These days, we hear a lot about the power of personal belief. What we don’t hear a lot of is the power of one’s own unbelief. But as Tony Evans explains, the littleness of one’s faith can still have profound repercussions.
let me tell you something God doesn’t do
miracles just to show off he does the
supernatural so that his name will be
gone and they say see because too many
of us still got him in a manger
somewhere
72 million of us don’t don’t know who we
dealing with here who then is this that
even the wind and the sea obey Him 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
it’s not working and they want to know
why he doesn’t just bless you for you he
blesses you for his name his glory your
impact your testimony your ministry God
just don’t want to do miracles that
excludes you he wants to do miracles
that include you you are part of America
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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 the
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
is giving 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
because you can have a bridge that folk
don’t use but a bridge unused becomes a
useless bridge 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 our
supernatural is the natural hadn’t fixed
it the natural hadn’t changed it
reversed it tweaked it 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 mentally unstable
not only that but he’s ill so he’s got
mental problems and he’s got a 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 sauce
very sick 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 here when he
brings the boy to Jesus Jesus said in
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 made you perverted woe faithlessness
leads to perversion your unbelief has
perverted your thinking it has perverted
how you operate it
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
every problem doesn’t exist because
there is a spiritual a 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 fall
it says when Jesus spoke to the demon
the demon came out at once
I studied the Bible in college for four
years and studied the Bible before you
as different as master’s degree another
for this little doctoral degree and then
I’ve been preaching all of these years
and I’m still learning new things for me
this awesome inexhaustibility really
that’s why I’m so excited about the 20
Evans Study Bible and its accompanying
works the Tony Evans Bible commentary it
will take all of this training and this
teaching and make it available to you to
understand utilize and apply God’s most
powerful
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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
cuz 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 and tried
this tribe 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 cure is 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 in fact there’s
some folk here who in your private
conversation with Jesus are saying it
doesn’t work 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 it’s not working
they tried it wasn’t 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
to the supernatural that you just saw me
do 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 fan little seed you can
play to have a little faith but the
little seed can move a big now
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 so what made their
faith little was the lack of light
inside of it okay it was a light 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 rights 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 is talking to you 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 mountains will
have a conversation and you will 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
light 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 it 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 failure 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 gonna 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 he says in closing
but this kind does not go out except by
prayer and fasting 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
sprinkie 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
spiritually 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 in fasting and 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 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 they are
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 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 gotta get out of his 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
you in hole you’re trying to push out of
the hole but somebody says kid 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 the 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 he our 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 talk to so you don’t have to kill
yourself to get out of the hole when 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 miss
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
take you there and lift you out of there
let me just close with a thought in
Marc’s version mark chapter nine daddy
had a problem Matthew doesn’t tell you
this mark tells you this daddy got a
problem
daddy says Jesus Jesus asked daddy do
you believe I can heal yourself then
mark 9 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 stirred will you give me
what I like 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
so let me tell you something God doesn’t
do miracles just to show off he doesn’t
do the supernatural to flex his muscles
he does the supernatural so that his
name will be known some issues are too
big for you to handle by yourself
that’s why you need community that’s why
you need people around you to help you
move stones you can ease
that’s what church is supposed to be he
doesn’t just bless you for you he
blesses you for his name his glory your
impact your testimony your ministry let
the redeemed of the Lord say so will you
get your supernatural you better open up
your mouth and you better declare the
greatness of your God because only your
God can go into your grave and raise you
up and give you life you better give him
the glory to his name
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you