Sunday English Service – 16 MAY 21

Transcript

What should you do to change your condition? That’s what I want to talk to you about today. What do you need to do to change your condition? What do I need to do to change my condition? What’s my role? What do I got to do? A lot of people are not in a good condition or good state, good place today. Some are in a state of fear that bad things may happen to them. Some others are right in the middle of bad things. We’re right in the middle of bad circumstances. So there are those who are right in the middle of bad circumstances, battling it and trying to come out of it, and there are those who may not be right in the middle of it, but they’re afraid that they may soon be in the middle of it, and they may soon experience that. That’s what I mean by not a good condition? How do you change that condition? How do you come up from there? There are, sometimes people, when they’re in a bad state or bad condition, they’re just waiting for God to do something. They just say like, only God must do something, brother, only God can do, and only God must do. I’m just waiting for God to do. Well, God, you’re right, there are some things only God can do, and we believe God will do. We believe God is on the throne. We believe God is good. And we believe God is with us, and we saw all those kinds of truths about God.

The last three, four weeks, we saw that God knows, and God cares and God can do all things and God will do for us and God reigns, and God is good, and God is with us. We saw all these truths about God. And yes, there’s a lot that God must do and only God can do. But there are also some things that we must do. There are some things that we must do without which God will not do. And that’s what I want to talk to you today about. I want to remind you today about two very basic and important and highly effective things that we should do. We must do. Two things, to change our condition that we must do. Number one, we need to get God’s word into our heart. We need to get God’s word into our heart. That’s the first thing. The second thing is we need to guard or protect our heart. Let me put it like this. We need to make sure that God’s word gets inside our heart. And then we need to guard or protect our heart in the sense that we need to be careful that other unwanted things, destructive things do not get inside our heart. The good and the best thing, which is the word of God must get into our heart and destructive things. Things that are not good for us should not get into our heart. We need to protect and guard our heart.

These are the two things I want to talk about today. To most of you, this is not new. You know that you need to get God’s word into your heart and God’s word needs to go into your heart. You know all this? I’m just reminding you today, because I think most of us need a reminder. Most of you know that we need to guard our heart, but I’m reminding you today because we need that reminder. Let’s begin. I believe that if we would pay attention to these two things, if we would really understand why they’re important, how to do them, and if we really do them, it’ll make a huge difference in our life. Because once we do what we got to do, God will do what only He can do. So let’s talk about these two things.

The first thing is, we need to get God’s word into our heart. Or let me put it like this. What should you do when you’re in trouble, when you’re in fear, when you’re having a problem, what should you do? Go to God’s word and let God’s word go into you. Let me say that again. Go to God’s word and let God’s word get into you. Now, that’s what you’re doing right now. Right now, we are preaching God’s word. In fact, even the singing before this, the praise and worship we were singing, we were declaring truths from God’s word. This entire service is full of God’s word and you’re participating in it. And that means you’re letting God’s word go into your heart, and that’s good, that’s excellent. I’m glad you’re doing that. But let me tell you something. This is not enough. What do I mean by that? God’s word going into you on a Sunday is not enough. If it’s only going into you on a Sunday, it simply is not enough. That’s like eating healthy food once a week. If you eat healthy food one day a week, but don’t eat healthy food, six days a week, you can’t really be healthy. That’s impossible. So I’m glad, we’re glad that you’re joining us on Sunday, and I mean, this is very good, very important, but I’m just telling you the truth like it is. Is simply, it’s not enough because God’s word is like food. Jesus compared it to food. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

He said, it’s like bread. He compares it to bread there. There are other passages which compare the word of God to water. Bread and water. And these things you eat every day. It’s a staple food. It’s something you go to again and again, day after day to sustain you, to nourish you. And Jesus says not bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the — Comparing it to bread. And also,He says, you live by it. You live by it. You need it to just survive, live. I say this because sometimes people have the idea that once a week, the people say, for example, I make sure I go once a week so that I can fill up my tank. By the time the week is over, the tank is empty and I go once a week and on Sundays, I fill up the tank with the word of God, fill up the empty tank with the word of God, and that keeps me going for the week. Well, that’s nice that you’re filling up the tank, but frankly getting God’s word into you should not be like putting petrol in a car. You can put that once a week and then run your car. And then when it gets empty again, fill it up. But God’s word can — you can’t treat God’s word like that because it’s not like petrol in your car. It’s like food for your stomach. You need it every day. It’s like bread. It’s like water. So what I’m saying to you today is go to the word every day. I’m saying to you today, when you’re afraid, when you’re in trouble, go to the word, I’m simply reminding you because I feel like sometimes people forget, we forget, and we just don’t know what to do when we’re in trouble.

Today, there are people who are afraid, who are dominated by fear. They’ve lost their peace. They’re saying they can’t sleep. They don’t have rest. They can’t rest. They’re having a sense of hopelessness. They’re very down mentally and emotionally. They’re doubting all kinds of things. Their faith has become weak. And the thing is, they don’t know what to do. They’re saying, I’m like this, what to do. I don’t, I’m talking about Christians, believers. They just forgot. I’m reminding you go to the word of God, if that happens to you this week or next week or whenever. This is just a reminder for you, my friend, go to God’s word, let God’s word get inside of you. Sometimes people will do all kinds of other things, but they won’t do this. Even though they know God’s word is powerful and important and excellent, and it’ll work and it’s right there on their shelf, on their bed or on their phone, or it’s right there, but they don’t go to it. Instead, they just keep thinking about their problem. They just thinking, they just keep thinking, saying, well, let God do something.

I’m saying you go to God’s word, let God’s word get into you. I’m talking about this because I had an experience like this week, in this past week, over the course of doing things, hearing about some bad news of things happening to people. And somethings you just got to hear. You can’t just shut off your ear from everything. You’ve got to hear about some things, because if it happens to people you know, and you’ve got to deal with some things, sometimes you got to go to places. And so over the course of these things happening, one evening and this happened this past week. One evening I got a little, just a little thought of fear in me. I didn’t take it too seriously. And I think I let it kind of just simmer. I let it kind of just build up a little bit. So by the time nighttime came. By the time I was supposed to sleep, the little thought of fear became a little bit bigger. Became, you may say a bigger fear and so it’s time to go to bed. But the thing is, I’m afraid. And so, I didn’t think too much of it. I wanted to get out of that fear. I know the fear is not good. I wish I had gotten rid of it sooner, but then it’s now become bigger. And so, okay, fine. So without thinking much about it, I just open my phone and go to YouTube. And I find a sermon, which is on peace.

A man of God is preaching on peace. And so I play that sermon, and I just lay down. It’s nighttime, time to go to sleep. So I lay down just the phone next to my ear like this. And it’s playing, the message is playing. It’s about a 30, 40-minute sermon. I wouldn’t say I was expecting anything great. I just wanted to hear the word of God. And it was going in. And by the time the sermon ended. The guy was preaching from Matthew chapter 6, verse 25 onwards, where Jesus talks about worry. He says, “Do not worry about what you will eat, what you will drink, what you’re clothed with.” Is not your life more than food, is not your body more than clothing? So this man of God is — he’s just reading these verses and he’s explaining it point by point and what Jesus is saying and why we shouldn’t worry. I’m just listening to it quite casually, not even a hundred percent seriously, I would say. Just laying down because I’m half tired, but the word is going in the course of that message, 30, 40 minutes, I’m listening. By the end of the message, I’m listening, listening, and by the end of that message, he says, Jesus is right now freeing you from every fear. He is delivering you from all your fears and worries right now.

As he’s saying that, just that very second, I can feel the fear leaving. It’s like until that point there was that fear. And there was this point towards the end of that message. By the time I heard the full message and by the time it got to the end, I could really sense the fear all the fear just left me and the peace of God filled me. It was something remarkable for me. Sometimes you have these remarkable experiences, [inaudible 00:12:45] like that because it was a total turnaround from fear to no fear, full peace. The summon ends, and I slept like a baby, peacefully. No worry, no fear. I slept and I was just thankful that the fear is gone, and I was amazed, but I was tired, so I just slept. The next day, I thought about it a little more, and as I was thinking about it, I was truly amazed at how God really did a miracle. God did something miraculous for me, supernatural. In the course of a 30, 40-minute sermon, He completely delivered me from all my fears. Removed all fear, filled my heart with peace, just like that. I realized that something supernatural happened, something miraculous happened. But I also realized, I was thinking about this the next day.

And I also realized while God did something very extraordinary and supernatural and miraculous, I did something very ordinary and natural, and easy. What did I do? I didn’t do much, but I did something. I took this phone and I put on YouTube and I found that sermon and I played that sermon and I kept listening to it. That’s what I did. I realized that both happened. I did something ordinary and natural, easy, whatever I can do. And God did something amazing. I couldn’t do what He did. Only He can remove all my fears and fill my heart with peace, but I did what I could do, which is hear that sermon. And I realized, as I began to think about it, I realized a principle that God operates by, unless we do what we’re supposed to do, the small, easy, natural, ordinary things that we are supposed to do, God does not do His supernatural miraculous works. That’s the way God works. I’m not saying God can’t do. Yeah, God can do. God can do without us doing anything. He’s all powerful. And if He wants to, He can. But there is a way in which God works, and He has chosen to work through, get this, through the ordinary and natural and easy things He gives us to do. So what I’m saying is, unless we do our part, He doesn’t do His part. He doesn’t do the great miracle. The supernatural thing. If I had not played that sermon and listened to it, I would not have been delivered from my fears. I would have just slept in fear, woke up in fear because I did something very easy and very simple and very ordinary and very natural, God then does something supernatural and miraculous.

What am I saying? I’m saying, you’ll do your part. Don’t just say, I’m waiting for God, do your part. When you do your part, that’s when God does the supernatural and the miraculous. Now what’s your part, your part. Now this is what I’m trying to emphasize today. The number one thing you need to do, the most important and the most basic, and the most effective thing that you can do is to go to the word and let the word go into you. This is the number one thing you can do, because if you go to the word, everything else will happen. I can’t think of a more fundamental thing that you can do, which is very powerful, which will change everything. Go to the word. That’s the most basic thing that you can do to do your part. You go to the word. If you’re in trouble, go to the word. If you are in fear, go to the word. We can say other things, but I think going to the word is the best. For example, I can say, if you are in fear, just believe. But I don’t want to say it like that because people who are afraid, they’re finding it hard to believe. People who are at that moment in fear. If you tell them believe they can’t believe because the problem is their faith is low. Their faith is weak. That is the very reason they’ve been dominated by fear because faith was weak in that place. That’s why fear entered. Faith and fear cannot exist simultaneously at the same moment.

If the person is afraid, that means at that point, that faith is weak. And so to a person like that, I don’t want to say just believe because they’re finding it hard to believe, but let me say the solution is go to the word. If you go to the word, that will build up your faith. If you go to the word that will lead you to higher faith, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, Romans 10:17. So that’s why I say this is the most important, most basic, most fundamental, most powerful thing you can do. What’s the most powerful and basic and effective thing you can do? Go to the word, go to the word, let the word go into you. Once you go to the word, God can do His wonders. I say this, not only to people who are afraid, but also to people who are right in the middle of problems. Maybe you’re saying, I’m not afraid of something happening. It’s already happened. I’m right in the middle of this. Maybe you’re saying I’m right in the middle of sickness, because sickness is a big problem today. Maybe you’re saying I’m affected by the sickness and I’m right there. How do I face this?

What’s the solution to this? Same solution. Go to the word, let the word go into you. I don’t have anything new to offer you today my friend. Sometimes people think because we’re facing something new, we need a new solution. No. We have one solution and it is in a fair. We may be facing something new, but this is enough for anything and everything. And it has faced and overcome everything. The word of God is the single point solution for all your needs, all your problems. So if you’re in the middle of sickness and you’re saying, what’s the solution, go to the word, let the word go into you. How does God heal? The Bible teacher, Psalms 107 verse 20, He sent out His word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. He heals through His word. Proverbs 4:22 talks about the word as medicine. Have you seen this? The word is medicine. Proverbs 4:22. For their life to those who find them. He is talking about the words of God. The word of God is life to those who find them, find them means you go and you find them and you get it. Like a treasure, you go and find them. They are life to those who find them and healing to all their flesh.

Let me read from there. New living translation. They bring life to those who find them. The word of God brings life to those who find them and healing to their whole body, healing to their whole body. When you go to the word and when the word goes into you, you get life and healing for your whole body. One translation says medicine for all their flesh or body. For some sicknesses, man has no cure, no medicine, but the word is a medicine for your whole body. It’s healing for your whole body. Go to the word. If you need healing, let the word about healing get into you somehow. Maybe you can find a message on healing on YouTube. Just let it play. If you know English, and I’m speaking to people who know obviously. In YouTube, there are so many resources. For example, there are healing verses that are played like audio. You can hear the — somebody is reading out these verses with soothing music as a backdrop and verse after verse from the word of God on healing. And you can just let it play. And you can just lie that, even if you don’t have strength, even if you don’t have energy to get up, read your Bible, do whatever, just play it on your phone, just let those words go into you. Do something. Get the word into you. That’s the solution my friend.

Or you can just open up your Bible. For those ones I need healing, let me recommend something very simple. Go to the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. We have four gospels in the new Testament and go read these passages on how Jesus healed so many people. Gospels are very easy to read, very simple to understand, just speak up, just open a gospel and just find a place where you see healing miracles and just start reading them. Just start reading them. Even if you don’t have the strength to do it, have somebody else do it for you. Maybe if you’re taking care of somebody who’s sick, you can do it for them. This is the best way you can care for them by getting the word into them. Let me give you an example. If you go to like Matthew chapter 8. Now, here’s an example. You just go to Matthew. This is a gospel, and you go to this chapter 8 and just read a few verses. It talks about Jesus healing. Anybody can read it and understand even a child can do it, but there’s a lot of power in it.

Let’s just try reading a few verses from Matthew chapter 8, I want to demonstrate this. If you go to the word, if you let the word go into you, it can do wonders my friend. If you are in need of healing today, maybe you are in a sick bed, you are in a hospital, maybe you are really wanting healing, maybe you really needed desperately, my friend, here’s the solution, hear the word of the Lord. Let’s hear Matthew chapter 8 verse 1. When He came down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. Jesus just finished preaching the sermon on the Mount, wonderful teaching, and He comes down the mountain. All this crowd is following Him, and what happens? Behold verse 2, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him. A leper. Now, when you read the Bible, you got to stop and think. People don’t benefit from reading the Bible sometimes because they just read it like duty, like tradition, keep going. No. Go to the word to get something. That means you got to stop and think when you read, a leper came to Jesus, a leper. In those days, especially a leper would never come into the city. They would stay outside. They would never come near people because they were outcasts and the leprosy would spread and all this was there.

So, this leper coming to Jesus itself was something very astonishing. He comes, he must have had some hope that if you go to Jesus, He may do something. So He comes to Jesus. Imagine the scene, you got to imagine, use your imagination. You read. Big crowd is following Jesus. Jesus is leading the crowd. A leper comes to Him kneels before Him saying, “Lord, if you will and make me clean.”Interesting statement by the leper. He says, “If you are willing.” You read another translation, it will say that, clearly. Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. The leper has some hope. That’s why he’s come to Jesus. But he also has some doubt. Like many of us today, perhaps. He has some hope but he also has some doubt. What is the doubt? If Jesus is willing, He can make me clean. We all know that Jesus has the power to heal us. But the question for many people is he willing? Is healing God’s will? Is healing God’s will for me? For me to get healed, is that God’s will or maybe God’s will for me is sickness. There may be a doubt in people’s minds today. And that’s the doubt in the leper’s mind. He’s saying, Lord, if you’re willing, you can make me clean. He’s not sure, but he raises the question that is in the minds of many people today. And Jesus answers it.

Verse 3, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him saying I will, or I am willing, be clean. What a response from Jesus. Here’s a man raising a doubt about is it God’s will for me to receive healing. Is it your will Jesus to heal me and Jesus answers it as clearly and convincingly as possible? You notice how He answers it. He stretched out His hand and touched him. I can just imagine the scene, the crowd and Jesus standing and the leper a little bit away because he’s hesitant to come closer. First of all, he’s not even sure if Jesus wants to heal him. And he says, if you are willing, Lord, you can make me clean. And Jesus stretches out His hand. He might’ve gone a little closer. I don’t know. He stretches out His hand to touch him. Just that touch would have cleared half his doubt. Is He willing? Well, He just touched him. Nobody touches a leper, especially not in that day. He touched him and then He opened His mouth and said, I am willing, be clean. No hesitation from Jesus. In fact, He wants to convince the guy, don’t have any doubts, I am willing. I’m touching you, I will, be clean. Immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. That’s it. One word, be clean. Leprosy is gone.

Verse four. Jesus continues talking to him. As you read this, you see if you take a passage like this and you read it, your doubt is answered because you have a doubt. Is it God’s will to heal me. But when you read this, that doubt is answered, isn’t it? Well, some people may say, well, brother God’s will was to heal that leper, that leper being healed is God’s will. But how do I know it’s God’s will to heal me? Well, if you have doubts, keep reading the Bible, keep reading the word. Just continue reading from verse five, and I think your doubt will be cleared up. Verse five, when he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to Him. This time a centurion comes. Before this it was a leper, now it’s a centurion. Both of them are viewed as outcast by the people. Leper is of total outcast. Centurion is hated by the Jews because he’s Roman. And he’s a Roman in a place of authority with a hundred people, a hundred soldiers under him. That these Jews, those who are with Jesus, the crowd, they hate the Romans and they hate these Roman leaders like centurions. And so the centurion comes to Jesus and he says, in verse 6, Lord, my servant is laying paralyzed at home suffering terribly. He says, “Lord, I want healing for my servant who’s paralyzed, he can’t move and he’s suffering terribly.“

I think people with Jesus might’ve thought He’d refused healing for this guy, because this is an oppressor of the Jews. He is an oppressor of God’s people; he’s coming for healing. He will probably refuse him. But look as Jesus response there, verse 7, and Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”Jesus appears to be more than willing. Centurion is saying, Lord, please heal. And Jesus saying, I come and heal him to the Centurion. Verse eight, but the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed. Centurion is saying Lord you are a very great person. He calls Him Lord. Notice, this is a Roman with a higher authority, and he calls this Jew whom the Romans are looking down on and he calls Jesus, He is a Jew, He was born in the Jewish race. His humanity was a Jew. He calls him Lord, you are very high. He says, I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof. I am not worthy for you to come to my house. And he says, you don’t have to come to my house, just say the word, and my servant will be healed. And then he explains that. He says for I too, am a man under authority with soldiers under me. And I say to one go and he goes and another come, and he comes and my servant do this, and he does it. What is he saying? He’s saying, Jesus, you don’t need to come to my house. I know that if you say one word, my servant will be healed. You can say the word here, and the servant will be healed over there. Why? Because you have such authority. I understand the authority Jesus, the centurion is saying.

Because I am also under authority, and I have people under me also. I understand how this authority works. Those who are under me, obey my authority, obey my command. If I say to the hundred fellows under me, go, they go, come means they come, do this means they do this. One word of mine gets the job done. That’s my authority. I got authority over a hundred soldiers. And I know how authority works. If I speak it’s enough. What is he saying? He’s trying to say Jesus, I know how authority works and I’ve seen your authority. And I’ve heard about your authority. I got authority only over my hundred soldiers, but he’s thinking of Jesus as the one who has authority of the overall sickness, over every disease. He has authority over every sickness, every disease, over paralysis, everything. Think about this. The centurion, a Roman, a foreigner doesn’t know much about God. And yet he recognizes how much authority Jesus has, that if he says one word, every sickness has to flee. And so he says, Jesus, you don’t need to come home. Just say one word. I recognize that you have authority in the spiritual world, over sickness, over every evil. If you say one word, everything has to obey you. Jesus is amazed by his faith.

Verse 9, verse 10. When Jesus heard this, He marveled. He was astonished, isn’t that amazing? Jesus is amazed and said to those who followed Him. Truly, I tell you with no one in Israel have I found such faith? Jesus is saying even amongst the insiders, those in Israel, those who are born and brought up in this nation as the people of God, knowing so this and that about God, even they don’t have faith like this, the insiders don’t have faith like this. Here is an outsider. And then Jesus continues, I tell you many will come from East and West and reclined at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the kingdom of heaven while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. In that place, there’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus saying sometimes the insiders don’t get it, don’t believe, don’t receive. They miss the whole thing. Outside has come, believe, receive, enter the kingdom. And then to the centurion verse 13, Jesus said, go let it be done for you as you have believed. Amazing words, Jesus looks at the centurion and says, go let it be done for you as you have believed. Let it be done to you according to your faith, it shall be done to you. And the servant was healed at that very moment. That very moment, the servant got healed at a distance. When Jesus spoke one word. What is the word? According to your faith, let it be done to you.

I hope that word jumps out at you today my friend. According to your faith, let it be done to you. Sometimes when you read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will make certain words jump out at you. And I hope this word jumps out at you today. According to your faith, let it be done to you. You have faith? You don’t need to be born and brought up and you don’t need to be knowing this and that and everything. No. Do you have faith? Do you believe Jesus can heal you? Do you believe Jesus has all authority? Do you believe that your sickness is nothing before Jesus? Do you believe that if He says one word, it will flee? Do you believe my friend? To those who believe Jesus says, according to your faith, it shall be done to you. No matter what state and condition you are in, according to your faith, it shall be done to you. If you simply believe you will receive, you will get up out of that sick bed and you will receive your healing. The servant was healed at that very moment. And what I’m trying to say is what I’m trying to demonstrate is if you pick up a passage like this and read it, that itself will push you to believe. It will provoke you to believe. When I read this passage on the centurion’s faith, it kind of provokes me.  Here’s a Roman guy. Here’s a guy who doesn’t know anything about God. He doesn’t know the teaching we know, and yet he’s able to believe, can’t I believe? Can’t you believe? You can my friend, you can.

If you simply pick up this passage and read it, it will push you to believe. When you see this centurion’s faith, some faith come into you. And you see how he believed in God, that feeling and how Jesus himself appreciated it and how He said, according to your faith, it shall be done to you. As you read those words, the Holy spirit will cause faith to rise within you. If you are weak in faith, if you’re not able to believe my friend, you don’t have to do much. Just go to the word, let the word go into you. And the word will produce faith. Faith cometh by hearing the word of God. So Jesus heals this leper, and then he heals this centurion. And then next Verse 14, He enter Peter’s house. Now here’s an insider. Two outsiders, and then now Peter, it’s Peter, His own disciples. He goes to his house. Jesus enters Peter’s house, verse 14. He saw his mother-in-law lying, sick with a fever. He touched her hand. The fever left her. That’s interesting to me because before this, you have these terrible sicknesses, leprosy, and then like paralysis, terrible suffering. And then now you have an ordinary fever. Other thing that’s Interesting, you got to notice things when you read the Bible. Other things that’s interesting here is Jesus goes to Peter’s house. We’re not told that Peter came to ask Jesus to heal the mother-in-law or that even the mother-in-law requested healing, nothing.

In fact, I think they may not have requested healing. In fact, I think Peter may have thought because sometimes people think like this. Peter may have thought, why disturbed Jesus, He must be a lot very tired. Teaching so long, sermon on the Mount and then coming healing these people, this person, that person finally comes to the house. Now let him just rest after all, she’s just having a fever. Let her just lie there for something. Or they may have thought like this, is just a fever. It would come and it will go. It’s not such a big deal. It’s not like leprosy, it’s not like paralysis, or something. But notice what happens here. Jesus saw. Did you see those words? Every word is important. When you read the Bible, my friend, read it to get something out of it, read it like God is speaking. Read it as though every word counts. When Jesus entered Peter’s house, He Saw. He saw, who saw? Jesus, saw his mother-in-law lying, sick with a fever. Jesus saw. And then we are told Jesus touched her hand. They didn’t request, I think. Jesus saw. Jesus touched her hand, fever left her. Amazing.

He could have let that woman with the fever just be. No. What is He showing? Does it matter whether the sickness is great or small begin our eyes are small and our eyes, His will, His desire is to heal all sickness, remove sickness. That’s His will. He saw, He touched, the fever left her. To what extend she got healed. Immediately, she Rose and began to serve Him. Imagine just like that getting up from a fever and serving, she must have been healed so thoroughly, so instantly. This is the power of Jesus. As you read it, you will get a faith. Faith will come. Faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by reading. Faith comes when the word is going into you. As you read these stories, the leper is healed. The centurion is healed. Peter’s mother-in-law is healed. One word from Jesus, one touch from Jesus. And then let’s read this last verse. Verse 16, that evening, they brought to Him many who are oppressed by demons, and He cast out the spirits with a word and heal all who were sick. That evening, they brought to Him many. Say many. Many were oppressed by demons. And he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed, all who were sick. Say all. That’s a very important word there. All. Many came, all who were sick, got healed. Many came. All who were sick got healed. Now follow the train of thought here. The leper is asking God, is it your will? Jesus, is it your will? Do you want to heal me? Are you willing to heal me? Is it your will? Jesus answers convincingly, yes, it is my will, be healed. Centurion come saying, Lord, will you heal? He Heals just with a word. Peter’s mother-in-law, just one touch. She may not have even asked.

And then many come to Him and He heals all, every one of them, everyone. Think about this, think about this. Every one of them. Is it Jesus’s will to heal the sick? I don’t know how you can read this and say no. This is just one passage, but if you read all the four gospels, there is not even a single place where Jesus tells somebody it’s not my will to heal you. There’s not a single place. There’s not a single person whom He refused healing for. Not a single person. There’s no record of that. But there is record of the leper asking, is it your will and Jesus answering, yes. And there is record, plenty of record to say he healed all who came to him were sick. As you take this passage and as you read it, a person who had very little faith, or a person who had all kinds of doubts can take a passage like this and read just in the course of reading and thinking about this and meditating on this, just allowing the word to go into you, will clear your doubts. If you have a doubt of whether it’s God’s will to heal you, it will clear your doubt. If you have no faith, it will produce faith. It’ll cause faith to rise. If you have no hope, it will give you hope. It’ll make you bold and it’ll make you say if He healed all these people, He will heal me also. He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. He lives today. This Jesus is my Jesus, and He will heal me now.

He can heal you now, my friend. He can heal you now. He can heal you now. You believe according to your faith, let it be done to you. He has not changed. He has not changed. What I’m trying to say is if you go to just a simple passage gospel passage, just read it, just let the word go into you. It will clear the doubt, produce the faith, give you the hope, make you believe and get your answer. That’s why I say you go to the word, everything else will happen. The Holy spirit will lead you. God works through His word. If you simply go to the word, God will lead you step by step. And He will lead you toward your miracle. If you go to the word, you are going one step closer to your miracle. If you go to the word, you are one step closer to your miracle, because the word is the thing through which God created the world, because the word is the thing through which God took a world filled with emptiness and filled with good things, because the word is the thing through which He delivers people. See how the people of Israel were delivered time and time again. He first will send a word. He will send a prophet, and the prophet will say, thus says the Lord. The word comes before the deliverance. The deliverance is through the word. The healing is through the word. The transformation is through the word. Salvation says through the word. New birth is through the word, I don’t have time to show you the verses, but all of this is through the word, my friend. God does everything through His word. So you go to His word and God will do the rest. You go to His word and let the word go into you. Go regularly. Like I said, not enough to hear this Sunday.

Now today’s message is for you to go to the word more regularly. Today’s word is saying, go to the word, regularly every day. Somehow make sure that the word goes into you, more than before. The times we are living in are extra challenging. They’re not like before. And so extra challenging times call for extra words. More regular word, more seriously, going to the word and letting the word go into you somehow. There’s so many ways, you listen to a message, you read a passage, you can’t do much. Just take one verse, read one verse. If you’re afraid if this’ll happen or that will happen, read Plasms 91. Just take one verse, surely, He will deliver me from every trap. Just take that one which is meditate on this, say that with your mouth. Somehow let the word go into you, my friend, that’s the first thing. Secondly, if you can’t do much, play a song. If there’s a song filled with the word, that itself is enough, that itself will give you boost. So get the word into you. Secondly, guard your heart. We’re talking about what you need to do to change your condition. Your part, your role. First is go to the word, get the word into you. Secondly, guard your heart. Guard your heart. It’s not enough. If the word goes into your heart, what else is going into your heart?

Because for some Christians, the word is going in. Some believers, the word is going in because they are good believers. And so the word is going in on Sunday and the word is going in on weekdays. But the thing is other things are also going in. Other things are also going in. And when that happens, you got to be careful because if the wrong things are going in, it will lower the effectiveness of the word. It will kind of cancel out the effectiveness of the word to a large extent. It’s like eating again, to use the same example. It’s like starting out the day with a good meal. Breakfast is very healthy and very nutritious and all that. And then the rest of the day, imagine if a person eats junk food, have you done that? I’ve done that. Start off the day with a good healthy meal and then eat all kinds of nonsense. When we do that, we cancel out the healthy meal. It’s like that. What else is going in? Because if you’re not careful, the word that is in your heart can be kind of canceled out or nullified its effect. Its fruitfulness can be crushed. Jesus himself told the famous parable of the sower. I don’t have time to read it, but it’s found in Matthew 13, it’s found in Mark and Luke as well.

Parable of the sower where He talks about the sower went to sow the word. And so He’s talking about a preacher preaching the word, people listening, but the word doesn’t produce the same result in all the people. Jesus divides the people into four different types of groups, four different types of soil in which the seed of the word falls. And out of the four groups, only one group gives fruit, remember. The other three groups don’t even give fruit. Every one listens to the same preacher preaching the same word, but the fruit is not with everyone. Only one group gives the fruit, sees the fruit. What happens in the other three cases? I don’t have time. I think you know the parable, but if you recall what’s happening there, just go read it otherwise. In Matthew 13, you will see in each case where there is no fruit, what’s happening is other things come and choke the word. Other things come and remove the word. Other things come and stop the word from growing and producing fruit. Is very important to watch out what other stuff is going into your heart. It’s very important to guard your heart. The Bible talks about guarding your heart. If you’re not careful, if you don’t guard your heart carefully, the word will not give fruit.

Let me take you to a very important passage where it talks about guarding your heart. Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23. It’s not enough if the word goes in, what else is going in? Are you guarding your heart? Proverbs 4:23. Keep your heart with all vigilance for, from it flow the springs of life. Extremely important passage. There’s a lot here. And so I want to spend the rest of the time right here. I want to explain and kind of teach what’s in this passage and then I want to apply it. Now, let me teach it by answering three questions. Let me give you three questions. I’ll answer these three questions and that’ll help you understand this verse. And then we’ll apply it in a very practical way to our present day. The three questions to get into the meaning of this verse. First is what does heart mean? It says guard your heart with all vigilance. Keep your heart. What does heart mean? Keep guard, means protect. Protect your heart means what does heart mean? That’s the first question. Only if you understand what heart means, we’ll understand what it means to guard the heart. Why should we guard it? How should we guard it? How can we guard it? What is meant by heart here? Why should we guard our hearts? And how can we guard our hearts?

Let me answer those three questions. Heart simply means inner man or inner self, your inner self, the part of you, which you can’t see. You’re looking at me, but you’re only seeing my outer self, my outer man. You are not seeing my inner man. You can’t see my inner man, and I can’t see your inner man. Heart refers to that part of you, which we can’t see with our eyes, the inner part of the men.

Now, today we distinguish heart from mind. The way we use the term heart is we associate feelings sometimes with the heart. Feelings from the heart. And we’ll say thinking is from the mind. So we kind of distinguish heart is like this, and mind is like this. The two are different. Feeling is from the heart and thinking is from the mind. And we may also sometimes say things like you know the heart is deeper than the mind. Is not enough to believe with the mind. You got to believe with the heart. And so all that is right and all that is fine. And all that is true. But the thing is in terms of terminology, when you come to the Bible and we read a term like heart, when you see that word heart, you should not read into it, the meaning you have today. Because we’ve developed a way of speaking about the heart, distinguishing it from the mind and all that, but we can’t take that and import it into and assume that when the biblical authors were writing the word heart, they meant exactly what’s in our mind today. No. What did they mean? And if you go and look at it. If you go and really study it, you will see this. You can go to any Bible dictionary that talks about the meaning of heart in the Bible. You’ll see this. In the Bible when you see heart, it does not distinguished heart and mind, feeling versus thinking. No. It includes all of it. When the Bible says heart, it means what we mean by heart and mind.

When the Bible says heart, it is the place where we think and feel. It’s combined. It has a broad meaning compared to today. It includes thinking, very importantly thinking. It also includes some other things, but I — like for example, your moral personality, it also includes very importantly your spiritual aspect of you. But I want to emphasis that thinking because it’s so neglected. We think that heart means not mind. No, in the Bible, heart includes mind, it includes thinking. In fact, in many places, the psychological element is very key in the word heart, in the Bible, thinking,thoughts, imaginations, and so heart means all of this thinking, feeling, mind, will, emotions. All of it. Your moral aspect, your spiritual aspect, your inner self, abroad meaning. But I want to focus more on thinking when the Bible says, guard your heart. It means guard your thinking very especially. Guard your thinking. That’s what heart means. And that’s what it means to guard the heart.

Secondly, why should we guard our heart? Why should we guard our thinking? Why should we watch, be careful what we think about and what meditate about and what we are continuously thinking? Why should we guard our heart? The verse gives the answer because out of it are the springs of life. Keep your heart with all vigilance for, from it flow the springs of — And now what does that mean? Springs of life. Now it’s trying to give you a picture of a Mount, like imagine a mountain spring. A spring is on these mountains, sometimes you have these springs water comes from that spring and it flows down and it gives water to so many places. Sometimes there are these springs, the largest springs in the world. They say, give around 2,800 liters of water per second. Just imagine that in one second out of that spring is flowing 2,800 liters of water. There are places where the entire area, that region is watered from this one spring, the one source is this spring. And outside of going there may look at all this water and they may think in the big areas, so much water. They need them as be getting water from a lot of places. But actually, if you trace it, it’s one source because there’s a large spring there, giving water for the entire region.

What this verse is saying is when we look at our life, sometimes we think, it’s all kinds of things in my life today. Where did it come from? What is the reason for all this? And we may think there’s a hundred different reasons, but the Bible is saying, no, there’s one source your heart. Your life is the way it is largely due to the condition of your heart. We think our life is determined by so many factors, but largely not solely, but largely our life is determined by our own heart. Look at the new living translation of the same verse, Proverbs 4:23, guard your heart above all else for it determines the course of your life. What determines the course of your life? Your heart. The course of your life, the direction of your life is determined by your heart therefore guard it, everything comes out of your heart, therefore guard it. Jesus said in Luke 6:45, the good person out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things.If a person has good things and that means he has a good heart. The person has bad things, generally, this is the rule in Mark 7:21, Jesus talks about the man who has all kinds of evil in his life. It’s because it’s coming from his evil heart.

If there is sin, if sin is dominating a person’s life, if a person’s life is characterized by sin. Why is it like that? Because their heart is full of sin. If a person’s life is characterized by fear, dominated by fear. Why is it like that? Because their heart is full of fear. If a person is full of doubt all the time, doubting everything, why are they like that? Because their heart is full of doubt. Again, I remind you, heart means thinking largely, thoughts, imaginations. So why should we guard our heart? Because if you don’t guard it, life will go crazy. If you guard it, then only your life can go in the direction you desire. So I told you what heart means. I told you why we should guard it because everything comes from it. Now let me talk about how to guard your heart, how to guard your heart. How do you guard it? I mean in one sense, we already gave a superficial answer. We said guard your thinking. But even that is only superficial because you got to go deeper. How do you guard your thinking even? How do you control and change your thinking even? Your thoughts. It’s interesting when you look at that verse, Proverbs 4:23 is our verse. If you just keep reading another three, four verses, that itself gives you the clue about how you can guard your heart. How you can guard your thinking.

Just look at the passage. Proverbs 4:23 is our verse and let me keep reading after that, keep your heart with all vigilance for, from it flow the springs of life, put away from you crooked speech and put devious stock far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight ahead before you ponder the path of your feet, then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away from evil. And there’s a lot there, but I want you to just notice certain things there, in verse, it says, guard your heart in verse 23, then verse 24 says your mouth. It’s talking about your mouth, watch your talking, speech. And then verse 25 says, let your eyes watch what you’re looking at your eyes. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Don’t have wandering eyes looking here and there and everywhere. And then verse 26 says, watch the path your feet? Where are you going? So it says, guard your heart in 23 and then verse 24, it says, watch what you’re talking. In verse 25, it says, watch what you’re looking at. In verse 26, it says, watch where you’re going.

Now, let me tell you very simply, how do you guard your heart? How do you guide your thinking? You guard it, you control it by controlling what you, talk, watch, where you go, where you spend your time, what you spend your time with. Mouth, eyes, ears, these are the things. Your speaking, your watching, your listening. These are the things that control your heart. If you want to change your thoughts, thinking if you’re thinking in a certain way continuously and you want to change it, how do you do it? You change what you watch. You change what you listen to, what you speak, and that will change your thinking, your thoughts, your heart, and that will change your life.

Now let’s apply this understanding of this verse. Very practically today. You can apply this verse to anything in life, almost anything you can apply to. So meaning a lot of people when they come to this verse, they will apply to sin. So they’ll say like, why is sin there? Why is so much sin there in your life? Because the heart full of sin meaning the thoughts and the imaginations are full of sin. The person who’s continuously thinking of sin will sin, but why are they thinking of sin? Why are their thoughts full of sin? Because what they’re watching and what they’re listening and what they’re speaking is sinful, because they’re watching this stuff and because they’re listening and because they’re speaking this stuff, their thinking is also dominated by that, their life goes in that direction. So you can apply it to sin, but you can also apply it to fear. I want to apply to fear because that’s what people, a lot of people are struggling with today. How do you apply it to fear? Why are people afraid and dominated by fear today? Because their heart is full of fear. Meaning their thinking is full of fear, their thoughts.

In one day, scientists say we have something like 20,000 thoughts going through our mind. You see the person who constantly afraid, they’re continuously thinking thoughts of fear. They’re continuously thinking what if this happens? What did that happen? What will I do if that happens? And they are playing out scenarios in their mind. They’re imagining this and that for one story they hear, they are building up a hundred stories. And most of the day they’re thinking about this. Why are they so afraid? Because their thoughts are full of fear. Fearfulthoughts is what they’re thinking most of the day. But why are they thinking about that the full time? Because they’re watching some stuff, they’re listening to certain things. They are speaking certain things. Because of what they’re watching and speaking and listening, their thinking continuously thoughts of fear. And because of their thinking their life is like that. Let me give you an example. If a person is continuously for hours together watching the news. And they say, they’re afraid. There’s no surprise there, because what they’re watching in the news, what they’re listening in the news and what they’re speaking with others. If it’s continuously negative, all the bad things that are happening. If it’s only that, I’m not saying it’s wrong to watch the news, please watch the news. You need to watch the news. You need to be up to date with what’s happening.

It’s our social responsibility. Be up to date with what’s happening in our society. So I’m not saying don’t watch, please watch, you should watch. But what I’m saying is I’m talking about an example where a person who’s continued hours on end watching this. What that does to them is it controls their thoughts. It directs their thoughts. What they watch continuously directs their thinking. They start thinking about these things continuously. Their imagination is filled with that. And then they end up with fear. There’s no surprise. Then how do you change that? What’s the solution? Well, the solution is two fold. Today, I’m giving you two solutions. One is go to the word and let the word go into you to a person who’s maybe suffering from fear because of watching too much news. What’s your solution my friend. Friend, let me tell you first is you go to the word and let the word go into you, but that’s not enough. You also got to guard your heart. Now, what does that mean? Simply it means to a person who is watching too much news, watch a little less, very simple, very simple. Just watch, cut that. Watch what you need to watch.

Let me give you another example. This is a more complicated example because sometimes fear doesn’t come only if you watch hours on end something bad or something negative. Sometimes you could just watch a little bit or hear just about a little incident. One incident that happened to somebody you know, and you could hear that. And some of these things are unavoidable. You can’t be without hearing it. Something bad happens to someone you know, you got to hear, you got to give a ear to it and you got to listen and you got to deal with certain things. So it may not be like a person is watching hours of news or something about that, but they’re doing what’s good and necessary. But in the course of everyday things, they hear something and it goes into their mind and it kind of just remains there. And then it starts to just build up. It goes in as a small thought, something very small. Maybe you saw it on the news, or maybe you heard about something that happened to your friend or whatever. It’s in your mind, throughout the day, it’s building up inside your mind. You’re going to work and you’re coming, but you’re thinking about it. You’re eating, but then you’re continuously thinking about it. You’re playing with your kids, but you’re still thinking about it. And you keep building up, building up, building up and before you know it, again, you end up with a mountain of fear in your heart. You’re dominated by fear in your life.

Now, if you traced that, you’ll find some times that it’s not hours of bad watching all this, all that. But rather it’s just one, some very small thing that you heard and you couldn’t avoid it, you had to hear it. What’s the solution there? Again, the solution is two fold, go to the word, let the word go into. You got nothing new. Go to the word, let the word go into you. But not only that guard your heart. Now guard your heart. What does that mean? How can you guard your heart in a situation like this? You cannot avoid listening to certain things. You cannot avoid going to certain places, doing certain things. And when you do these unavoidable things, sometimes these thoughts of fear get into you, kind of avoid that, but what you can avoid is you can stop that from growing into a mountain of fear. You can stop that from just becoming fruitful and multiplying and filling your heart. God blessed Adam saying, be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. Sometimes these little seeds of fear going unavoidably. And then they’ve become fruitful and multiply and fill our heart. That’s why we got to guard our heart. Sometimes you can’t stop them from going in because there are unavoidable. If they are unavoidable, you can stop it from going in. But once it goes in, you can stop it from multiplying into a mountain, becoming so big that it dominates you. You can put it down; you can hush it down by the word of God. You can hush it down. You can rebuke those thoughts.

That’s why you got to be on high alert about what you are thinking. You’ve got to be thinking about your thinking. A Christian should be on high alert about their thoughts. You should be able to say what you thought about today. What you thought about most of the time, this past week. You should be conscious about your own thinking, so that when you sense that something is trying to give you fear. When you sense that something is shaking your confidence in God’s word, you immediately take it very seriously and you try to drive it out. You treat it like a robber has entered your house. If you’re always watching your heart, you will spot these moments. When this little thing is trying to develop into a big fear and you will take it seriously. If a robber walks into your house, maybe he walks in very softly and kindly. He hasn’t stolen anything, but once you know he’s a robber, you’ll try to get him out. It’s like that. Sometimes these little things enter in our heart, but if we are not careful, they grow into something very big. They develop into something very big. We got to be on high alert, watching our heart, guarding our heart, doing everything in our power to drive out what should not be there. If there is fear developing, you rebuke that fear in the name of Jesus. You replace that fear with a promise.

If the fear is saying, what if this happens? You go find a promise which says, no, this will not happen. This only will happen. Replace your particular fear with a particular promise. Get on the offensive and confess that. Open your mouth and say it, God, your heart be on high alert. Take it very seriously. Take the extra effort to drive out the starts of worry and fear. Spend the extra time in the word. Whatever it takes, whatever it takes. This verse says above all else, guard your heart. Did you see that? Proverbs 4:23. Above all else, guard your — With all vigilant, some translation says. Some translation says above all else. Now, what does that mean? Actually, if you look at the Hebrew original, the scholar says that the literal rending of the Hebrew, the way it literally comes out in the Hebrew Bible, original is more than all guarding, above all guarding, guard your heart, meaning more than you guard anything else, guard your heart. More than you guard your house. You guard your house. When you go out, you lock it and you check it if it’s locked two, three times.

More than you guard your job, more than you protect your family, more than you protect anything, protect your heart. Because if you protect everything and you don’t protect your heart, everything will get ruined. More than protecting anything, protect your heart. You can’t just let your thoughts run wild, meditate on these bad things, and then be surprised that you’re afraid. Of course, you’re afraid. Drive out those thoughts, fill your heart with God’s word, meditate on God’s word. Let me say a word. You need to do more. You need to do this more now in these times that we are living in, more than before. You may say before I wasn’t, this was not necessary and so much. I was fine, but now I’m in fear and I’ve lost my peace, my friend, because we’re living in more challenging times, you need to guard your heart extra carefully. The word must go in, extra and the guarding also must be extra. Two very basic things that we have seen today. One thing we need to do to change our situation is go to the word. Let the word go into you, somehow, someway, through a message, through a verse, through a song, through whatever, go to the word, let the word go into you. If you do that, things will start happening. You’ll start moving forward. But at the same time, guard your heart from things that should not be getting in, guard your heart. From things that should not be developing inside in a wrong way, guard your heart with all your power.

If you do these two things, there is no way you won’t move forward. If you do these two things, guaranteed you are move forward. If you keep doing these two things, you will move forward. Why I can say that? Because when we do what we’re supposed to do, God, 100%, God will do what He’s going to do. What He likes to do, what He alone can do. God will do amazing miracles and wonders and supernatural things. He’ll heal you. He lifts you up from where you are. He’ll supply your needs. He’ll make you a different kind of person. He will do all kinds of amazing wonders. What he does is on a different level. What we are doing is nothing. These two things I’m talking about are very ordinary stuff, very natural stuff. And actually, if you see there are not a very big deal either, compared to what He does. Just do the ordinary stuff that we can, and we need to do. Go to the word, let the word go into you. Guard your heart. Above all else, guard your heart. And that means, remember not just guard your thinking, but also guard what you’re watching. Guard what you’re listening to, guard what you’re speaking. My friend do this, and God will lead you, God will bless you, God will take you forward.