Skip to content The Gateway to Spiritual Power - Jesus Encounter, Part 7 Aug 20 · 50 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 So today, I wanna talk to you on the gateway to spiritual power. The gateway to spiritual power. Take your Bibles out. Matthew chapter 17 is where we're going. Matthew 17. And I want you to0:11 stand with me at all locations as we read the word of God. And we're gonna discuss this idea on the gateway to spiritual power. And I'm gonna add a verse that is not in your Bible. And I know that sounds heretical, but0:23 it's in older Bibles, but it's not in the new modern translations. And it really bothers me for that, in that in that sense. And I'm gonna tell you why it's not there. Verse 14 of Matthew 17, it says, and when0:35 they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling before him said, Lord, have mercy on my son. He is an epileptic, and he suffers terribly0:46 for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples and they could not heal him.0:58 I brought him to your church, Jesus, and they could not heal him. It's amazing to me this guy expected the church to do something that the church was unable to do. I wonder today in1:10 the country that we live in, how many people don't go to church because the church isn't doing anything that they needed to do. Oh, that's for You can just say out your amen. It's either one's fine. Okay. He says, I1:20 brought him to your disciples and they could not heal him. And Jesus answered, Oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me. And Jesus rebuked1:31 him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and they said, why could we not cast it out? And he said to them,1:44 because of your little faith. Some older translations say because of your unbelief. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,1:55 move from here to there, and it will move. And nothing will be impossible for you. Now if you have a bible, open a paper bible, and probably the electronic2:07 bible, but most likely just a paper bible, has a little number over the letter over the word you. Anybody got that? Paper Bible? Yeah. Let me tell you what that's showing. You just go to go down go down to the footnotes2:18 there, and you'll read. It says, some manuscripts insert verse 21 because you'll see it goes from verse 20 to verse 22. These are older manuscripts. These are script probably the lesser manuscripts that we2:30 have collected in our collections, throughout the museums of the world. But they have a verse that's added there, and the verse says this, But this kind, this kind of demon comes out2:41 only by prayer and fasting. This kind of demon only comes out by prayer and fasting. This is God's word. Let's pray2:53 together. Father, we pray for your Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us in this moment. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts at every location be pleasing in your sight.3:05 And father, we pray that our hearts will be drawn toward you. And may we see Jesus. In his mighty name we pray. And everybody said, amen. God bless you. Have a seat. Have a seat. Have a seat. Wanna talk3:17 to you about 1 of the best ways to experience supernatural faith in your life. 1 of the best ways to experience supernatural faith in your life. How many of you at all locations could just say honestly, I wish I3:29 had more faith. Come on somebody, be honest today this morning. My hand is up. I want more faith. I want to experience more of what God has for me. And I want you to understand that you've got a spiritual enemy that3:41 wants you to experience none of what God wants for you. The enemy wants to devour you. He wants to steal from you. The enemy is real, by the way. We live in a culture that denies the presence of the demonic,3:53 and I'm always amazed. When you turn on the television, what do you see? When you watch the news, what do you see? When you see the corruption in Washington DC, what are you seeing? This is not just human beings. This4:05 is not just biological happenstance from a cosmic accident billions of years ago. There's a real enemy. There's a real spiritual force of wickedness in the heavenly places, and he's trying to manipulate this4:17 culture, trying to manipulate this nation, trying to destroy the freedoms that we have, trying to destroy our young people, trying to devour our young people with confusion about their gender, confusion about sex,4:29 confusion about what makes a family, and we're seeing higher suicide rates and higher depression rates emptiness and more people than ever before in this country's history. And I don't know if I've ever gotten4:41 to a place in my life where I'm more passionate about the church rising up and providing hope for a country than I am right now. We're the hope, we're the salt,4:53 we're the light of the world. If we don't get our act together, this country goes to hell. Because the answer is not in Washington DC, and the answer is not in Tallahassee or Boston or Providence. The answer5:05 is in the throne room of heaven, and his name is Jesus, and we're his representatives on this earth. We are ambassadors for God. That we would see this country5:16 change. People, neighbors by by you, touched by you. Lives changed. Some of you are praying for your children to get saved. You need spiritual power. This is a war you're in. I I5:28 don't know if you're ready for it. I I I might be coming on too strong too early in this in this service, but I I feel a burden in my heart today to tell some of you, it's time to wake up. You're in a spiritual battle5:40 for your life. And you can't take it lightly, and you can't be on the fence about this stuff. You've gotta fight with a fight of faith. Paul got to the end of his life. He said, I5:51 fought the good fight. Spiritual life, the the Christian life is not some kind of casual social environment that we come to once a week. It's a6:03 lifelong day by day, morning to evening fight for our souls, and most importantly, the souls of our young people. But unfortunately, in our country, the church looks just like the world.6:15 The church looks just like our secular counterparts. That's unacceptable. And in this passage, we see the disciples weak. They they can't do what they were anointed and appointed to do, cast out a6:27 demon. And I think the reason why is because they got comfortable in their spirituality. And I and I wanna encourage you with my first line here, my first fill in the blanks. It's not encouraging. That's why I say it,6:38 but I'm gonna put it up there anyway. Write this down. Follow your stomach. Sink your future. I wanna encourage you with those words. Amen, somebody. That's a joke, by the way. But it's not a the6:50 point's not a joke. Follow your stomach. Some of you, have got to realize that your stomach, is in charge of your life right now. And I'm not just talking about your physical stomach. I'm7:01 talking about your spiritual stomach. I'm talking about your mind. You're feeding your mind all kinds of junk, and you wonder why, things aren't working out for you. Some of you young people, you feed your mind endless7:12 TikTok videos. Young people on TikTok, don't you realize that they have angled the algorithm to suck you in and hold you captive? And I'm all for a funny cat video.7:23 Hey, they're fun to watch. But after a while, face somebody in real life. Amen. Have a real conversation. Put the phone7:35 down. You're depressed, you're anxious, you're worried, you're nervous, you got all these issues going on. You you you but you're doing it to yourself. You're following your your your your7:47 mental stomach and your mental stomach sometimes your mental stomach can be worse than your physical stomach. But let me talk about the physical stomach. Some of you real gotta realize that your health problems right7:56 now, it's the gut. It's going through this stuff. It's going through this thing. You don't even realize it. You go to the doctor for a pill, and the answer is not the doctor and the pill. The answer is, what are you8:07 putting in? What are you letting be in charge of your life? Follow your stomach. Sink your future. Jesus talked about spiritual hunger in Matthew chapter 5 verse 6. Blessed are those8:18 who hunger and thirst for what? Righteous oh, you gotta say a little bit louder than that, Apollo Beech. For what? Righteousness. Righteousness. In other words, you gotta love what God loves.8:31 You gotta love godly living. And if you love godly and you hunger for that, guess what? God's gonna give it to you. You're gonna be satisfied. What's godly living? Godly living is knowing that you've got a God who's8:43 gonna provide for you. You got a God who's gonna protect you. You got a God who's gonna guide you. You got a God who's gonna direct you. You got a God who's not gonna let you fail. You got a God who can turn your8:54 failures into a future. You got a God who can turn your mess into a message and your test into a testimony. You got a God who is with you no matter what you're going through. Though I walk through the valley of the9:04 shadow of death, I'll fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. This is I don't know. Just telling you over here, it seems a little bit more exciting for the service than9:16 over here. I'm just letting you know. But I I don't care about your response today. I really don't. I encourage that. But but but we're gonna have a conversation about something that we desperately need to do. We need to9:24 fast and pray. But David said in Psalm 42, he said, as the deer pants for streams of living water, so my soul pants for you. Could we get to a place? I wonder who today God is gonna stir9:36 up your heart, and you're gonna get to that place where you love God more than you love water. And or love God more than you love a 16 ounce t bone steak. Amen.9:48 I mean, I love a 16 ounce t bone steak. Anybody with me? On the eighth day, God created t bone steaks. Amen, somebody. But I wanna love God and his presence more than a t bone steak.10:00 Look what David says, when can I come and meet God? When? I'm dying here. I need God to show up. Friends, you don't need therapy. You don't need medication. You need to meet with your maker. You need to meet with10:12 your savior. You need to meet with the 1 who designed you and programmed you, who died for you, who loves you, and who wants to fill you with the holy spirit. I wanna let you know Jesus totally expected us to fast and10:23 pray. There's a there's 3 things that Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 6 that is that should be part of every believer's private spiritual life. Every believer should do 3 things, and it's10:35 and it's not much. It's it's 3 simple things. Are you ready for them? Matthew chapter 6 verse 2, he says, thus when you give to the needy. So every believer should have a spiritual practice of giving.10:47 And listen, your giving should be private. Now this is not talking about tithe. Tithe comes to the house of God. But this is about giving to poor people, giving to people who are in need. You see a neighbor in need. You10:57 meet that need. You bless people in Jesus' name. We give to Compassion International. Our church gives 10 percent of what you bring in. 10 percent goes out of our church to missionary works, to, homeless works, to11:09 rescuing, women with unexpected pregnancies, around the world. Your money goes around the world. It goes all the way to India, it goes down to Guatemala, El Salvador,11:21 it goes, to Peru with Jeff Markowski, it goes everywhere. And that's because what we do as a church is we do what Jesus told us to do. We've gotta give. Amen, somebody. You want God to bless you? You wanna be11:33 strong in the Lord? Give. Number 2, we gotta pray. That's Matthew 6 verse 5. When you pray. Notice that Jesus says when you pray, not if. When you pray. So he's expecting us to pray. And then he says, don't be like the11:45 hypocrites. And what the hypocrites did was they would have their long flowing robes and their collars and their hats, and they would pray, and they would put a big big show. They put a big show on to be religious. Jesus11:54 says, don't do that. You go into your prayer closet and you pray to your father who's in secret. You pray when nobody's watching you. And then Jesus says, and your father who sees what is done in secret, he will reward12:05 you. By the way, he also said he's gonna reward you if you give. So I'm giving you 3 quick ways to see God's rewards come into your life. I don't know about you, but I want God's rewards in my life.12:17 Number 1, give to the poor. Number 2, pray. Number 3, fast. Matthew 6 16 he says, and when you fast Now, if you got your notes out, please circle the word when. Because again, he doesn't say, and if you feel like.12:30 And if it just so happens that you get around too. No. It when. I'm expecting my people to fast. We already talked about a verse of scripture. Jesus talked about new wine12:42 into new wineskins. And they said, why don't you fast? Remember John the John the disciple, Baptist disciples and the Pharisees come and say, why don't you fast? He says, listen, the bridegroom is here. I'm here.12:53 It's not time to fast. It's time to party. It's time to celebrate, but I'm gonna be taken away. I'm going to the cross, then I'm going to heaven. And so when that happens, Jesus says, then they will fast. In other words,13:03 while I'm in heaven, I'm expecting my people to fast. And I am thoroughly convinced that the reason why we see so many dead churches, so many dead Christians, so many13:15 spiritless Christians is because they are filled with the world and they're not hungry for God. And if we're gonna get hungry for God, we need to get rid of the world. And 1 of the best ways to13:27 get hungry for God is to stop eating. Now I'm gonna give you a warning. Alright? And I know, no 1 you had no heads up about this, but I'm gonna talk to you guys anyway. As soon as you13:39 start to fast with us, your flesh is going to rear its ugly head. Oh, I'm telling you, you if you start this fast with us, if you do this program with us, let me just give you a heads up.13:50 By Monday, tomorrow, by this time, you will be cursing me. You will be cursing yourself. You will be cursing life. You might be but if you set your heart to do this, can I tell you, If you climb up14:02 the wall of that first day of fasting, I'm telling you, Tuesday gets easier? And then by the time we get here Wednesday, you're gonna feel like you don't even ever need to eat again. I'm telling you, it happens like14:11 that. And what you're doing is you're starting to tell your body. Here's what you're doing. You're telling your body, you're not in charge. My father is in charge of my body.14:23 Amen, somebody. The early church fasted corporately, and we know they fast. Now some of you say, oh, you know, you're not supposed to tell people when you fast. Well, the Bible records several points where God's people14:34 fasted. So the Bible wants us to know that God's people fasted at certain times. And 1 of the times is in Acts chapter 2 13. It says in chapter, acts chapter 2 13 1314:46 verse 2, it says, while they were worshiping the Lord and what? And fat this is the church. This is the early church. We're just 13 chapters into the church's life. It says, the holy spirit said. I like14:58 that passage because the holy spirit starts to speak to the church when the church fasts. Isn't that cool? I want to hear what the holy spirit wants15:10 to say. Anybody with me on that? He says, the Holy Spirit said, and then what does it say? Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul. Now we know him as Paul, Paul the apostle. Set15:22 them apart for the works which I call them. Now from that moment in Acts chapter 13, do you know that the whole narrative of the book shifts from the 12 who walked with Jesus to the apostle15:33 Paul? And he goes on missionary journeys around the known world, 3 successive missionary journeys. He plants churches throughout the whole Roman empire in major metropolitan cities. He's he does exactly what15:45 Waters Church is trying to do right now, plant churches everywhere so that the gospel can go into these communities. And and then he is not just used to bring the gospel to the nations, He writes letters to these15:57 churches to follow-up with them. And those letters get collected in our Bible. And 1 third of the New Testament is written by Paul the Apostle. Do you ever16:09 think about the fact that he got his start, this mighty man of God who literally touches our lives still to this day? Heaven's sakes, even non believers have Paul16:20 the apostle's words read in their wedding services. That's an impact I'd like to have. Anybody with me on that? And the reason why his ministry started was16:32 because the church fasted and prayed. My question to you is what could God start in you? What ministry could he give you? What16:44 gifting could he release in your life as you fast and pray? I want you to just write this down. Fasting and prayer can change people, churches, and nations.16:57 Fasting and prayer can change people. Any people in the house? If you're a people, say amen. Amen. Churches, any churches in the house, say amen. And nations, we're a part of a nation17:09 that if we're not careful, we're gonna lose very soon. It's going down the tubes, you can see it as clear as day. It's unbelievable what's happened. I've never I never imagined that this nation would get to this. We used17:19 to be a city on a hill. Now we're now we're a lamp hidden under a bushel. That's what we are right now. We need to come out of our bushel. We need to come out of our covering and shine for Jesus 1 more time. Amen,17:30 somebody. Matthew chapter 17, what does it say? It says that he came to the crowd in verse 14. It says he came to the crowd. Now what what just happened? Jesus had just gone up to the mountain and transfigured before17:41 Peter, James, and John. And the Bible says that his clothes radiated, and he radiated through his clothes, and he became whiter than snow. I mean, was shining gloriously. Peter and James and17:53 John are blown away. And they said, we got to stay here. And, and then Elijah and Moses show up, and there's this glorious revelation of God's glory on that mountain. And18:04 Peter, you know, he he said, let's build some booths. Let's build some tents. Let's stay here. I wanna stay in the presence of the glory of God. But God has a mission for us. We can't just stay up on the mountain. We18:14 gotta come down and serve the people in the valley. Amen. Fact, Sunday morning is a mountaintop experience. In some ways, it's a mountaintop experience, but you don't come to church just for you. You come to church for18:25 the people that you're gonna touch beyond this Sunday morning experience. I hope you come to church saying, God, change my life so that my neighbor can know you. God, change my heart so that my coworker can know you.18:35 God, change my heart so that my employees or my employer, they can know you. I wanna be an influence where I go. But to be an influence, I gotta have an experience with Jesus. So they come down the mountain18:47 and it says this man came running up to him and he's desperate because he's kneeling. Kneels before Jesus and he says, Lord, have mercy on my son. This guy's a parent. He's a father.18:59 Fathers care about their sons. Fathers man, fathers and sons, that bond if that bond gets broken, how many know the chances of that boy going to prison rise exponentially? Fathers and sons are so19:11 important. What what's wrong with our country right now? Fatherlessness. Fathers who will not plead for their sons in Jesus' name. And I'm not just talking about sons. When I say sons, I'm talking about children. I got 319:22 precious children. I got 2 boys and 1 beautiful girl. This week was tough for me. Both my oldest daughter and my oldest son went off to college. Do you know how how often I prayed that this would happen?19:37 For years, I prayed, God, get them out of my house. Now they're out. I'm like, God, bring them back. I can't believe I've turned into that kind of parent. God have mercy on me. But I love them. I love my children.19:48 Parents, you love your children. Some of you are weeping at night because your child is far from God. Your child doesn't know the Lord. And you can give your son football,20:01 soccer and you can give your son piano lessons and all these and your daughter, you can give her dance and ballet or let me not be misogynistic, football lessons and basketball. Should they know do all whatever they20:11 wanna do, but you can give them the world, American parents, But if you forsake their soul, you've lost them forever. We've gotta be about our children's souls. This man20:23 is broken. His son is what? What does it say? He has seizures. The version I read said epilepsy. He suffers terribly for when he for for often and and another20:35 translation says this, the demon Mark's gospel says this. The demon causes him to be tossed into the fire and into the water. What did the demon wanna do to this boy? Kill him. What do the demons wanna do20:47 to our young people today? Kill him. Same same program, different generation. What what what's going on in our public school system? What's going on in our university system? What what is all this nonsense? What is the20:58 sterilization they're handing puberty blockers to kids because they don't feel like a boy or feel like a girl? What is that stuff? That is straight from the pit of hell. It is absolutely nothing to be proud about.21:10 It's something for the church to weep over, to pray to God, change them, Lord. Change us. Help us. Protect if you're not gonna change them, God, protect our families. Amen, somebody.21:22 We gotta fight for our children like never before. America reached another pinnacle, another record in America was broken. I wish I could tell you it was a good record, but it seems like we're only interested21:34 in be in breaking bad demonic records now. We had the all time highest level of suicide in our country last year. What was going on? What was21:45 happening? The devil is having a heyday. And the reason why is because the church is asleep at the switch. Just like the just like the disciples here. They're asleep. This21:57 boy is being tossed into the fire. He's being tossed into water. And the disciples don't know what they're trying they're they're trying to cast a demon and they can't do it. They're weak. And the funny thing is, and22:07 we'll talk about it, they had been given authority by Jesus to cast out the demon, but they couldn't cast this 1 out. And so I got a couple points here for you, and then I got 3 points after the third point. So don't get22:16 excited when I'm on number number 3. Point number 1, spiritual weakness is natural. Some of you are like, man, I feel bad already in this message. You know, I I don't I don't fight in prayer for my family. I don't fight22:28 in prayer for my children. Okay. That's natural. Can I just tell you that if you're not fasting and praying and giving, you're just being a normal person? There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that's not what God's22:40 called you do. Amen, somebody. I don't want to be normal. I turn on the television. I I look at what's happening in my country. I see normal. I don't want any22:52 part of that. Amen. I wanna I don't wanna be natural. I wanna be supernatural. And by the way, when you become a Christian, you become supernatural. The only question is, will you feed23:03 it? Because you are what you eat. What are you eating? Most of the stuff that they give you at McDonald's is not food anymore.23:16 I forgot to bring myself a bag of Doritos. I was going bring a bag of Doritos up and read you off the ingredients. And I love those things, but that's poison. And and men I wonder about our mental23:28 illness, epidemic in this country right now. And how much of it's coming from the garbage that we go and buy in bulk and then we shove in our mouth?23:40 Oh, I don't mean to make you feel bad, but I'm trying to heal you. I am. You gotta watch what you put in. You are what you eat. I wanna eat the presence of God so that I can walk out of this room, I can walk into my23:50 country, I can walk into my community, and I can bring God with me. When people see me, they'll say, what is it about you? And it's because of Jesus in me. I've got a new diet. It's a heavenly diet that's made me a new24:01 man. Spiritual weakness is natural. He says, I brought them to you. I brought my boy to your disciples, and I brought my boy to the church, and nothing happened.24:14 And the ironic thing is we're all born weak, aren't we? You know, I always like to do this. You have to you have to parallel the spiritual life with the physical life. When you were born, you might not even24:26 realize this or think about this much, but you were born weak. When you were born, you came out, you couldn't even lift your arms. You were flailing like you're just like a little bit piece of jelly. You're like a24:34 jellyfish. Anybody remember that? Does anybody remember? Nobody remembers. But if you've had children, you see it. Yeah? They can't even lift their head. How many remember you? When you when you hand your newborn off,24:44 you gotta know. Do you know how to do this? Because this kid can't do nothing right now. You know what I'm talking about? And you gotta hold the head and but eventually, you get stronger. Amen? You you everybody's got24:55 their head up in in all of our locations right now. Good for you. I'm impressed. Do you know what that means? You got stronger. How'd you25:07 get stronger? You ate physical food. That's all. That's all you did. You ate physical food. There's a natural process that God has programmed into your body. You ingest food, and your muscles get stronger.25:19 A baby doesn't go to head exercise lessons, does he? He doesn't go to the gym and say, okay. I'm gonna try to get this. He doesn't do that. It just naturally gets stronger as25:31 he eats, whether it be his mother's milk or formula or whatever. Right? Okay. This is a lesson in the spiritual. If you're a new Christian, God expects you to be25:43 spiritually weak. And that's okay. Don't stay there. It's okay to be a spiritual floppy little jellyfish when you first25:55 come to Jesus. Oh, okay. I guess I'll come to church. Okay. Well, I'm still going to this place, and I'm doing that bad, and I'm still getting drunk on the weekend. But then I'm at church, and I'm at church on Sunday.26:04 But, you know, then I'm going out with this unbeliever, and they don't love Jesus, but it's okay. You know, but then I come back to church, and that's you. You're a floppy jellyfish when you first get saved. But at some26:12 point, you get stronger, and you stop flopping everywhere. And you're not a pushover. You know, a little even a toddler. You could 2, 3 years old.26:24 Toddlers are amazing. They're beautiful, but you can tip them over pretty quickly, pretty easily. Anybody know what I'm talk just a little shove. Just a not that I do it. I'm not practicing this, and I don't encourage26:35 it. But I'm just telling you that you can tip a toddler over with just a tiny little shove. Try to tip pastor Tom Duck over over here. He's an army ranger. You'll see what's coming from that. You'll I'm telling you,26:46 gotta get stronger spiritually just like you got stronger physically. Or listen to me, you'll be no good to anybody. Imagine if your mom had to still be26:58 here in church this morning holding up your head. Oh, there you go. Listen to the preacher, honey. Listen to the preacher. Imagine if somebody still had to carry you into church with your big overweight self. You know27:08 what I'm talking? I mean, you're serious. You're meant to get stronger. I'm meant to get stronger. And Jesus wanted his disciples to be strong in the spiritual realm. Matthew 10 verse 1, it says he27:20 called them and he gave them authority over what? Unclean spirits to cast out every disease, every affliction, heal the sick. Verse 8, it says, heals the sick, raise the dead,27:32 cleanse lepers, cast out you received, now give. Now there is is a damnable doctrine in the church. And some of you come from churches like this,27:45 that that stuff ended with the apostles. I can't think of a more pleasant doctrine that the devil has instituted into most churches. The devil must be dancing27:57 for joy when he hears preachers get up and say, now we can't expect miracles because that was just for the apostles. Are you kidding me? Pop quiz every location. How many apostles were there?28:10 Oh, dear Lord. Okay. 12? Help us, Lord. We need to fast. Okay. There were 12 because it says it right there in verse 1 of chapter 10 in Matthew. Right there. It's a 12.28:21 Okay. Whoo. We're in Florida. You guys are sun stroked. Okay. Anyway, do you know that Jesus gave power over demons to more than the 12?28:32 Let me show you here in verse 10 Luke 10 verse 1. After this, the Lord appointed 72. 72. 72 minus 12 is?28:44 60. You're good at math? Not so much the Bible. Okay. 60. 60 other people are appointed, and he said and he and he sent them ahead of them 2 by 2 into every town and place where he was about to go. And then28:56 verse 17, look what it says. They came back, the 72 returned with joy saying what? Even the demons are subject to us in your name.29:07 My friend, Jesus absolutely intended for you to have authority over every unclean spirit in this world. And and he expects you to cast it out of your home,29:20 out of your family, out of your children, heck, maybe even out of your spouse. I don't know who's gonna do demon battle today, but you gotta do fighting in the spiritual realm because you'll be no good to anybody without29:30 it. We're gonna fight demons in this in this community, in all of our communities at every location. There are demons in Norwood, North Attleboro. There are demons over the Fall River area, Woonsocket29:42 area. There are demons oh, I can tell you about Guatemala. Serious demons down there. I mean, we've been blessed as a country to have the gospel preached freely for 200 plus years, but that's dissipating and the demons29:52 are coming back. I'm reading a book by Jonathan Cahn. You should read that book called Return of the Gods. Man, that'll wake you up. All this stuff that you're hearing about, all this stuff coming into our kids right30:03 now, this is not new. It's old as ancient times. And because this country has jettisoned the gospel and prayer and the bible from its public schools, the demons have come right back in.30:15 That's what's happening right now. Jesus gives them a little bit of a chastisement when the disciples can't cast out this demon. Anybody see this verse? This verse troubled me this week. Look at it. Verse 17, it says,30:26 and Jesus answered, oh faithless generation. The guy said, look, I brought my son I brought my son to your to your to your disciples. I couldn't cast him out. And and you think Jesus would say, come on, guys. You can do30:37 it. You know, that's what I would want Jesus to do when I'm when I'm not as strong as I should be. Come on, man. You're alright. Some of you, that's how you see Jesus. He's like the cool surfer dude from California. Come30:48 on, Hang 10. Like, that's not his that's not who Jesus is. Look what he says. Oh, faithless and twisted generation. Now that sounds tough. But what is it? Has anybody had31:00 a coach? Has anybody had a coach? You went to, you know, swimming, basketball, soccer? Anybody have 1 of those coaches that was just like, come on. Catch the31:12 ball. Come on. Don't be a sissy. Now these now these guys are outlawed now because, you know, everybody's gotta be super sweet and kind. But I appreciated those guys. They got they they expected you to do better.31:25 I think that we gotta expect God's people to do better. Jesus is like, come on. How long am I gonna have to be with how long am I gonna have to bear with bring the boy to me. Like Jesus is like, you guys gotta31:37 see this again. You should be at this level already. And they weren't at that level. But I love the fact that Jesus isn't satisfied with his people being where they are. And don't be don't be misled for a moment this31:47 morning. Jesus is not satisfied with where you are spiritually. He wants you to follow him. He wants you to give up this life and chase the next life. He wants you to let go of that sin, let go of that habit, and pursue31:58 righteousness until he comes again. Amen. Absolutely. If you're spiritually weak, it's natural. Don't feel bad. Just don't stay there. God32:10 wants great things from you and for you. Point number 2, spiritual power is necessary. If we're gonna walk in the power of God, we're gonna have to learn how it comes to us. But let me just take a look at how this32:21 passage unfolds. We need spiritual power. Verse 18, it says this, and Jesus rebuked the what? Demon. Circle demon in your notes. I know that might feel odd, but circle it because I'm32:33 gonna make a point. And it came out of him. Now look at this next line, everybody. And the boy was32:45 healed. Circle healed. I had never seen this before until this week. The sickness was demonic.32:58 Now I'm treading on ground with some of you because you don't think this is true, And you're more than welcome to not believe that, but I believe it is true. Sickness doesn't come from God.33:11 God doesn't give people sickness. He uses the devil. He'll allow the devil to bring sickness into people. We know that he did that to Paul I mean, Saul, the first king of Israel. We know that that he has given troubling33:23 spirits to people because they won't respond to him. That's that's true, but it doesn't come from God. Every good and perfect gift comes from the father of life. That's James chapter 1. God does not give you sickness.33:34 When you get sick, you don't say, why is God doing it's not God. The devil is the author of destruction. He's the author of confusion. He's the author of depression. He's the author of sadness and sickness.33:47 And and some of you now please listen to me clearly. Not every sickness is demonic, but many are. Many people are sick in their in their33:59 body because they're sick in their spirit. Side note, I want you to write this down. Healing is spiritual as well as physical. Some of you got34:10 conditions, and, sometimes that condition is because you eat the wrong stuff. Sometimes that condition is because you consume the wrong stuff. What do you34:22 mean? That sounds like the same thing. No, no, no. What I'm talking about consuming is what do you watch? What do you listen to? Who do you talk to? Who's got your attention? Who what's got your mind? What's got34:34 what's captivating your thoughts? How many know you don't have to watch Hollywood movies to get jacked up in your spirit? You you got enough coming from within. Amen? Jesus said out of the heart of man comes evil34:44 thoughts. I got my own evil thoughts. I mean, Hollywood will help those evil thoughts get worse, but I got my own. I need to rebuke those evil thoughts. The Bible says we take every thought captive to the34:55 obedience of Christ. And some of our spiritual some of our physical illnesses are really spiritual illness that because we have we've sat on the sidelines spiritually,35:07 and we need to step up and fight. And I'm telling you, fasting and prayer will do this. We gotta skip ahead or I'll never get done. Verse 19 of Matthew chapter 17, it says, the disciples came to Jesus and said privately,35:18 why couldn't we cast it out? And here's point number 3. Spiritual power is available for free. The the good news is what I'm offering you, you don't have to pay for.35:30 I am not Tony Robbins. You did not pay money to get in here to hear me speak. God wants to freely offer you what he gives you. He wants to freely give it to you. The question is, do you want it?35:42 And here's what it says. He said to them, because of your little faith, because of your little faith because of your what? Little. Somebody say little loudly. Little. Yeah. Yeah. Because of your35:54 little faith. Okay. Letter A in your nose. Listen, Jesus acknowledges that faith can be stronger. Faith can be stronger. And, the36:06 word little faith is 1 word in Greek. It is oligaposteo. 2 words, oligo, which means few in number, and pasteo, which means faith. And what he's saying is, look, you've got36:18 you you don't have enough faith. You you you don't have enough belief in me and in God to have this battle won in your life. And some of you, that's where you are.36:30 You're dealing with the same addiction, the same problem for the last 30 years. And you're wondering, why is this not being broken in my life? Doesn't God deliver? Yes, he does. But your faith36:41 needs to get stronger. Amen. And and so letter b in your notes, Jesus makes it clear though, small faith is enough. Here's the good news, just so you know,36:53 you don't need you don't need watermelon sized faith. What does he say? Mustard seed. Now mustard seed, Mark will tell us in the Bible's times, was the smallest37:05 seed of all the plants. And in in ancient Israel, that's not the smallest seed in the world, but in Jesus' context, it was the smallest seed. And he says, if you just have that much look at verse 20. If you just have37:17 enough, if you just have faith this much, you can say to this mountain, be uprooted, cast into the sea. And nothing oh, I like that. Nothing will be impossible for you. Waters Church is not37:29 impossible for us to plant the church in South Carolina. Can I get a good amen? It's not impossible for us to plant the church in Tennessee. Can I get a good amen? It's not impossible for us to own land in Florida, own37:40 land in Woonsocket, and start us a school in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. Can somebody say amen? Amen. This stuff's not impossible. Why? Because all we need is mustard seed faith.37:52 But some of you are smaller than a mustard seed. And that's what Jesus is saying. He's saying you gotta get a little bit bigger, man. You're you're little. You're too small. You got faith enough to38:04 come to church. Wow. Good for you. Even the devil comes to church. Let's get stronger. You got faith enough to do what? To throw a couple of bucks into the offering plate? That's38:16 not that's not tithing. That's a tip. Jesus is not a waiter. He's God eternal. He'll take care of every need that you have. You gotta trust him. You gotta put himShow more
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