Helping Us Believe | Sermon by Tony Evans

[Music] your eyes a gift from God hard to imagine life without them but you can't always trust what you see life is full of things that can't be seen with the naked eye that's where God comes in we see a problem he sees a solution we see weakness II see strength as you're looking for answers keep one thing in mind you'll need more than eyes to see the things that matter believing is seeing when we speak of the natural we're talking about things in accordance with the laws that God has established by which the world works science can exist because there are natural laws that through the process of observation and testing have been deemed to be consistently dependable so that we can live our lives based on those laws we call them the laws of nature but when we talk about the supernatural we're talking about when God Trump's his own laws when God rises above his own laws to do something outside of those laws to demonstrate that he is not limited to the natural of his laws but if in fact supernatural that is he can supersede his own laws as he so chooses in this series recalling believing is seeing experiencing the supernatural we are discovering and have discovered already how God works based on faith to do things outside of the natural scheme and order of nature today is no different but with a twist Jesus Christ according to chapter 2 verse 1 has come back to Capernaum he's come back that means he was already there let me summarize what's been going on with Jesus he hit a stride Jesus is right now has hit a stride and he's riding a wave of popularity chapter 1 verse 37 Simon and the companions find him and they said to him everybody's looking for you where you go you you've gone everybody's looking for you Jesus responds by saying in chapter 1 verse 38 let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby so that I can preach there also for that is what I came for in other words to folk what my miracles they don't want my sermons so Jesus Christ takes a break from Calpurnia but after he takes his break he comes back and that opens up this most stairing story stay with me I think you'll find some unique things here for your experience of the supernatural many were gathered together so that verse 2 there were no longer that was no longer room not even near the door as he was speaking to them and in the midst of his sermon something takes place and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men they came bringing to him a paralyzed individual now if he's paralyzed he can't walk for one reason or another his muscles have stopped working his limbs have stopped functioning and he is stuck in a condition he can't get himself out of he is paralyzed here we have a man who is in a hopeless situation and let me tell you how you can know when you're in a hopeless situation you know you in a hopeless situation when you can't get out of it by yourself he can't get out of this he can't move on his own now there are a lot of kind of paralysis that goes on there is the obvious one physical paralysis but you can be mentally paralyzed stuck in a mindset you can't shake you can be circumstantially paralyzed by situations you can't get out of you can be paralyzed by diction you can be paralyzed by another person whatever it is it's locked you in hold you hostage and you can't budge you're stuck such was this man he was paralyzed and even if you're not paralyzed you know some folk who are and the reason you know that paralyzed is for ten years it ain't changed for ten years they haven't budged for ten years they're complaining about how it is but it never gets any better he's paralyzed but the story introduces us to for the people now we don't know their names their backgrounds and their history but it says that four men took this man to the house four men took this man for Jesus to remove his paralysis now right there we are informed of a lot number one we're informed that there were four people in this man's life who cared about his condition even though he couldn't move there were four men who can't be him enough we'll call him his small group so so they cared for him but they knew where to take him I said if we can get if we can get homeboy to Jesus then we believe his circumstances in life can change I don't know how long he'd been paralyzed but however long it was he was a grown man who couldn't stand on his own two feet he you know anything about men like that grow man but he can't stand on his own two feet need you to hear me a grown man but he came stand on his own two feet but he did out some brothers in his life who helped him stand up so they carried him Jesus is preaching the for carry the one and here's what we read being unable to get him verse 3 in to Jesus because of the crowd they removed the roof above him and when they had dug and opening they let down the pallets on which the paralytic was lying they lowered him right smack-dab in front of Jesus what does that tell us that tells us that they were not going to stop until something changed this was not casual commitment this was some brothers who said we're gonna fight for you until we get you to the one who can change you so before I go any further I need to ask you everybody in here should be in one of two positions you either are a paralytic so you're in a situation you can't fix on your own or you ought to be somebody's friend so that you can reach down and help somebody else get to where they need to be cuz one day you may be the paralytic and you may need some folk in your circle your group who will not just leave you there to languish there but will reach down and help you get to where you need to do you know you ought to be one of the two categories but today unfortunately we live in a day when people are just looking for that blessing our series is called believing is seeing watch this Jesus seeing their faith not hearing them talk about their faith not examining their feelings of faith seeing in other words this was a visible faith it was faith but it was faith in motion faith moving faith that you could see not just talking faith remember our definition of biblical faith for the believer it is acting like God is telling the truth it's acting like it is so even when it's not so in order that it might be so something because God said so that is biblical faith biblical faith involves movement that's why it's called walking by faith and Jesus visualized their faith he's feeling this batch following orders in it look it up send his guy lower down and he's watching faith at work keyword watch this they're not his there when he saw their faith now the paralytic had a little bit of faith one because he's in the word there and it's five guys it's four guys pull off the paralytic but he had faith enough for the four to pick him up hoist him up and drop him down so he had faith enough to relinquish himself into the care of caring people who are willing to trust God for him and with him until his change came because sometimes when you've been hurt deep enough long enough and strong enough you don't have enough faith to bleed it can happen for you you hear Jesus didn't have done it for all these other folks but you're not sure he can do it for you until some folks show up who believe where you can't believe trust where your trust has become weak and are willing to bring you to Jesus he says son your sins are forgiven there's a whole story that we don't know the details of the story but we notice much there was a direct correlation between his sin and his circumstances okay there was something wrong spiritually in his life that led to and kept him in his paralysis so watch this before Jesus dealt with his circumstances he dealt with this spiritual reality what you have to understand is and not all negative circumstances are due to our personal sin Jesus says in this world you will have tribulation some are just life's realities which life has realities to them but he specifically says mister before I change your circumstances I have to deal with your spiritual condition so what does that mean it means the first thing you want to make sure of when you're asking for your blessing your miracle your supernatural presence is that the spiritual has been addressed that you are coming before God and giving him the freedom to address sin so that now he's free to address circumstances son your sin has been forgiven so this man was willing to entrust himself to folk who could get him to Jesus you know we want we want to entrust ourselves the folk who got connections we want to trust ourselves the focal have a big name we want to trust ourselves the Focolare power folk will have money who have absolutely nothing or no concern about our spiritual condition but in the world they got a little something-something so we want to entrust ourselves to them you better find some folk in your life who know how to get a hold of Jesus and who are willing to open up the roots until they get you to the one who can deal with the spiritual because Jesus no all him other folk who can help you that means that the paralytic was willing to take that risk he was willing to take the risk these boys weren't gonna drop him and that Jesus could help him now your sins are forgiven he hadn't he hadn't touched the man's circumstances man still paralyzed but his spiritual condition is now right and that's what you want you want the spiritual to be right so that God is free for the circumstances in accordance with his will well the scribes were sitting there these are the note takers they sitting there and they're saying and everyday colloquial English say why because he says they said the scribes were sitting there resuming in their hearts that means thinking to themselves why does this man speak this way he is blaspheming who can forgive sins but God alone translation this man is out of his mind how about your sins are forgiven acting like he God oh well immediately Jesus aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves said to him them why are you reasoning about these things in your heart now they should have known something was different when he told them what they were thinking they reason in their heart and he will come up and tell them y'all were just thinking about how could I do this since God could only do this that oughta been a clue and then he asked a question this is a great question Jesus says verse 9 which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven or to say get up and pick up your pallet and walk watch this now God Jesus says this is what we're gonna do what we're gonna do guys is verse 10 but so that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth in history to forgive sins he said to the paralytic I say to you get up pick up your pallet and go home now watch stay with me when God deals with you and me spiritually which means he's been free to address our sin and we deal with that as first and primary the spiritual comes first freeing him up to then just like it takes supernatural work for God to forgive to address our circumstances once he addresses our circumstances take up your pallet and walk the reason that he does the supernatural in the circumstances that people can see is to show them he also can deal with the spiritual that you can't so when God breaks through and does something outside of nature he does it so that you become a testimony to everybody watching that the God who deals with what you can't see is the God who will deal with the more important thing that you can't see because God is first interested in the spiritual over the circumstantial but he will do the circumstantial so that you will know the spiritual because the goal of the circumstantial is to bring you into relationship to the spiritual so that you have a relationship with him the one who you saw do the physical so when some of you begin to live this life of faith and you watch God break through he just breaking through for you he's not just breaking through so that you can feel better live better walk better talk better spend better he's breaking through for you so that other folk can see that Jesus Christ is Lord that he is God and that you are in spiritual relationship with him which freed him up to do what they could see in other words your individual faith led to public sight to draw a public sight back into your individual faith you're invisible faith and when he did that when he did that it says that the man got up immediately now let me tell you the secret of when you can pretty much know you're involved in the supernatural it's not the only way God works but it is the dominant way God works when you can know that something and this ain't natural okay because sometimes things you think of supernatural you wonder well was this supernatural was this just the natural working out of things okay sometimes you're not sure okay but let me tell you when you can be like sure it's the word immediately sometimes the Bible calls it suddenly okay I mean I don't know where that means where that come from I mean who ain't see that coming but that that's when God swoops down when you you how you gonna be pulled off for 38 years and then just jump up immediately come on honey some doctor I need a medicine I need some surgery but don't tell me immediately I got my spiritual life right with God and I don't know where God comes in and somebody calls me for a job immediately I got my life right with God and I got the right my right with God I had to chase nobody somebody found me immediately maybe God comes out of nowhere cuz you're in touch with him and suddenly immediately he told him get up then a man had a responsibility because Jesus gave the command but he had to get out so he had a responsibility gods and Mirat miracle involved him without it being dependent upon him because Jesus had already spoken the word to him so you know it's the miraculous when she out of nowhere God enters into the situation because you've been made right with him that's not the only way he does it but that's the way you can know that the supernatural has intervened into your circumstance and it closes by saying so they were all amazed and we're glorifying God saying we have never never never ever never seen anything like this do you have some faith God can see how about your talk and I ain't talking about waving your hand in the air like you just don't care I didn't talking about that I'm talking about where you are moving in faith or if you can't getting other folk to help you move in faith so that God can see y'all's faith saw their faith that's why you need to be connected you need to be connected so that where your faith is weak you can add to somebody else where their faith is weak they can make you can add to them they can add to you and God says Group faith and that's when a thief even brought a collection faith you see more happening in the community and in the nation because God sees that the group is serious so then that means ego in response to faith God responds to faith that is visible but as you seek your supernatural presence of God let me let me warn ya enemy let me tell you the whole truth let me warn you see when you go to the hospital and you say this is wrong whatever wrong is whatever that wrong is this is wrong with me my back's hurting the stomach certainly it's hurting all you have given them are symptoms you told them how you feel so that they got the symptoms back stomach here they not gonna let it go with that this case you haven't been to the hospital they will hear you pray to them about your symptom back hurt her stomach hurtin but then what they gonna do is go deeper x-ray here scan there because they know your symptom may simply be the fruit and not the root of what's really wrong your head may be hurting coz there's a tumor you don't know it's a tumor you just know the symptom that is hurtin but they gonna go deeper to find out what's really wrong when you come to God he's gonna deal with what's really wrong not that camouflage stuff and he's not gonna do what many in the Christian faith do he's not gonna give you a placebo make you think you getting something real when it ain't not meant above water then I'll give you a placebo because he wants you really healed he wants you really well he wants you really transformed and if that means surgery he wants to do surgery and if that means a scope he wants to give you a scope why because he's not just trying to fix your symptoms you can go to Walgreens for that he's trying to deal with the cause give you the killer so that he heals you from the root so that now you can be blessed with the fruit so the question is do you really want to get me well are you like the crowd you want to be in the house but you don't want to exercise the faith if the truth were told sometimes we have trouble believing we have trouble exercising the faith that mean we may want to exercise but it just seems to escape us well I want you to use the strategy of Mark chapter 2 those first 12 verses because here was a man who was in a situation he couldn't fix but he got a few of his homeboys a few of his buddies a few of his friends and they lifted him up cut a hole in the roof and dropped him down before Jesus and it says when Jesus saw their faith he healed the man and the fact he healed them not only physically but healed it spiritually your sins are forgiven you see sometimes we need some help and that's why you must be in a community of people whose faith you can piggyback on when your faith is too weak to go on his own it would be great if in every situation we had this awesome confidence in God but sometimes circumstances had made us Smid our spiritual immune system weak and we just can't get there on our own it even takes faith to entrust yourself to others who have the faith that you need to piggyback on because this man had to allow them to pick him up hoist him up Trust trust them not to drop him as they lower them through the the roof of the house and believe that it would make a difference well if you do not have some spiritual people in your life when you could leave I remember one time a gentleman come into my office who was desperate but it was weekend faith and he just grabbed me and held on to me the tears running down his eyes and they wanted me to be with him because he couldn't just get it there on his own so I lent him what I had because he even had faith to look with me so make sure you don't let your weak faith stop you from getting together with others who could hoist you up as long as they're taking you to Jesus [Music] for most Christians acting on your faith can be scary because it means trusting something your eyes can't always see Tony Evans reminds us that what we see with our eyes is not as reliable as what God reveals through this spirit today's message is part of an eight part teaching series called believing is saved and you can obtain your copy by making a donation of any amount Tony Evans born today you

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Keywords: helping us believe, belief, sermons on belief, Believing is Seeing, sermons on faith, Christian sermons, sermon videos, full length sermons, Tony Evans, faith, Tony Evans sermons, sermon by Tony Evans, Christian sermons on belief, Christian, sermons, Christian faith, motivational, motivational video, tony evans, tony evans radio, dr tony evans

Id: 8nDb5ZncdcU

Length: 28min 41sec (1721 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 12 2018