Do Not Be Afraid, Just Believe: Jairus and the Delay

Sermon outline

Faith needs something defined to rest on, so write your faith dream down, keep your confession while the delay and the laughter come, and get up and walk in it again.

1. Saved by grace through faith, and living the same way

   We were saved by grace through faith, not by works, and the same is true of paying bills, getting finances in order and receiving healing. The blessing of the Lord is not the things it brings, because people can take things away from you. With the blessing you can go anywhere and turn the place into the Garden of Eden. He cites a study in which only one percent of people had written their dreams down and revisited them, and says faith needs substance.

   Illustration: A survey of why some people succeed: most said they had no dreams, some had dreams but had never written them down, and only one percent had written them down with a timeframe and went back to them regularly.

   “Faith doesn't just happen within you.”

   • Ephesians 2:8-9

2. Pay attention, listen, keep it in your heart and understand it

   He works through Proverbs 4:20-26 in the Good News Translation. Paying attention and listening to the word are the first fundamentals of releasing faith, because the word is the bedrock where faith is activated. The promise is to anyone who understands, and in the marketplace too you are only promoted on what you understand. Your life is shaped by your thoughts, not your money or your job, so never speak against what you believe, look straight ahead, and plan carefully.

   Illustration: When his wife was expecting, they planned everything around the due date, bought the cot and the toiletries, and would not let anyone speak ill of the promise. A dressed-up date night with a full tank goes nowhere if the windscreen wipers fail in the rain, because the vision is blurred. New army recruits are first taught to make their bed, because that is where organisation starts.

   “God says your life is shaped by your thoughts.”

   • Proverbs 4:20-26
   • Romans 10:17
   • Isaiah 11:2

3. Jairus made the confession himself

   Jairus was a synagogue ruler, a man of position, yet he fell at Jesus' feet because he had heard what Jesus did, and that is how faith comes. Jesus did not make the confession for him; he made it himself. The woman with the issue of blood did the same, speaking to herself before she ever reached Him. You have to see yourself healed, out of debt, preaching the gospel, because if you do not see it you will never get it.

   “Remember, brothers and sisters, it's not you that do the work, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

   • Mark 5:21-34
   • Colossians 1:27

4. Stay on your confession through the delay

   While the woman is healed, Jairus has an urgent, dying child and is standing still in a crowd. Chaos is happening around him, yet his confession has not changed. Faith will put you in a place where you can be ridiculed when you say you are starting a business, a life group or going back to study at fifty, but it is still necessary to speak the word of God.

   “Chaos is happening around him, but his confession of faith, he's still staying on His word.”

   • Mark 5:29-30

5. Do not be afraid, just believe, even when they laugh

   The message comes that the child is dead and there is no point troubling the teacher. Jesus overhears it and tells Jairus not to be afraid but just believe. When He says the child is only asleep, the same people who were wailing laugh at Him, because they are looking at natural facts. People will laugh at your dreams too. Jesus put the faithless out of the room, and faith needs an environment where it can operate, even if that means distance from negative voices.

   Illustration: Talk of moving the church into a fifty million rand building is the kind of dream some people will laugh at, but God has been faithful over and over.

   “Because truth overrides facts.”

   • Mark 5:35-43

6. Define your desires, because faith must be specific

   The desire of the righteous shall be granted, and God wants you to define your desires, because without that faith has nothing to rest on. When people ask for prayer he asks what they want and how they would know when it came. If Jesus offered to pay all your debts tonight, would you know the exact amount?

   Illustration: At the Riverside Hotel he asked the waitress how much tip she wanted, and she kept saying anything. He told her life is a menu, and when she finally said two hundred rand he paid it on a bill of about one hundred and thirteen. He quotes Jim Rohn: don't wish it was easier, wish you were better.

   “Life is nothing but a menu. What you order is exactly what you get.”

   • Proverbs 10:24

7. Keys to reignite a faith dream

   He announces thirteen keys and gives five. Number one, invest time in clearly writing down your faith vision, to the last detail. Number two, permit dead or unexciting dreams to die, and let God give you a new one. Number three, do not depend on others to understand your dreams, but keep the few friends who believe with you. Number four, God puts the dream in your spirit, so commit your plans to Him and keep the vision in front of you. Number five, avoid intimate relationships with people who do not respect your faith dreams.

   Illustration: When they first applied for a home loan the bank said his credit score was too low because he had never borrowed. He sowed a seed with agreement, went back the following week, and the score came back so high the manager was shocked. Living back in his old room at his parents' house, he put the scriptures God gave him on the fridge, the laptop and the bathroom wall, and God gave them a hundred percent bond and two houses that year.

   “Life is too short, brothers and sisters, to live life by chance, but God wants us to live life by design.”

   • Deuteronomy 6:10-12
   • Isaiah 32:18
   • Psalm 23
   • Proverbs 16:3

8. Get up, pick up your mat and walk

   At the pool of Bethesda lay the blind, the lame and the paralysed, which he applies to people with no vision, no movement and no function. Jesus asks the man of thirty eight years whether he wants to get well, and the man answers with an excuse about having no one to help him. Jesus tells him to get up, pick up his mat, which was his comfort zone, and walk.

   “Get up. Let that dead dream come alive again.”

   • John 5:1-9

In this message