would never want us to go. When we see things, Lord, that are so difficult for us to process, as Thomas saw, all the miracles and all the things that he experienced, God, the trauma overwhelmed him. But God, you did not leave him in that place. You came to him and you revealed yourself to him. And I'm asking you today, Father, that you would reveal yourself to us through Jesus Christ. That where we have had personal struggles with unbelief, where we've had trauma in our lives, where we've had difficulties, I ask you today that Lord, you would come suddenly and reveal yourself to us, and that you would breathe upon us afresh and anew today. And God, that you would encourage us not to unbel not to be unbelieving, but to be people of faith, that we please you. Because, God, we say that with you I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And God, as we close, Lord, I pray over personal, personal details of our life, God, that only you know. That only you know that we may be facing or that we will face, and I ask you, Lord, make your presence, Lord, tangible in those situations. Cause us to grow in grace, in knowledge of you. We ask it all in the mighty name of your son Jesus Christ. Amen and amen. Praise the Lord.