NOTE:
My manuscripts are basically my thoughts on paper. Typically, I use them as a guide, not verbatim. Very rarely do I preach my message exactly the way I wrote it. If you would like to hear the message preached, please visit Abundant Life Fellowship’s multimedia page at http://www.abundantlife-lompoc.org/multimedia.html
Over the course of the past few weeks, we have been looking at what we need to do as a fellowship to see the manifest hand of God move among His people. We looked at the power of covenant agreement. And when people lay petty differences and arguments aside, and come into a corporate agreement with one another, God moves. Last week Dr. Tim Dailey was with us and he taught on the journey from vision to victory. Going from Egypt where the vision is birthed, to victory in the Land of Promise. In between is a wilderness time that will bring about changes. This church is on a journey. A journey that is birthed out a vision that will lead to victory. Right now, we are in the wilderness journey that is bringing about changes; some major, some minor. I shared with you last week the vision that the Lord has placed upon my heart to plant 20 churches by the year 2020. But in order to see that vision turn to victory, we must overcome another hurdle that lie in the way of every saint. A hurdle that has tripped many Christians from seeing vision fulfilled in their individual lives and in their fellowships. That hurdle is unbelief.
If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Mark, chapter 9 and we will begin reading with verse 14. In our passage, we find a man whose son is plagued by a demon. And some of Jesus’ disciples were attempting to cast the demon out of the boy, but they could not. Almost out of desperation, the father of the boy goes to Jesus. The man asks Jesus to help his son if He could. Jesus replied with a powerful statement, “anything is possible, if a person believes” (vs 23 NLT). Then the man replied with a statement that I believe could be uttered by virtually every Christian at one point or another. “I do believe, but help me not to doubt” (vs 24 NLT).
There is no doubt in my mind that there are those of us in this room today who believe in Jesus, the Bible, miracles, etc. But there are times in our Christian walk when God asks us to do something that appears to be too large for us to handle. Looking at the task at hand and then looking in the mirror, often we begin to doubt, or just flat out suffer from unbelief.
I have a movie clip this morning to better illustrate this point. Many of you are familiar with the Star Wars saga. This movie clip comes from the Empire Strikes Back. To set the scene, Luke Skywalker, the hero of the story goes to seek out one who will train him to become a Jedi knight. He crashes his X-Wing fighter on the swampy planet of Degobah. There he is shocked to find that the one who is to train him, is an old, small green guy by the name of Yoda. In this scene, Yoda is trying to convince Luke that he is capable to remove his craft from the swamp. As we watch, see if you can identify with Luke when the Lord asks us to do something that seems virtually impossible.
You see, Luke’s purpose and destiny was to become a Jedi knight. In order to fulfill his destiny, he had to, as Yoda told him, “unlearn what he had learned”. There were things that he would encounter that he could not overcome by conventional means. And there were times in my past, and even times today, that I do exactly what Luke did. First he had already admitted defeat before he even attempted the task. Second, he grumbled and complained. Third, he was riddled with unbelief.
There are things in our walk with the Lord that He asks us and expects us to do. And to accomplish and fulfill our vision, purpose and destiny we have to operate, not in the realm of doubt, but in faith. So this morning I want us to look at the effects of unbelief, and how we can overcome it.
1. Unbelief can prohibit vision fulfillment
“Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” – (Numbers 20:12 NKJV)
2. Unbelief can prohibit a miracle from being birthed in your life
“And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.” – (Matt 13:58 NLT)
3. It can bring discouragement among God’s people
But the other men who had explored the land with him answered, “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread discouraging reports about the land among the Israelites – (Numbers 13:31)
4. It can weaken your defenses
“In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan” – (Ephesians 6:16)
5. It can prohibit peace in troubling times
Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. Frantically they woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you even care that we are going to drown?” When he woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the water, “Quiet down!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. And he asked them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still not have faith in me?”
What must I do to overcome unbelief?
1. Unlearn what you have learned
The world will teach you to say, “I’ll believe it when I see it”. I have heard many people say that they would believe in God and the Bible if they would see some type of evidence or sign. I really don’t think that would work, because it didn’t even work with those who physically walked with Jesus. They saw many signs and wonders, yet they still struggled with doubt and unbelief.
The ways of God are totally upside down than those of the world. Instead of saying, “I’ll believe it when I see it”, the Word of God teaches, “I’ll see it when I believe it”.
So, you may be asking yourself, “How do I do that?” The answer is in Romans 12:2 – “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is”. We have to let God, through His Word, help us to unlearn what we have learned by changing how we think.
2. Read the Word of God (Romans 10:17)
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”
So where does faith come from? It comes by reading and listening to God’s Word. The more and more you get into His Word, he will change the way you think. Because you see, faith doesn’t make common sense.
3. Believe (have faith in) the Word of God
There may be many in this room who read God’s Word, but do you believe it? I’ve heard many utter the number one lie out of the pit of hell. “I don’t have any faith”. The Bible clearly says that God has given everyone a measure of faith (Romans 12:3). Jesus told His disciples that if they had the faith of a mustard seed, they could look at a mountain and tell it to cast itself into the sea (Matthew 17:20). Look at the mustard seed in your bulletin. Do you realize that even if your “measure” is as small as that seed, according to Jesus, you can move mountains?
When we come into a clear understanding that God will honor His Word, and He has given us a measure of faith to believe His Word, His promises will manifest in your life.
The Bible teaches us to have a child-like faith. There are many things that we believed, or had faith in, when we were children. We believed that when we placed our tooth under our pillow, there would be a dime or a quarter there in its place the following morning. But I believe that when Jesus said that we should have a child like faith, He meant we need to get past our “intellectual reasoning” and believe as a child. We as adults always want to analyze things, where children usually take things at face value.
4. Act upon (do) the Word of God
Here’s is where the rubber meets the road. It’s one thing to read the Bible, and it’s another thing to believe it (even the devil believes it), but acting on it is what can move the heart and hand of God.
When Christ was here on Earth, we know that He did some awesome miracles. Some of those miracles where wrought about in the lives of those who reached out to Him in faith. They heard about Jesus, they believed that He was able, and they acted on their faith. What did Jesus tell them?
The woman with the issue of blood - “Your faith has made you whole.” (Matthew 9:20-22)
The Gentile woman who want Jesus to deliver her daughter from demonic oppression - “Great is thy faith”. (Matthew 15:21-28)
Look at your mustard seed and say, “Great is my faith”.
Faith of other people can have an effect on someone else (Mark 2:5). The Bible tells us that there was a time when Jesus was teaching in a man’s house and it was packed full of people. There were some men who had a friend who was crippled, and they were carrying him, but they couldn’t get through the crowd to bring their friend to Jesus. So they went on top of the house to lower Him down through the roof. You see when you want something bad enough, you may have to go by some unconventional means. But the Bible said that when Jesus saw their faith, he told the man on the stretcher to take up his bed and walk.
So how do I overcome unbelief?
Put your faith into action. The book of James tells us, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). Faith without works of faith is dead, it’s just talk. But a genuine faith will produce works of faith. And when you see God move in your life, it will assist you in overcoming unbelief.
Closing
You may read the Word, but do you believe it?
If you believe it, are you doing it?
There may be those in this room right now who have never asked Jesus in their lives, or once did, and have fallen away because you’re struggling with unbelief. But if you would like to reach out with a child-like faith and ask Him into your heart, I would like to pray for you.
If you are here this morning and you are struggling with doubt or unbelief in an area that God is leading you into and would like prayer, would you come up to the alter and I would like to pray for you.
