Look and Live: Keep the Word in Your Heart and Your Mouth

Sermon outline

Look away from the sickness and fix your eyes on Jesus, then fill your heart and your mouth with the word of faith every day, because faith grows by hearing and the word is for anyone who will speak it.

1. Look and live: from the bronze snake to the cross

   When the snakes bit Israel, God told Moses to put a bronze snake on a pole so that anyone bitten could look at it and live. Jesus applied that to Himself in John 3:14: brass signifies judgment, and on the cross Jesus took everything that should have been counted against us, so we stand before God as righteous by grace and not by works. The key for healing is the same: look away from the sickness and the pain and look to the cross. Hebrews 12 says to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of a faith that grows stronger every year you walk with Him.

   Illustration: Moses looked at the complaining people and was ready for God to finish them, yet when they cried he prayed, "Lord, heal them." He had a good heart.

   “Look away from that and look unto Jesus.”

   • Numbers 21:4-9
   • John 3:14-15
   • 2 Corinthians 5:21
   • 2 Corinthians 3:18
   • Matthew 8:17
   • Hebrews 12:1-2

2. The word is near you: in your mouth and in your heart

   Romans 10:8 leaves us without excuse, because the word is not far away. It belongs in the heart and in the mouth, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If the word dwells in you richly, it will flow out when you are under pressure, and that word in your mouth, anointed by the Holy Spirit, will begin to change your surroundings and your atmosphere.

   “You can change hopeless situations.”

   • Romans 10:8
   • Matthew 12:34

3. God adds to you, He does not take from you

   He calls "if God wants to, He'll do it" the religious cop-out. When Job said the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, he spoke out of ignorance, because it was Satan who took. The blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, and Jesus came to give overflowing life. If God destroyed and plundered, Jesus came for nothing. If you are not seeing it yet, do not be impatient: there is a season for everything, and nobody should laugh at a child of God who is going through a winter.

   Illustration: He quotes Pastor Chris on that kind of theology: "ignorance gone on rampage".

   “God does not take from you. God adds to you. God gives to you. God blesses you.”

   • Job 1:21
   • Proverbs 10:22
   • John 10:10
   • Ecclesiastes 3:1
   • Galatians 3:13

4. The word of faith: believe with your heart, confess with your mouth

   What we proclaim is not a word full of doctrine and theology but the word of faith, and faith is the one ingredient a successful Christian life cannot do without. You believe with your heart, not your head or intellect, and with your mouth you confess. Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame, so have the God kind of faith, which looks at confusion and speaks life, looks at chaos and speaks order. He applies it to age: as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

   Illustration: A lady who came to sign some papers told him she was struggling "with old age". He looked at the copy of her ID and she was only 51. "Life begins at 60. You're planning to retire. Don't retire. Refire."

   “If there's one ingredient you need for a successful Christian life, it is faith.”

   • Romans 10:8-11
   • 2 Timothy 3:5
   • Hebrews 11:6
   • Mark 11:22
   • Proverbs 23:7
   • 2 Corinthians 4:16

5. Love your Bible and make the word yours every day

   The Bible is not a book of information: he reads it as if God wrote it specially for him. That is why preaching is the easy part and the preparation beforehand, waiting on God, praying in tongues and meditating on the word, is the hard part. Do not wait for calamity and then ask where your Bible is. You make time to eat and to watch TV, so make time for the word. Use a translation you understand, and if you do not like reading, buy the Bible or the teaching on tape, CD or DVD. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and blessed.

   Illustration: He walks around mumbling and meditating on the word. Someone is talking to him and he is saying "yeah, yeah", but in his mind he is speaking the word.

   “When I read the Bible, I embrace it as if God specially wrote it just for me.”

   • Romans 10:12-13

6. Have the God kind of faith: "anyone" means you

   When Jesus cursed the fig tree, nothing seemed to happen. Twenty-four hours later Peter saw it withered from the roots, which is like saying that the thing you prayed for has now come. Jesus answered, "Have faith in God," and said that if anyone speaks to the mountain and does not doubt, it will be done. Put your own name there: it is not only for special preachers. The more you find out that God loves you, the bolder you become about your inheritance. Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it.

   Illustration: He puts his own name into the verse: "If Roshan speaks to this mountain it must be removed."

   “Anyone means you. Put your name there.”

   • Mark 11:12-14
   • Mark 11:20-24

7. Your faith grows when you hear

   The woman with the bleeding came because she heard about Jesus, so build the habit of hearing: put the word in your ears on a Walkman or CD player while you work, and you will already be built up when someone asks you to pray. Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep, so a preacher is called to teach and not to entertain, and you should leave every service with knowledge you can apply. Information from the word is your passport to victory. He ends by telling them to fast, take the Bible and speak the healing scriptures to their own body rather than only calling the pastor.

   Illustration: Someone comes home from church. What did he speak on? "I don't know." What did you learn? "I don't know." He spoke about Jesus turning water into wine: how does that help you?

   “If you get information at the word of God, it's your passport to victory.”

   • Mark 5:21-27
   • John 21:15-17
   • Hosea 4:6
   • Matthew 18:18-19
   • 1 Peter 2:24
   • Galatians 3:13
   • Psalm 105:37
   • Psalm 107:20