Dare To Believe

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? Yes, this is your friend Dr. Cook and I’m glad, oh so glad, to be back with you. I look forward to these times we can share from the word of God believe me. I hope everything’s going all right at your house. Some of you have a very difficult assignment. Talked the other day with a man whose wife died a couple years ago and he’s making a home, and bringing up his two children, both in their teens. It’s a job, but he was rejoicing in his Lord. God had comforted him in the loss of his sweetheart and he was busy serving the Lord as best he could in his job, day by day. I know some of you have a very difficult assignment, but Jesus will never fail you, and He’ll never leave, He’ll never drop you, said, “My sheep know My voice. They follow Me”. You just keep listening to the Shepherd, go His way. He’ll see you through.

We’re looking at the fifth chapter Mark and we talked about this lady who’d been ill for 12 years, but who in faith, touched the garment worn by our Lord Jesus and was healed. Now, you must remember that this takes place within the framework of a journey to the house of Jairus, whose little 12-year-old is so ill and dying. So, Jesus said, now said to the lady, “Your faith has made you well. Go in peace”, but is while He yet spake, He was still saying this, they had stopped, they were on their way to Jairus’ house, but they’ve stopped for this interplay of what it happened and the conversation all that. It took time, “While He yet spake there came from the rulers house some who said, ‘Thy daughter’s dead, why troublest thy Master any further’”? What a cruel thing to say. What a cruel thing to say. You know, unconsciously we’re very cruel to people whose hearts can be hurt deeply. This is one instance of that. They said, well your little girl is dead now, don’t bother Jesus.

Small thought here; it’s never any bother to bring your heart break to God. See humanly, humanly, when you look at death you say, “That’s it”. I’ve been at the number of deathbeds in my ministry through the years, the doctor would be there, he would’ve done all he could to make the patient comfortable in those last moments, but also to extend life a little bit by injecting some medication or other into the bloodstream, but nothing worked, and the patient grows weaker and weaker, and finally that last sigh proclaims the fact that the soul has left, the spirit has left the body, and he removes the stethoscope from the patient’s chest and says very gently, “Well there’s nothing more we can do, he’s gone”. So humanly, humanly we look at situations like physical death and other things in their finality, and we say, “Well that’s it, there isn’t any more you can do, can’t even talk to God about that, don’t bother God about something that can’t be changed”. That’s the thing that human nature says. Are you following me? Don’t bother God about something that can’t be changed. That’s what they were saying. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It’s never too late to talk to your Lord. When Jesus heard the word that was spoken he said to Jairus, “Be not afraid, only believe”. There is no situation all the world that is so final, but that God can do something about it. You understand me? There is no situation all the world, but that God can do something about it. Now of course, the Lord Jesus has gone back to the presence of God the father, He’s seated at the right hand of God, to make intersession for you and for me. So, He’s no longer physically walking this earth and touching with His divine power those who even had expired, and you and I don’t see people raised from the dead. I’m not talking about that particularly. I’m simply saying this is an object lesson where human nature says, it’s all over you, can’t do anymore, don’t bother God about it, and the truth is that there is no situation so desperate, but that you can call on your Lord and He can take charge. “Be not afraid, only believe”. Do you dare to believe God today for something? Do you dare to believe Him in the face of a desperate situation? Do you dare to believe Him in the face of a marriage that seems to be breaking up and your heart is breaking with it? Do you dare to believe God in the face of a business situation that is going from bad to worse? Do you dare to believe God in the face of difficulties with your teenage children where everything you say seems to be the wrong thing. Oh, that’s frustrating for a parent, isn’t it? Teenagers can really drive your right up the wall. Everything you say seems to be wrong during those years, the turbulent teen years, but do you dare to trust God with it? “Be not afraid, only believe”.

Paul Rader wrote that song, “Only believe, only believe, all things are possible only believe”. It’s God that says this, see. If it was some person, some human being, you could discount it, couldn’t you? You could discount it if it were some human being that says, don’t be afraid just believe, but who was talking? It’s the one who threw the stars out in space, that’s who. It’s one who maintains everything by the word of His power, all things hold together by Him. You can’t trust Him, you can trust Him, you can bring a situation to Him. Luke records it this way, “When Jesus heard it, they said, ‘Thy daughter is dead, don’t trouble the master’”. When Jesus heard it He answered saying, “Fear not, believe only. She’ll be made whole”. So the question is today my burdened friend, do you dare to believe God for something in a desperate situation? That doesn’t preclude doing your best. That doesn’t let you off of your own God-given duty. That doesn’t mean you can sit around and sing yourself into sanctified bliss. Nothing like it. To do your best, to work hard, “See as though man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men”. God is in favor of doing your homework. Oh, yes. So to trust God doesn’t mean you’re going to sit around. To trust God means you’re going to keep going in the right direction, they kept on walking to Jairus’ house, is what they did, and to trust God is to keep on doing what you know you ought to do, while trusting Him to see you through. Do you understand that? Trusting is not sitting around, trusting is going on, believing God.

Today if you’re if you’re the red in your business, trust God to help you do the thing that will help turn it around. He will either lead you to the economies of cost or new sources of sales and profit or both. Whatever I tell you, I have been there. I know that God can change business conditions. I know that God can change interpersonal relationships. I know that God can change circumstances around you as He wills in answer to prayer. You don’t dictate to Him, you trust Him. He does the rest. See, when Jesus said, “Believe only, she’ll be made well”, they kept on walking toward his house, but we deal here with the ultimate fear, the fear of ultimate failure. The fear of ultimate failure, I ran my fastest, I got there, I ask Him to come, he started, then there was this byplay of talk with that woman that needed to be healed, and it took time enough for my little gal to die. The delay was just enough delay to let the little girl breath her last. What about the delays of God? Jesus when he heard that Lazarus was ill, stayed two more days right where he was, which meant that when he got the Bethany, Lazarus had already been dead for four days. Dead and buried. They buried the dead immediately in those days. The delays of God. Why doesn’t God do it right now? Why doesn’t God answer me now? Why does He make me wait? Why didn’t He do what I wanted to do before everything fell apart? Have you learned to trust God’s timing? That’s one of the great lessons you and I need to learn, I think. To trust God’s timing means so much. To trust God’s timing, he isn’t late, He’s never late. He hasn’t forgotten about you. People don’t show up for an appointment and then later on you find out they forgot. God doesn’t do that. He’s never late, His timing is perfect. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord he delighted in his way though he for the shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand”. Dr. Pettingil used to say, “The steps, the stops, and even the stumbles of God servant are all under His control. Trust His timing”. I’ve had occasion to do that in my life I guess and many of you too.

I wanted so, so badly to do some things when we first came to the college back in 1962. After the death Percy Crawford in 1960, blessed man, Hans Evans was interim President, then they brought me in in March of 1962, and immediately I saw certain things and needed to be done I talked with the board of trustees and faculty leaders all that about them, and I began to make big plans. The 1960s were the decade of expansion. Every school was growing and I wanted to grow with them, and you know the Lord just slowed me down. He slowed me down. I used some beautiful, this is for a good laugh, I had some beautiful drawings made of the buildings we wanted to build, and hung them up in the hallway. Great big blowups of buildings that we wanted to build, there they were in the in the main hall of the building, and nothing happened. Months went by and years went by and I wasn’t able to complete those plans, and people began to joke about Cook’s paper campus. I finally took it all down. You know what the Lord was doing for me? He was keeping me from going too fast. Several colleges within less than an hour’s drive from where we were located, went broke in the 70’s because they’d gone too fast in the 60’s. God’s timing for Bob Cook was perfect. Will you trust God’s timing today? Will you trust Him with the impossibilities in your life? Will you trust Him with the things that you just can’t understand, the delays that seem tragic? Will you trust Him with that, knowing that like Jairus, as you walk on in, Jesus says, “Only believe”, it’s going to be alright. And so, he just shut all the people up that were wailing and weeping in typical fashion, and went on into the room where the little body lay spoke to her, raised her up from the dead. How wonderful when God touches a situation. Let Him do that for you today beloved, will you? Then write and tell me what He did. I’ll rejoice with you.

Dear Heavenly Father today, I pray that we may have the good sense to turn these desperate situations of life over to Thee and keep right on trusting Jesus, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!