The Five Fallacies of Faith | Jimmy Evans

coming up on the overcoming life with Jimmy Evans he doesn't take a lot of faith to get a miracle out of God it's not about the size of our faith it's about the size of his heart He loves us He loves us he's for us he's on our side all we have to do is tell him what we need and just reach out and touch him with our mustard seed faith it's all about God it's all about His grace you say pastor Jimmy and I don't have much faith you have enough faith to get anything you need from God because he is madly in love with you and he cares about you somebody say Amen [Music] justice 24:1 Abraham was old well advanced in age and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things that's what you want for your life in that right you want to live to a ripe old age you want to be blessed in all things when you have a child you want your child to live to a ripe old age be blessed and everything that's the blessing of Abraham and it says that Jesus came to remove the curse to give us the blessing of Abraham but says another important thing here that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith well who is the Holy Spirit well first of all the Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit is not an it he is a he and he is co-equal and coeternal with God the Father in god the son he's a part of the Trinity the Godhead and so the Holy Spirit is God jesus said it is better for you that I go away because when I go away I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit back to you the Holy Spirit is a gift of grace the Holy Spirit is God we do not deserve Jesus we do not deserve salvation as a gift of grace we also do not reserve the Holy Spirit he is a gift of God into our lives you can't deserve the Holy Spirit you could just receive him and so he is a gift and he is the delivering agent of every blessing of God in our lives see everything that Jesus died to give you the Holy Spirit imparts is you believe in him and walk with Him by faith and so Jesus became a curse for us so that the curse of sin could be removed so that by grace the Holy Spirit could come into our lives and restore to us every single blessing that God wants for us so that's very important let's look for just a minute that's the foundation the foundation of our faith is grace the grace of God in God's great love for us that's what faith focuses on ok so let's talk about Abraham for just a minute well did Abraham walk by faith in God's grace I mean Abraham was a pretty you know pretty unbelievable guy I mean he was the father of the faith and God did some pretty unbelievable things through Abraham but so the question is is Abraham like us I mean was Abraham kind of special when God chose Abraham to do all the things that he did was Abraham chosen because he was kind of like a cut above he was like a super man of faith or was he like us kind of messed up in kind of needing a whole lot of grace now listen Abraham was a very messed up guy just like in the comforting to know that other people are messed up yeah I don't like hearing about perfect people it makes me nervous I kind of like hearing about everybody else's problems it makes me feel better that's shouldn't say that but really so Abraham is an example to us because he's just like us this is Genesis chapter 12 and Abraham did some remarkable things there's no doubt about that but he did some unremarkable things too and this is one of them in Genesis 12 verse 7 then the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your descendants I will give this land now he's journey he just started his journey and he's journeying through the promised land to your descendants I will give this land and there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him and he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west a I on the east there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord so Abram journeyed going on still toward the south though there was a famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there for the famine was severe in the land that it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt that he said to Sarai his wife indeed I know that you're a woman of beautiful countenance therefore it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say this is his wife and they will kill me but they will let you live unless wait just a minute now Abraham's in his mid-70s when Abraham left herb the Caddy's he was 75 years old so Abraham has just begun his journey okay so he's in his mid-70s he will be a hundred years old when Isaac is born 20-25 years from here his first son will be born so he's going through the promised land he's coming through the promised land and God meets him there and God says to him I'm gonna give your descendants this land this this land will be to your descendants okay and Abraham built an altar and worshipped him okay he has no descendants he has no child and so if he dies there is not going to be a fulfillment of that promise so immediately following that event Abram is his name hadn't been changed yet Abram is going down and there's a famine in the land so he has to go down to Egypt now Sarah must have been very beautiful so listen listen he says to his wife Sarah you're so beautiful then we go to Egypt I know that Pharaoh's gonna hear about he's gonna take you so in the in the Hebrew the word Sarah means hot that's the joke okay so anyway never never mind so hot emic hot rich she's hot so she's they're going down to Egypt she is so beautiful that he knows that when they get there Pharaoh's gonna want her okay and he turns to Sarah because of his fear now he turns to Sarah completely omitting the promise that God just gave him completely omitting that promise and he doesn't say he doesn't say you're so beautiful I think Pharaoh's gonna want you and they may kill me he doesn't say that he said they will kill me we're gonna go to Egypt Pharaohs gonna hear about your beauty he's gonna want you they're going to kill me if any of you struggle with faith here it is right here Abraham was the man just like us let's keep reading here it's very interesting verse 13 we're continuing police say that you're my sister that it may be well for me for your sake that I may live because of you so it was Abram came into Egypt and the Egyptian saw the woman that she was very beautiful the princess of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house he treated Abram well for her sake he had sheep oxen male donkeys male female servants female donkeys and camels but the Lord plagued Pharaoh in his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abrams wife and Pharaoh called Abram and said what is this thing you've done to me why did you not tell me that she was your wife but why did you say she's my sister I might have taken her as my wife now therefore here's your wife take her and go your way so Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had well first of all being Sarah's brother paid pretty good you know so when Sarah went into Pharaoh's house he starts getting male and female servants camels donkeys all this kind of stuff so he's he sinning God's blessing him that's what you call grace I'm not saying go home as sin but I'm just saying we're always messed up we're never doing we're never doing exactly right right if you ever dare devil ever told you you don't deserve to be blessed you know the problem with that is true I don't deserve to be blessed that's why I need the grace of God you know I'm not perfect the Bible says all of our righteousness is like filthy rags you know you know where my righteousness comes from the blood of Jesus Christ I don't deserve nothing I don't deserve nothing and I get blessed anyway because of the grace of God somebody say min it's good news it's good news Abraham is messed up he's making a big mistake here and he was a good man he he did a lot of good things for God but he still made some bad mistakes but the problem with miss mistake is he did it twice if it wasn't dumb enough for him to do this once he did it twice this is Genesis 28 burning from there to the south and dwelt in the land of Kadesh and Shur in stating Guerard now Abraham said of Sarah his wife she is my sister and Abimelech king of a garage Sinan took Sarah but God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him indeed you're a dead man because the woman whom you've taken for sees the man's wife Abimelech had not come near her and he said Lord will you slay a righteous nation also did he not say to me she is my sister and she even herself said he is my brother in the integrity of my heart in innocence of my hands I have done that and God said him in a dream yes I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart for I also withheld you from sinning against me therefore I did not let you touch her now restore therefore restore the man's wife for he is a prophet and he will pray for you and you shall live okay so he does the second time but that's not the worst part his son Isaac does it again to Abimelech Isaac had a wife who was very beautiful named Rebecca he goes down there to that same area and he has the same fear this is called a generational sin this transferred from generation to generation and now Abraham's son to the same king does exactly the same thing with his wife Rebecca in says I'm afraid that they're gonna kill me because of you and says that she's persistently his sister and of course he's found out later and everything like that so let me go back and say this my faith is not in my goodness I'm not good enough I'm not good I'm not good compared to God I mean compared to other people I may be good but I'm not good compared to God my faith is not in my righteousness I'm not righteous I mean all my righteousness is like filthy rags my faith is in the righteousness of Jesus that comes as a free gift to me I don't deserve anything and when the devil comes to me and tells me I don't deserve anything I totally agree with him and I begin to praise Jesus first blood when the devil tries to tell me I'm no good I agree with him I'm not good but I'm good in God I'm the righteousness of God I can have everything freely by God it's not about me see the laws about me grace is about Jesus Abraham to see here's the thing about Abraham when it's about you and you fail you give up because you're overwhelmed Abraham failed but he didn't give up you know why he didn't give up because God didn't give up on him you know why God didn't give up on Abraham because of grace grace doesn't give up on people grace believes in people grace is merciful grace grace is forgiving the law is unforgiving the law points his finger at us and says you better perform you better obey you better do right it's all about us but grace is off remember Abraham came before the law Abraham came before Moses he wasn't under the law he was under grace and Abraham was able to accomplish everything he was able to accomplish because he just walked in the grace of God he made mistakes you know some of them he learned from him some of me didn't but he was still a good man God still used him in a great way and I'm saying about you don't you let the devil put your eyes on you don't you let the devil make it about you your God believes in you and even when you make mistakes God's not gonna give up on you someday say Amen that's good news dive deeper into the life of Abraham in this powerful series by Jimmy Evans I am Abraham will help you have a strong vibrant faith regardless of circumstance you'll learn why waiting is essential for your promises to be fulfilled and discover how to leave a legacy of blessing for generations for a gift of any amount we'll send you five facts about faith as an mp3 audio download a special teaching from Jimmy Evans that will help you grow in your faith we're also offering the complete series I am Abraham on CD or audio download for your gift of $30 or more and with your gift of $50 or more you can receive the complete series on DVD or video download if you're in the season of waiting on God's promises or you just need to be encouraged in your faith this is the series for you go online or call now to receive these resources so let's talk about the five fallacies of faith real quickly here's things that we believe about faith is just simply sometimes weren't true now you may not believe all of these but you may believe some of them number one not everybody has faith it's a special gift you look at Abraham say well I'm not like Abraham I don't have that much faith you have as much faith as Abraham here's what Romans 12 says I say through the grace given to me listen I say Paul says through the grace given to me to everyone who's among you not to think of himself more highly that he ought to think but to think soberly has God has dealt to each one a measure of faith did you know God gave Pharaoh and Abimelech a measure of faith by the way did you know this when you were not a believer God gave you the grace of faith to believe did you know that faith is given by God every unbeliever has enough faith to believe in Jesus or God couldn't require of them that they did faith is a gift and every person has been given a measure of faith you have a measure of faith okay number two fallacy about faith it takes a person of great faith to do great things for God absolutely not true these are the words of Jesus Luke 17 verse 5 the Apostles said to the Lord this is interesting because the Twelve Apostles they were normally called disciples but now they're called apostles as though they've been given color promotion the apostle said to the Lord increase our faith they go to Jesus Lord increase our faith sounds like a good prayer so Lord said if you have faith as a mustard seed you can say to this mulberry tree be pulled up by the roots and planted in the sea and it would obey you and which of you having a servant plowing or tending sheep will say to him when he has come in from the field come at once and sit down to eat but will he not rather say to him prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me until I have eaten and drunk and afterwards you will eat and drink does he think that servant because he did the things that were commanded him I think not so Ike why is you when you've done all those things which your command to say were unprofitable servants we have done what was our duty to do so the Apostles walk up to Jesus one day and they've been you know they've been casting out demons and healing sick people and doing all kinds miracles and it's like they're ready for more and they believe that they need more faith to go out and do bigger miracles so they come to Jesus and they say this prayer to them to him Lord increase our faith but they're gonna get rebuked for it they're gonna get a real sound rebuking for this but they come to Jesus and they say warden increase our faith very religious prayer isn't it I want mountain-moving faith I won't raise the dead faith I want powerful faith I want people to fall down when I walk by I want that kind of faith and see you always hear about people that have that kind of faith but they always live somewhere else not here over in Africa over in China you know well that kind of faith does exist here so Jesus Jesus said if you had faith like a mustard seed like a grain of sand a mustard seeds a tiny little grain of sand see if you had faith like a mustard seed you could speak to that mulberry tree and cast into the ocean we are the person that was perishing we were perishing in our sins and we called out to God and God saved us and God gave us a promised land in Jesus the curse is gone the blessing has come back and he sent His Holy Spirit the spirit of grace to live with us to be our friend and our partner and he is all-powerful and he's all-knowing and he's sweet and he's always with us he's our helper that never leaves our side and he is very loving and very attentive and we don't have to beat him with a bigger stick to get a bigger miracle and that's exactly what the disciples were saying when the Apostles came up to Jesus they were saying O Lord we we've done all these mighty miracles now could we have a bigger stick you think you have to beat God with a bigger stick he doesn't take a lot of faith to get a miracle out of God it's not about the size of our faith it's about the size of his heart He loves us He loves us he's for us he's on our side all we have to do is tell him what we need and just reach out and touch him with our mustard seed faith it's all about God it's all about his grace you say pastor Jimmy and I don't have much faith you have enough faith to get anything you need from God because he is madly in love with you and he cares about you somebody say Amen takes a lot of faith to get a miracle no what does it just takes a great God to get a miracle and thank God we have a great guy number three fallacy about faith faith comes by hearing the Word of God okay now some people hang on just minute because you'll think I'm in heresy Romans 10:17 so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God no does the pastor Jimmy you're disagreeing with Scripture you're gonna grace me in just a minute promise in the Old Testament there's the Old Testament law it's the Word of God it means in the Old Testament we're not under the law anymore let me give you a couple of examples of the word that doesn't increase your faith Leviticus 11 all flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you yet these you may eat up the flying insect that creeps on all fours those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth these you may eat the locusts after its kind the destroying locusts after its kind the cricket after its kind the grasshopper after its kind but all other flying insects which have four feet shall be an abomination to you that kind of help anybody's faith help you out for lunch so you know how to order now know that it the law the law destroys faith the laws about us Leviticus 13 the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying when a man has long his skin of his body is swelling a scab or a bright spot that becomes on the skin of his body like a leprous or he shall be brought to Aaron the priests or to one of his sons the priest the priest shall examine the sore on the skin of his body and if the hair on the sores turned white yuck and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body it is a leprous or then the priest shall examine him pronounce him unclean if the bride spot Oh spot on the scene of his body does not appear to be deeper than skin his hairs not trying away facial lifelike one seven days bless anybody now you don't want any lunch that's the Old Testament law it does nothing for our faith let me read Romans 10 again in its context and tell you what brings faith romans 10 11 the scripture says believe whoever believes on him will be not be put to shame for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same lord over all is rich to all who call on him forever calls on the lame of the Lord shall be saved how then shall they call on him whom they've not believed how shall they believe in him have they've not heard how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach unless they are sent and it is written how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace who bring glad tidings of good things but they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says Lord who shall believe our reports so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God here's what I want you to understand the Old Testament law does not increase my faith but the good news of the gospel increases my faith might the foundation of my faith is the grace of God not the law you even have to be careful when you're reading the Bible because it's all true but there's some of it that's Old Testament law that doesn't apply to us anymore and when you get too focused on the law it can actually decrease your faith not increase your faith to more and I'm done real quick fourth fallacy of faith is faith is the answer to fear no it's not a lot of people say well there's fear and the opposite of fear is faith no it's not first Shawn for love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this world there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment but he who fears has not been made perfect in love we love him because he first loved us 2nd Timothy 1:7 God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and a sound mind Abraham went to Egypt and he feared because he didn't understand the father heart of God he doesn't he just understand that God was his daddy and when I was a young believer I had so much fear in my life it was uncredible I don't have any of that fear today because I know my daddy I the love of God has cast out my fear so the answer to fear is understanding how much God loves you the grace is the foundation of our faith not faith our faith is not in our faith our faith is not in our goodness our faith is in the love of God God who is rich in mercy because of his great love which his loved us we need more of God's love and fear is driven away from our lives the more of God's love that we get number five fallacy is faith grows as we focus on God no it doesn't it doesn't and so you say pastor Jimmy this is hard for me to believe that you don't want me focusing on God I didn't say that but listen to this scripture and I'm done Exodus 20 all the people witnessed the thunderings lightning flashes the sounds of the trumpet the mountain spoking and when the people saw it they trembled and stood afar off then they said to Moses you speak to us and we will hear but let not God speak to us lest we die and Moses said to the people do not fear for God has come to test you that his fear may be upon you so that you may not sin again that's Old Testament that was during the time of the law but listen to this the devil wants you to have a concept of God that he doesn't love you he's mad at you he's a he's on the top of a mountain with smoke and lightning and flashes of thunder and he's very very austere that he's very very ticked and he wants to put his fear on you so that you don't sin like in the Old Testament but that's what he was doing okay if you have that concept of God that will not do one single thing for your faith except keep you from coming to God no one's gonna jump in Daddy's lap when daddy's mad right but we come boldly to the throne of grace right so when we understand the love of God you want to run to that guy as a young believer I used to read books about you know great Christians of the past and you know people who did great things for God and it didn't inspire me it discouraged me the the more of those books that I read the you know I just felt smaller and smaller as a person and I just think you know I could never do anything like that well what I love about the Bible is it tells the whole story about people it tells the whole story about Moses and he got angry and struck the rock it tells the whole story about David and Bathsheba in the census and the mistakes that he made it tells the whole story about Peter and how he denied Christ and my point is this we all relate to God based on grace none of us deserve what we get from God it's not faith is not something I deserve or something I earn or something God does for special people and not for others Abraham is who we're talking about on this program and every single thing that God did for Abraham he did by grace he didn't do it because Abraham deserved him it didn't hidden to it because somehow Abraham was a special person every single thing is because of grace and I want to say to you is that I know you're not a perfect person anymore that I'm a perfect person really can I say God is a gracious God he wants to bless you he wants to reward you by His grace through faith the only thing that we have to put faith is in God's grace Jesus died for us on the cross so that by God's grace we could be forgiven will you believe that well you will you let God forgive you of your sins and will you let Jesus come into your life God sent His Holy Spirit to empower us to live our lives for Christ and live icterus Lee Galatians 3 says he does that by faith will you believe that the Holy Spirit wants to come into your life and give you victory and to help you to overcome all you have to do is just receive it by grace every single thing that God's gonna do in you he's gonna do by an act of grace as you put faith in Him just like he did very brave it's encouraging we don't have to be perfect we don't have to perform the only thing we have to do is just by faith accept God's grace that's my encouragement to you today let God work in your life is your loving father by His grace as you put faith in Him I hope you've been encouraged by the program today I'll see you right here next time for more be overcoming [Music] thousands of years later Abraham's life is still affecting matcom his steadfast faith continues to inspire people around the world in this powerful series I am Abraham Jimmy Evans we'll help you learn how to have a strong vibrant faith regardless of your circumstances support the overcoming life with your gift of any amount and we'll send you five facts about faith as an audio download when God tells you to lay something down he never intends to take it from you he intends to give you something in return greater than what you're gonna light in God God has no desire to take things away from us receive the complete series I am Abraham on CD or audio download for your gift of $30 or more for your gift of $50 or more you'll receive the complete series I am Abraham on DVD or video download discover how to leave a legacy of blessing for generations grow in your faith and see God move on a higher level than ever before thank you for watching the overcoming life with Jimmy Evans

Channel: Jimmy Evans

Views: 32,160

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Keywords: Jimmy Evans, Christian, marriage, Marriage Today, Daystar

Id: XWjkYUZNHk0

Length: 26min 57sec (1617 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 10 2018