THE AUDACITY OF FAITH

VICTORY OUTREACH CAPE TOWN SUNDAY 30^TH JUNE 2024

TITLE: THE AUDACITY OF FAITH TEXT: Mark 2:1-12NKJV

MARK 2:1-12

2 And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. ² ^[^a^]Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. ³ Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. ⁴ And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.

⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

⁶ And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does

this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

⁸ But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? ¹⁰ But that you may know that the Son of Man has ^[^b^]power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, ¹¹ “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” ¹² Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

WHAT A MIRACLE! This was one of the notable miracles that Jesus did to the amazement and astonishment of all the people who were there. All the Nay- Sayers.

But when the people saw it, they testified and said, we have never seen anything like this.

In some of the other synoptic accounts. It was reported that it was said in this line

“We have never seen it in this manner before”. It was a miracle of note!

May I prophetically declare to someone that God would do something in your life, which would be to your amazement and all who hear of it or watch it happen.

It will be a miracle which would make you dumbfounded. A MIRACLE OF NOTE to which you and many who will hear about it will say, we have never seen or heard anything like this before.

AUDACITY of FAITH simply refers to;

The Audacious nature of faith.
The Daring Nature of any living faith.

Definition: Audacity is the quality or state of being audacious, characterized by intrepid boldness or a willingness to take bold risks.

It often involves acting with confident or arrogant disregard for CONVENTIONAL THOUGHT, or other RESTRICTIONS.

Here we see the AUDACITY and the audaciousness of the major characters in this story.

The Audacity of the Four Friends to believed
The Audacity of Jesus Christ to heal
The Audacity of the Pharisees to question Jesus’s authority
The Audacity of the Paralytic to RISE UP and WALK

First, it was the audacity of the four friends who couldn’t stand their friend remaining sick in the face of a possible miracle for him, they had the AUDACITY to believe he could be healed.

Secondly, they had the AUDACITY to take bold and risky steps, even if it meant tearing up the house’s roof.

As they say, the kind of audacity that breaks protocol goes against the grind and pushes beyond the boundaries or limits. It was an audacious move, a daredevil kind of move, not out of recklessness, but out of FAITH.

Even Jesus was astounded, marveled, and mesmerized by the AUDACITY of these four friends. Men who were desperately in search of help for their friend.

They had an AUDACIOUS FAITH.

It wasn’t just that their faith was AUDACIOUS, it’s how they brought him to Jesus. Talk about audacity, the kind of audacity that threatens hell and takes the devil aback.

Sometimes, we have to be willing to make some audacious moves if we want to see the power of God at work in our lives.

Having seen this, Jesus was irked by the audacity of the spirit of infirmity to keep this man bound and paralyzed and so;

He declared his sins forgiven and healed him of his paralysis. The scribes and the Pharisees on hearing what he said and seeing what he did, had the AUDACITY to question his ability to forgive sins.

But Jesus posed a question to them, a question that brought sin and sickness to parity.

It was a question that put sin and sickness on the same pedestal and dealt with them equally.

SIN AND SICKNESS

Now, I want you to know, friends, that God detests sin and sickness. God does not like sin and sickness. He does not condone sin, neither does He condone sickness. He Mets out equal treatment to them.

It is, without doubt, His unquestionable will that no one perishes as a result of sin and that no one suffers the torment of sickness perpetually.

You and I must know that the price for SIN and SICKNESS was paid for by His blood in one go.

The substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross not only paid for our sins, It also purchased for us freedom from sickness, diseases, and all forms of infirmity.

His Substitutionary sacrifice purchased our salvation, which we receive as a free gift, healing, and freedom from the torment of sickness and diseases.

Isaiah 53:4-5 NKJV

Surely He has borne our ^[^a^]griefs And carried our ^[^b^]sorrows; Yet we ^[^c^]esteemed Him stricken, ^[^d^]Smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵ But He was wounded^[^e^] for our transgressions, He was ^[^f]bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes^[^g^] we are healed.

EXPANDED BIBLE

But he ·took [bore] our suffering on him and ·felt our pain for us [carried our sorrows/sickness].

·We saw his suffering and thought God was punishing him [^L …stricken and afflicted by him; ^C God].

⁵ But he was wounded for ·the wrong we did [^T our transgressions]; he was crushed for

·the evil we did [^T our iniquities]. The punishment, which ·made us well [brought us wholeness/peace], was given to him, and we are healed because of his

·wounds [lacerations;

AMPC VERSION

⁴ Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].

⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.

You must understand that the above verse covers both sin and sickness. He has borne our sicknesses and weaknesses as well as carried our sorrows and the pains of the punishment of our sins. So not only did he bore our sickness and weakness, he carried on him, the sorrows and the pains of the punishment for our sins.

both were dealt with in one Go on the cross.

In verse 5, of Isaiah 53 it says He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our guilt and iniquities; that dealt with sin. BUT then it goes on to say in the same breadth IT says the chastisement for our peace and well-being was upon him and by His STRIPES we are healed, this part deals with sickness.

So the price for SIN and SICKNESS was paid for in one go and that’s what we’re seeing in the story before us today.

Jesus demonstrated the capacity and the ability both to forgive sins and heal sickness.

He says to the man YOUR SINS are FORGIVING you (Salvation) and then He says ARISE PICK UP YOUR BED AND GO HOME (Healing) thereby, forgiving him of his sins and healing him of its paralysis oat the same time.

THE PRICE FOR SIN AND SICKNESS WAS PAID FOR BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST ON THE CROSS AT THE SAME TIME.

SO today, since we have the AUDACITY To Believe God for our salvation, we must also have the same AUDACITY to believe and receive our healing.

Many times people feel and think and even believe that God can forgive their sins or has forgiven their sins but they question if He really wants to heal them.

Sometimes when we pray we say ‘Lord if it is your will, please heal me. It sounds as though it is not the will of God in the first place.

IT IS GOD’S WILL for us to be healed just as it is HIS WILL for us to be saved. In fact, He paid the price for our salvation and healing already in one go.

WHY is it so easy for us to receive and believe the miracle of SALVATION But when it comes to sickness, it becomes a bit difficult for us to receive that. It is a done deal.

When the Bible says, ‘you are healed’. You are healed indeed. When the bible says your sins are forgiven, believe it. It is forgiven.

WE MUST HAVE THE AUDACITY TO BELIEVE IT AND RECEIVE IT. MARK 9:21-24 NKJV

21 So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

23 Jesus said to him, “If[a] you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

The AUDACIOUS nature of FAITH is the spirit of ALL POSSIBILITIES

Mark 11:23-24

John 1:1-17

DARE TO BELIEVE! BE AUDACIOUS IN BELIEVING!! HAVE THE AUDACITY OF FAITH!!!

Again, friends, both sickness and sin were conquered on the cross by the shedding of His blood. The same power that forgives sins, is the same power that heals.

The same AUDACITY (Faith) with which we receive Salvation, is the same Audacity we should use to receive our healing.

When Jesus said ‘Your sins are forgiven you’ and when He said ‘Take up your bed and go home’. He’s saying I’ve got the authority and the power to not only forgive sins but to heal.

And this guy had the audacity, the temerity to believe God. And because of the display of his audacity, he was healed. Not tomorrow, not the day after immediately. Immediately to the amazement of all.

Jesus is said to the man rise up, take up your bed, take up your mat, and go home. In other words, Jesus was saying to him, be healed, be healed of your paralysis, be healed of everything that has kept you stagnated, be healed of everything that has kept you limited, be healed of everything that has kept you bound.

In the same vein, I say to us as a people, I say to us as a church and I say to you as an individual TAKE UP YOUR BED, RISE from that pain, RISE from that bondage, rise from that depression, rise from that feeling of defeat, fear, insecurity, worry and anxiety, rise from that seeming failure, emptiness, backwardness RISE FROM that sickness and disease, RISE FROM everything that has made a mockery of your Christian experience and has kept you beneath your God-given and God-ordained potential and height in ministry and destiny. and GO!

Make progress in life, advance, prosper, achieve, accomplish, trailblaze, expand, conquer new grounds, reach new heights, invade new territories, venture new frontiers, excel, maximize your potentials ………..

Romans 8:19

19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

The Whole world and all of God’s creation is waiting for YOU to manifest.

Dare to believe God.
Dare to take God at His world.
It’s going to require an AUDACIOUS FAITH Hebrews 11:1-2 KJV

11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.

It requires an AUDACIOUS FAITH to obtain the kind of RESULTS and
REPORTS contained in Hebrews 11

VERSE 24-35:

By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. 28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. 29 By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. 31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.

32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. 34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

It is going to be BY FAITH…BY FAITH….BY FAITH…BY FAITH…BY FAITH THAT AUDACIOUS FAITH

It is called …THE AUDACITY OF FAITH

DARE TO BELIEVE FOR IT!

PRAYER:

I pray complete healing and deliverance over you today from anything that has held you down or kept you limited, kept you stagnated, rendered you incapacitated and bed-riding in some way physically, spiritually, emotionally, and otherwise, I say to you in the name of Jesus Christ rise up, get up and go, rise up pick up your mat and go, pick up that thing that has been carrying you, pick up that thing that has been holding you down, pick up that thing that has kept you paralyzed and bound and limited and stagnated. In the name of Jesus be broken loose now. If you are sick in any way I say to you be healed now, be healed now, be healed now irrespective of what that sickness or disease is.

I speak to that spirit behind that infirmity; let him/her go now in the name of Jesus. Let this one go! Be healed no matter what the condition is, no matter what the medical condition or name of that ailment is; by the authority in the name of Jesus and by the power in the blood of the lamb, the blood that was shed for the remission of our sins, the redemption of our soul and the healing of all our infirmities I decree and declare be healed now in the name of Jesus from every medical condition. Receive your testimony, receive your miracle, receive your victory now like the men in the story I release the same power over you now. May the spirit of FAITH rest upon you. Be filled with THE AUDACITY to believe. Now begin to do what you could not do before. Do it! Do it!! Do it!!! Do it.

It takes audaciousness. It takes audacity to see the power of God at work. May the power of God rest upon you. May His peace, great joy, peace, and goodwill remain and abide with you both now and forever in Jesus’ mighty name

Victory Outreach Cape Town