The Power of Unbelief | Sermon by Tony Evans

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 he sees 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 all of us have travelled across bridges when we travel across a bridge it typically means that two bodies of land have been separated by a challenge there's either a water way a lake or a river that has to be crossed that we can't drive across so they construct a bridge or perhaps there's one mountain range to another range one large hill to another hill separated by a valley a low spot that you can't drive across or it's too big so they construct a bridge this bridge is designed to take you from where you are to where you are trying to go you're trying to get from here to there so they make a construct they construct a bridge that you can cross over from where you are to where you need to be there is a bridge that God has constructed for everyone to move from the natural to the supernatural he has given you a bridge you do not have to stay stuck where you are you can literally move from where you are the natural into the supernatural but you gotta cross the bridge the bridge that God has constructed for you to move from the natural to the supernatural is the bridge called faith it is the only bridge that he has constructed so if you don't use that bridge you don't cross over no matter how bad you want to cross over no matter how much you need to cross over without the faith bridge you cannot move from the natural into the supernatural now that we have constructed the bridge it's time to cross over cuz you can have a bridge that folk don't use but a bridge unused becomes a useless rich to those who need it most and trust me what many of us need either in our lives or in the lives of folk we know demands the supernatural and the reason you know it demands the supernatural is the natural hadn't fixed it the natural hadn't changed it reversed it tweak bit it had done anything substantial with it and so it's time to cross over but there's only one bridge and that's the faith bridge now what you need to know is the power of unbelief because faith if it's the only bridge and you don't have it unbelief will keep you stuck where you are unbelief is so powerful we read in chapter 13 that Jesus limited what he would do because of unbelief unbelief is so powerful it'll stop God's work in your life unbelief is so powerful it'll keep God at a distance unbelief is so powerful that you can spend the rest of your life stuck where you are and never cross over to see the supernatural so here we are we're going to start off with a story story here in chapter 17 we have a father whose son is crazy it's more crazy he's called a Looney tune it's called a lunatic he's mentally unstable he's off not only that but he's ill it says he's lunatic and he's ill so he's got mental problems and he's got he physical problems she's physically impaired this boy had something wrong with him and we have somebody in his life who cared his father natural for father to care about a son his father cared that he had a suicidal very sick epileptic son who was mentally off at some way who needed to be delivered and everybody in here either has something from which they need to be delivered or know someone who has something from which they need help that the natural can't fix so what does daddy do verse 16 I brought him to your disciples and they could not cure him first verse of chapter 10 of Matthew says Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness he then goes and tells Jesus I went to the folk you told me to go to I went to the folk you authorized me to go to and your people couldn't help me he brings the boy to Jesus stay with me when he brings the boy to Jesus Jesus said and verse 17 bring him here to me Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out and the boy was cured at once now notice what Jesus says before he says bring the boy to me you unbelieving and perverted generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I put up with you doesn't it sound like Jesus say y'all gettin on my nerves huh okay why why is Jesus upset he says you you are a generation that have upset me because what's this you are unbelieving and your unbelief has you perverted whoa faithlessness leads to perversion your unbelief has perverted your thinking it has perverted how you operate it has perverted how you look at me and you making me have to go through the same stuff over and over and over and over again because faithlessness leads to perversion he says you are perverted the generation is perverted bring him to me now it says when he brings the boy to Jesus Jesus speaks to the demon and the boy is cured at once hmm interesting the boys got a mental problems got a physical problem he's got medical issues he's got all this but behind all this is a demon if you don't see the demon and you don't understand the demon then you just gonna be dealing with mental problems and physical problems and circumstances Jesus went to the source cuz the source of his problem was spiritual the mental problems the physical problems the jumping in the fire and jumping in the water was fruit of another root but if you aren't spiritual enough to see it or if you're spiritual enough to see it but not spiritual enough to address it then what you do is stay crazy now let me take a step back every problem doesn't exist because there is a spiritual negative reason in other words you can have a headache just because something is wrong physically it's not a demon we've got the problem that we don't bother to go deeper to find out if it is deeper we become satisfied with the surface which fundamentally as you'll see in a moment is unbelief here's where some of you will see a supernatural where as we go through this process this law it says when Jesus spoke to the demon the demon came out at once here's when you know you've hit the supernatural when you've been dealing with stuff for years you get your faith life right and it disappears overnight because see that's the supernatural you know that's not natural cuz you've been dealing with this addiction you've been dealing with this problem you were dealing with this mindset you've been dealing with this circumstance and you've tried this and tried that try this drive that tried this nut it hasn't worked and all of a sudden you get you cross this bridge of faith and bam God comes out of nowhere and takes away what was owning you for an extended period of time it says when Jesus showed up he sucked that thing up because it was spiritual and Jesus addressed it spiritually it got addressed quickly it didn't take forever okay so Jesus cures the boy ah now it gets interesting because verse 19 then the disciples came to Jesus privately we tried and not like we didn't try we tried and it didn't work I bet you right now there are some folks sitting under the sound of my voice and you're afraid this I'm trying I'm trying I'm trying I've been trying for years I'm trying to go to church I read my Bible I'm trying in fact there's some folk here who in your private conversation with Jesus are saying it doesn't work this religious thing this Christian thing it doesn't work that's what the disciples are saying it's not working I'm not getting victory I'm not being delivered I'm not I'm not I'm not working and they want to know why so they want to know why so Jesus answers that question verse 20 he said to them because of the littleness of your faith the reason you failed was the power of unbelief your faith was so tiny that you didn't cross the bridge into the supernatural that you just saw me do because your faith was missing so what's the point your faith will determine your experience or lack thereof of the supernatural he didn't say there was no faith that's interesting he said your faith was too small you you your faith was watch this insufficient for the problem you had enough faith to go to church you had enough faith to be religious you may even had enough faith to pick up your Bible but what you had and what you needed didn't match now he tells them the problem that problem is our problem because it's a generational problem he says he didn't do many miracles because of their unbelief chapter 13 says now he now wants to teach them so I'm going to try in this verse to explain a phenomenal principle of us entering into the supernatural he says I say to you he's talking to his disciples we're his disciples if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you will say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you he says number one you need mustard seed faith to deal with mountain size problems stay with me now he says you need mustard seed faith to deal with mountain size problem mountains in the Bible are in movable circumstances things you can't change it too big in order to move a mountain he says you need a mustard watch this stay with me you got this huge problem this huge addiction this huge crisis this huge issue it's big it's been there for years you've tried everything you know it won't budge what it looks like it's budging and then it still doesn't budge he said what's missing is mustard a mustard seed faith little seed you complain to have a little faith but the little seed can move a big number let me tell you a little something about that mustard seed inside that seed when planted is a 15 foot mustard tree see the seed is tiny watch this but the life inside of it is big you would think it's a small seed would big life well I could use something else an acorn an acorn isn't oak waiting to happen you see how big oak trees get and all of that is in that acorn so what made their faith little was the lack of life inside of it okay it was a life issue not a size issue because this a mustard seed was used to refer to the smallest kind of seed you could ever have and you see how small it is the issue was living faith versus lifeless thing so what makes your face small is the absence of spiritual life inside of it if it's void of spiritual lights James - calls it dead faith it's the faith without life our problem is a lack of life so we come up with big things big programs big activities big expectations with no life so it won't grow it won't grow see if something doesn't have life it can't grow he says if you have a mustard seed kind of faith that is a light pulsating with life even though it's tiny what you will see this thing produced will blow your mind because it's full of life so it's the nature of the faith that produces the power of the supernatural Jesus says it'll move mountains and what looks like something key that can't be fixed he says when you've got mustard seed a living faith you will tell the mountain what it must do you will not simply recite what it can do you will say please notice a mouse you will have a conversation with the problem notice who he's talking to not talking to other Christians not talking to other disciples not talking other people you will say to this mountain the mountain is the obstacle the mountain is the problem you and the mountain don't have a conversation and you don't say addiction you gonna say situation you're gonna speak to it and it must back off why must it back off because of the life you confronted it with you confronted it with living faith and the the cement was not able to handle the growth of the life wouldn't be something supernatural if you could speak to your stuff and your stuff would move he says it has to do with faith but it has to do with the living nature of the faith and so he tells them that this is the basis of seeing what appears to be impossible of course within the will of God become possible but this is not the kind of faith most Christians have okay when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior you have crossed over from death to life from Hell to heaven you had a supernatural experience because you were given eternal life that was a supernatural act when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior the problem is that the faith we use to get saved that took us to a supernatural location in heaven in our eternal destiny we skip when it comes to living in history so many of us are going to have to wait till we get to heaven to see heaven because we did not live by faith on earth so that heaven could visit us except in Christ takes you to heaven living by faith brings heaven to you so the problem today is that there are too many unbelieving believers unbelieving believers people who are unbelievers who believers but they live unbelievingly now he says in closing but this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting but this kind what kind he's talking of a certain kind of kind because he says this guy he's talking about a kind where demons are behind it in other words this is deep this is not ordinary this is this thing goes deep so when a spring key fixes you better go to the doctor when you realize that your will can't fix it that the folk you know can't fix it that the other Christians you hanging out with can't fix it that means this thing is so deep spiritually that you must dig deeper spiritually this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting what he was saying that him guys this boy's problem was so spiritually deep you should have gone deeper spiritual leave what y'all were doing was not going people spiritually and that's what most Christians run from I don't want to do that I don't want to go deeper and faster than prayer I don't want to go deeper and get in wrestling with God I don't want to go deeper if that thing been with you for years and you can't control it and it controls you you better go deeper because there may be a demon keeping them up on you and you don't handle demons by wishing them away you don't handle demons by taking pills you don't handle demons you handle demons by going deeper with God because only God can handle Eretz Angels since you got to go deeper if you want a bus and your bus get stuck in a hole and you trying to get the bus out of the hole and you got 10 guys there other guys on their own there busting their big strong guys to win this ditch guys let's get off and let's push the bus out throw you in a hole and ten guys are pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing and it won't move but you're trying you're trying you're trying and these guys are built that's strong they weight lifters and you're pushing but the hole is too deep but you're sweating and you're doing everything you can and you got to get out of this hole I got to get out of this hole I got to get somebody else out of this hole all these people in this box in this hole let me suggest something if you find out that Clark Kent is on the bus you discover what man knows man Clark Kent is on the bus that should change your strategy cuz your whole you're trying to push out of the hole but somebody says ken is on the bus you spend more time with Kent then you do trying to push it because Kent has the power you see the reason why Kent has the power is hearing from him Kent is from a place called Krypton he's from a place out there but as Clark Kent he lives down here possessing the power from a veil and when here buttons and takes off his shirt and unhooks his pie and you see that big s on his chest now it is clear the power you need for the hole you're in is really in the person you just talked to so you don't have to kill yourself to get out of the hole with the power from the supernatural person can push you out without breaking a sweat the disciples broke a sweat was not able to solve the problem because they missed Jesus the reason why the man got the problem solved is he skipped the weightlifters and went straight to Jesus and Jesus fixed overnight with the sweat and disciples were not able to push out of a hole so when it's that deep you go deeper spiritually which means you need to know somebody have somebody who knows how to go there take you there and lift you out of there let me just close with a thought in mark's version mark chapter 9 daddy had a problem Matthew doesn't tell you this mark daddy got a problem daddy says Jesus Jesus asked daddy do you believe I can heal yourself they mark na do you believe it in other words faith now and the man says something astounding he says I believe help my unbelief he says I believe but I'm shaky I believe but I'm scared will you give me what I lack so I can go deep enough to bleed so that you can lift me up out of this hole and the Bible says when he asks for help to even help his faith so that he could have the faith for Jesus to do the miracle Jesus gave him the faith he needed to both her up the faith he had for the seriousness of the situation and healed his son so even if your faith is weak you got a faith helper so get ready for your miracle as long as you cross the bridge because here it is my closing line without him you cannot but without you he will not [Applause] [Applause] [Music] a lot of people are confused about faith believing comes before seeing in order to see what God wills to do wants to do and will accomplish in your life you must believe before you can see the Matthew 17 Jesus makes the complaint that people do not understand and refuse to exercise faith in fact it gets frustrated even how long do I have to do what I've done before you will take me at my word in fact if you won't exercise biblical faith if you will take God at His Word and act in light of what he says you will see more if you're waiting to see it before you believe it you may be waiting a long time but if you will believe it and act in light of it then you will get to see some things that will blow your mind in fact Jesus makes the statement you'll be able to speak to the mountain the mountain is whatever in your life is seemingly unaware come about too big for you to get around you'll be able to speak to the problem the situation and it will have to respond so let's start putting our belief before our sight so that our sight will reflect ugly 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 both believing is saved and you can obtain your copy by making a donation of any amount Tony Evans Lord today you

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Keywords: power of unbelief, unbelief, sermons on belief, power of 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, belief, Christian, sermons, Christian faith, motivational, motivational video, tony evans, tony evans radio, dr tony evans

Id: H1qPv1msWQU

Length: 28min 41sec (1721 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 20 2018