Walking on Water Bible Church

Pastor Mike Holloway: John took his problem to Jesus. He didn't get on the phone and say, "Man, Will was on that bass and I ain't gonna lie, he did one too many runs. I ain't trying to talk about him, you know I love him, but he did too many runs on that bass today." No, if you really loved William, you'd call William.

Oh, glory! I feel something in here. I'm going to shout by myself today. I feel that. Take your question to Jesus, not away from. Take your complaint to the Lord. Yes, it hurts, but I'll take it to the one that can heal my hurt. And even if the hurt doesn't get healed when I want it to get healed, I'm going to take it to the one who understands me and can comfort me while I'm hurting.

We take our problems to too many folks. Nothing wrong, again, I'm not saying that there are times you can come get some wise counsel. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about just going to talk. Sometimes folk just want to be heard, but then they don't want to hear the answer. They come and they tell you everything they face. "Listen, I'm hurting and I'm a little upset. He did too many runs, he hit too many cymbals, they played too many chords, and Sister Kim was off on a couple notes."

I've got to mess with Sister Kim. She wasn't, she sang beautifully today. Today, she sang beautifully. But instead of taking it to the Lord, we take it to other folks. That's not the right thing to do. Don't take your questions away from Christ. Go to the Lord. So John, he expected the Messiah, remember when he said the kingdom of heaven is at hand? He expected the Messiah to be ready to bring judgment. He was tired of Rome. He was tired of the enemy on his track. The Messiah is coming, and when He comes, oh my goodness, He's going to get things straight.

"His fan is in His hand," John said. He's going to uproot that which is wicked and bless that which is planted on a solid foundation. John expected the kingdom to look one way, but his reality was something different. God hadn't broken His promise. Listen, it is impossible for God to lie. He cannot break a promise. He cannot lie. He cannot let you down. He cannot miss the mark. He's a God that cannot fail. He's a big God and He's more powerful than any other person. He cannot fail. He didn't break His promise. You're going through something? God didn't break His promise.

He didn't break His promise. I've got other news for you because sometimes we forget this. Even though you're going through, God knows you're going through. And that's part of the struggle, though. Think about it, that's what John was struggling with. "I'm quite sure somebody told you I was in jail, Jesus. I'm your cousin, man. I'm sure you know my condition. You see how bad I'm hurt by this. You see how I'm struggling with this, and You haven't come to deliver me yet. Is He really the one?"

And that's how we sometimes treat God, because here's what happens in the midst of our discouragement. We start turning. We start questioning everything. I'm going to tell you, be careful when you allow your tests and trials and your struggles to cause you to have all kinds of thoughts. I need a break, I need to get away. Maybe I need to relocate. Maybe I need to leave the state. Those same problems are going to go with you to Arkansas, to Texas, to Atlanta. They're going to be there. Maybe I need to change churches. Nobody called me in this one.

Listen, the Satan is a master at getting in the minds of people and causing and trying to get them to turn away from the things of God. John was in that moment. God, don't hold God responsible for promises He never made. He never told you you weren't going to have problems. He never did. He never told you that there weren't going to be difficult days. He never told you that it was going to always be sunshine. Me and Deacon Marlin were up here yesterday in the rain picking up branches with an attitude. No, we didn't have an attitude.

God never told us that every day was going to be sunshine. So don't hold God responsible for promises that He never made. So notice what Jesus does. John sends these two disciples to Jesus. Go ask him, "Is he the one?" and Jesus doesn't say, "Yes, I'm the one." He never does. Jesus doesn't say, "Go tell John, yes, I'm the one." Jesus says, "I tell you what, watch me." Jesus is healing the sick, delivering and raising the dead, and healing the lame. His actions show who He is.

Don't look at God through the lenses of your circumstances. Look at Him through the totality of the goodness He's been in your life. Don't forget when He saved you in the first place, when you were on your way to hell. Don't forget how good He was the last time you were sick and you thought you were going to die and He brought you out of that. Don't forget the last time you thought your marriage was over and He restored your marriage. Don't forget the last time you were about to get into an accident and you called on the name of the Lord and He stepped in and kept you.

Don't forget that He's the same God and He doesn't change. We can be like Israel and we can soon forget. God sent ten plagues to Egypt just to show how strong He was, and as soon as they got to the river and saw the enemy behind them, they started complaining. That's how some of us can be sometimes. Don't be a complainer, be one that says for God I live and for God I die. God, I'm going to trust You when it's good, I'm going to trust You when it's bad, I'm going to trust You when everything goes my way, I'm going to trust You when everything goes haywire.

Why? Because You're a faithful God. Faithful even when my circumstance isn't faithful. I'm not going to view You through the lenses of my prison. I'm going to view You through the power of Your word. When you think of some of the most powerful men in scripture, the Bible says that these died in the faith. Great men of God, they died in the faith. And I know this is not how we write the story. We say we prayed, God did it, they lived happily ever after.

The Hebrew boys prayed that they wouldn't get thrown in the fire. And guess what happened? They got thrown in the fire. But guess who was in the fire with them? He didn't say you wouldn't go through trouble, but He said, "I promise I'll never leave you nor forsake you." You've got a reason to have faith because even if I'm hurting, God is with me. Even if I'm crying, God is with me. Even when things go wrong, God is with me. He won't leave me.

Jesus said, "Show them what I'm doing." Blinded eyes are open, deaf ears are unstopped, the lame leap. This was evident. John understood his Bible, and He was telling them to look at the works because the prophets had already told them what the Messiah would do. Isaiah 35: "Your God will come and He will save you. He will deliver you." Isaiah 29: "The deaf will hear and the blind will see." These are all Old Testament prophecies of what the coming Messiah would do. Isaiah 42: "The eyes of the blind shall be opened."

What are you saying? Show John what I'm doing. How many of you know if you're really saved, you don't have to try to convince nobody? Just live right. You don't have to try to prove nothing to anybody, just do what God has called you to do. Jesus' ministry itself fulfilled the prophecy concerning Himself that He would come and deliver people. He's still delivering people today. How many of you know you wouldn't be here if He wasn't good to you? You wouldn't be in the house of God if He wasn't delivering. He's a way-maker and He still is today.

So Jesus said, "Just go show John what you see." Isaiah 61: "The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor." Luke chapter 4, He announced the program. He announced what He came to do, and then guess what? He's demonstrating the program in Luke chapter number 7. He had just raised the widow's son. Remember last week we talked about the widow's son? There was a woman who had already lost her husband, and now she'd lost her only son, and God brought her son back.

Resurrection is the preview of the coming age. In other words, when you see Me raising the dead, this is showing that I'm the Messiah. Every resurrection miracle in the scriptures, and they're about three of them in the New Testament, declare that death's days are numbered. Aren't you all glad that death is temporary? Death has an expiration date because Christ gained the victory over death on the cross. Jesus demonstrated His power over death every time He raised somebody from the dead.

Miracles serve as kingdom evidence. Deliverance is kingdom evidence. You being here today is kingdom evidence. Somebody might be struggling in the room right now and you don't know whether you're going to keep having faith in God. Or maybe you're not even saved and you want to trust in God. I'm going to tell you, you being alive today is kingdom evidence that God is a good God, is a merciful God, is a loving God. Maybe you're like me, there are times in my life that I messed up, I tore up some stuff, but God sustained me and kept me and preserved me.

The fact that I'm standing here is kingdom evidence. There is no way I would let anybody come and tell me that there is no God. You can't tell me there is no God because that same God has worked in my life. He keeps me. He watches over me. He protects me. He's with me when I thought I couldn't make it. He gave me strength to make it. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You thought you couldn't make it, but God stepped in and He helped you all the way.

That's kingdom evidence. I'm kingdom evidence. You ought to look at yourself and say, "I'm kingdom evidence. I'm evidence that there is a God." You might not see Him physically, but you can see Him working in my life. Luke chapter 11, Christ declares that the kingdom of God has come upon you. Jesus isn't just merely displaying power. He promised the reign. His promise reign is breaking into the present age. His reign is real. His reign is true. John still in prison, though.

Healing everybody else, John's confined. What do you do? Here's the question for you, because every message ought to have some practical principles that you need to consider. What do you do when you know God can change your situation, but He doesn't? What do you do? Do you just get discouraged? Do you stop coming to church? Do you take it out on everybody else? How many of you know that there are times in this walk that you're going to feel all by yourself?

Notice what I said, you're going to feel all by yourself. But if you know Jesus, you are never all by yourself. He said, "I won't leave you." Sometimes it becomes hard, though, because it's like, "God, what else You want me to do? I'm trying to be as faithful as I can, but my circumstance still hasn't changed." So what do you do when you know God can change it, but He doesn't? So what pain has a tendency to do, hurt has a tendency to do, is distort your thinking.

I've been there, can I be honest? I figure when I confess my sins, usually you all leave me out there hanging, but I've been there where I start looking at everybody else. I'm going through, but I'm mad at you because you didn't call me. He didn't cause me to go through. Let's be clear here. If you know somebody going through, you should call and encourage them. But here's the point, my relationship with you or God isn't predicated on whether you call me or not.

My relationship with God is predicated on the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross. He was buried and on a third day He got up. And I'm going to be discouraged because you don't call me? Brother Hassan, that's my guy. We call, we talk about the Bible. He hasn't called me in a while. "What's up with him?" Now I'm mad, now I'm discouraged, now I don't want to come to church. Don't let the devil deceive you. Don't let the devil get in your mind like that. That's not God, that's the enemy that's trying to keep you away from the thing you need the most.

And you need the word of God. Whenever Satan tries to get you to keep from coming to get the word of God, you know that ain't the Spirit of God. "I'm tired, I just need a break away." No, what you need is the word of God. The Bahamas ain't going to help your spiritual situation. It might help relax you for a while, and I'm not opposed to the Bahamas, we're going in a few weeks or so, we're going somewhere. But I'm coming back to the house of God. Matter of fact, I'm taking God with me on the cruise ship.

I ain't going to be in the casino. I didn't hear nobody say amen that's going with us. But I'm taking the Lord with me because He's my savior. He's my comforter. He's there when nobody else is there. He picks me up like nobody else can. So don't let your pain cause you to look at things differently. Don't let pain become the lens by which you view everybody else and everything else in your life. See, what you should say is "I felt alone," but you were never alone.

This is why it's important to have a good sound church home. Because you've got somebody you can call. Some folk want you to call them and you don't even know what they're going through, and then they're mad at you for not calling. "Bro, call me. 313..." Hello! Most of you have my number anyway, but I don't know about who's watching online, so I'm going to hold that. Hebrew Israelites will be blowing me up. "I felt alone" simply describes your experience. "Nobody cares" is judging people's hearts, and you don't know what's in people's heart.

You can say "I felt that way," and that's okay. You can feel that way. Now come get some help. Now let us encourage you. You might have felt alone. You might have felt like nobody cares. But let me tell you number one, God so loved the world. He cares. That He gave His only begotten Son that whoever will believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. So even if it were the case, it's not the case, but even if it were the case that nobody cares, God cares. Then you've got people that love God, that love the church of God, that love the house of God, that care about you.

Pain is real, John the Baptist. I don't know, maybe somebody's going through a John the Baptist prison situation right now. Yeah, listen, we're not discounting your pain. Pain is real. That hurt is real. But your pain is not infallible. In other words, your pain doesn't tell an unchanging truth. Your pain will lie to you. I remember I got hit by a car. The pain I felt told me I was going to die. Guess what? The pain lied to me because I'm still here.

Anybody ever been lied to by your pain? Told you you weren't going to make it, told you you were going to die, told you you might as well give up, but you're still here? You're still in the house of God, you're still pressing. It may not be easy, but I'm still pressing. Don't let your pain lie to you. It's real, yes, but it's not my authority. God's word is the authority. That's why I go by the scriptures, not my pain. Don't let your prison be your preacher. "I know He doesn't love me because here's..." and then you start going down the list of what you think people should do.

No, that's not the word of God is your preacher. David said, "Even when my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will lift me up." So the onus on your lifting up and your being delivered is not on people, it's on God. So stop putting your faith in folks and put your faith in an unchanging God. But Satan will talk to your mind. "I'm isolating everybody. I'm not going to answer the text messages. Pastor then text me ten times. I ain't responding. I feel something on that one. I ain't responding because I just need to be by myself."

Isolation is not the answer. Don't cut off the body. How many of you ever had a toothache and you just immediately snatched it out? "I'm going to take it away. This tooth needs some time by itself." Hello, you don't do that! Being cut off from the source is not what you need. You need the word of God. Faith says let God's word interpret your circumstances. So God's word has to be the final authority. Psalms 42, David cried out, "Why are you cast down, O my soul?"

So here's what we do in discouragement. This is how you handle discouragement. How many of you know you're going to experience some discouragement in your life? For real, though. You're going to have some hard times. You're going to experience discouragement. And I know sometimes we think our discouragement is different from everybody else's. I was talking to a good friend of mine, but he said, "Man, I know what you're saying, because everybody goes through, you're right, Pastor Mike." He said, "But man, but this that I'm going through..."

I said, "Bro, that's the same thing everybody else is going through." Do you know these sufferings are common to man? Your situation isn't unique to the human history. Your headache is not that different from my headache. The Psalmist said he talked to God: "Why are you cast down, O my soul?" Sometimes you've got to talk to yourself and you ain't crazy. "Why are you cast down, Mike?" Anybody ever talk to yourself like that? I do. Sometimes I say, "Man, what you doing? You know better than that. You know you serve a God that's able to do anything but fail. You know how He brought you out the last time."

"Mike, hope in God!" Somebody ought to talk to themselves and say, "Hope in God." Make sure God's word gets the final authority and not your feelings. John's pain could have caused him to lose out on his relationship with God, but guess what? John held on to Christ. Pain can tempt you to withdraw from fellowship, but when hurting, you need Christ, you need His word, and you need people.