Unbelief

Thank you. Good to be with you this morning. Great to be with you this morning. Amen.

This is always a joy for me. Amen. Thank you. Amen.

Thank you. Wow. This is always a great joy for me to be in this house. There's few places on planet Earth that are an enjoyable place.

One of my top places on planet Earth to be here on a Sunday morning in this church. Wow. What an amazing church this is. The center of the network that we have in churches and the wonderful things that God is doing.

I never believed that 30 plus years ago when we started. It's just an absolutely amazing thing. I'm just so glad to be here with you this morning. I am also very excited this morning to cover the topic that we're going to be looking at this morning.

This morning we're going to be talking about unbelief. Unbelief. Now, please hear me this morning. You need to get this.

There's going to be parts of this this morning where it sounds like, oh man am I kind of in a seminary class or what? We're going to look at some Greek words and sometimes I know what happens. Some people start glazing over when you do that. But I want you to stay with me this morning because what we're covering this morning is very, very important in a very practical way for each and every single one of us.

Unbelief. And please get this about unbelief as we start this morning. God cannot stand unbelief. God cannot stand unbelief.

He doesn't just dislike it. He hates it. And when you read through the gospel account, you'll see that unbelief is one of the only things that brings forth Jesus' righteous anger. It is the only thing that is given to us by Jesus that he says this is the reason for your failures when he's speaking to his disciples.

It is the only thing in scripture that tells us that this is why believers don't have power in their lives. And then we come to a verse like Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12 and it says this. See to it brothers and sisters that none of you has a simple unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Now some people in the church today sadly and some of them are actually in leadership in church.

They are lazy Bible students and so they'll take a verse like this and they look at that and go man, he's speaking to these people and the people he's speaking to need to get saved. But come on, look again, just pause for a second and look at it again. He calls them brothers and sisters. He's not talking to unsay people here.

This is not about being saved. And when you look at the context here, he's using the example here of the children of Israel and how they died in the wilderness because of their unbelief. God did not take them into the promises that he had for them. They did not get the inheritance that God had for them because of unbelief.

Now listen, I'm going to tell you this, when I got this truth many, many years ago, it dramatically changed me. I didn't just get it. I got it. I didn't just kind of get, oh, that's interesting.

I never seen that before. It changed me in a dramatic way. As I was studying this through and beginning to see what God is saying about unbelief, this is one of the things the Lord just whispered to me one day. He said it very clear to me, loud and clear.

He said, Miles, you are one of these brethren. You are one of these brothers and sisters, man. And if you don't deal with your unbelief, then you're going to die in the wilderness and you're going to miss the promises that I have for you. And I'm telling you that woke me up, I don't snap me to it.

I'm going to deal with this area of unbelief in my life. And that set me off on a real detailed study of unbelief. And one of the fascinating things that I found is I studied this through in the New Testament, this word unbelief. And I just don't hear anybody talk about this.

But if you look at this word unbelief in the New Testament, there are two primary words that are used in the New Testament, two Greek words that are used, therefore unbelief. The first word is the word apisthea. Apisthea, it's a Greek word apisthea. And apisthea means the inability to cling to.

You're trying to cling to something but you can't. Or the inability to stick to like glue. So you're trying to, but you can't. There's a genuine wholehearted attempt to stick to something but you can.

And listen, Saint, all of us have this natural inability. This is the normal human nature that must be overcome. Man, this is weak. It is not wicked.

Let me say that again. This is weak. It is not wicked. It tries to believe but at times it struggles to believe.

You get that. So there's a real genuine attempt. There's earnestness. I'm trying to get hold of this.

It's new. It's different. It's mind-bending for me. I'm trying to get hold of it.

But I'm having a hard time getting a good tight grip on this. One of the best examples that we find in scripture of this apasthea is in Mark chapter 9 verses 21 through 24. In Mark 9, 21 through 24, we read this and said, Jesus asked the boy's father, how long has he been like this from childhood? He answered, now this is when Jesus comes down from the Mount of Transfiguration.

He walks up on a scene. A whole bunch of people gather around his disciples and he says, what's going on here? What's this argument about here? And the father said, I brought my son to you, but you weren't here.

And he has his demonic fits. He throws himself on the ground. And I brought him and your disciples tried to cast a deme out of the boy and they couldn't do it. And so Jesus stepped in and said, how long has he been like this from childhood answer?

It is often thrown him into fire or water to killing. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. If you can't, Jesus said, everything is possible for him who believes. Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.

Now, get this, this is the normal confession of the human nature. And hear me loud and clear, God is not angry at this kind of unbelief. He's not. The second word for unbelief that we find in the New Testament is a different Greek word.

It sounds kind of similar, but it's a different word with a different meaning. It's the word apotheo, apotheo, apisthea and apotheo. Now apotheo, as I said, it's a very different word. It has a very, very different meaning.

Both of them are translated usually unbelief or not belief, to choose not to believe whatever. The apotheo means to decide against. You see the difference already, to decide against, to refuse to be persuaded. Oh my.

To make a definite willful decision against. Can you see this? Thanks. What a difference, amen?

Now, this kind of unbelief is not just weak. It is stubborn and it is wicked. It's not just weak, it's stubborn and it's wicked. Apotheo is not simply the absence of faith.

It's much, much worse than that. It's an activity against God. Men, you are choosing against God. You're making a definite decision not to believe what God is making clear to you.

And God hates apotheo, this kind of unbelief, because it always leads to disobedience, always. Amen? Now apotheo is used in verses throughout the New Testament and here's one of them, Romans 2, verses 7 and 8. In Romans 2, chapter 2, verses 7 and 8, it says it, he will give everlasting life to those who search for glory, honor and immortality by persisting and doing what is good.

But he will bring anger and fury on those who in selfish pride refuse to believe. That's the word apotheo. He refused to believe the truth and follow what is wrong. Despite the fact that God has made himself clear to them, they would not believe.

Amen? They refused to believe. They chose against God. Different kind of unbelief.

Amen? Another passage where we see this word apotheo is in John 3 verse 36 and John 3 verse 36, it says, he who believes in the sun has everlasting life and he who does not believe in the sun, that's the word apotheo, does not believe, apotheo makes a determined decision not to believe shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Wow. The wrath of God abides on him.

Years ago somebody came to me and said, oh Pastor Miles, he said, you know we're all God's children. And I said, no, that's not biblical. Because the Bible says that there are children of wrath. Amen?

Wow. Wait a minute, wait a minute. I mean, while we were off sinners Christ's efforts, yes, amen? And that's where we start.

And in the beginning, the first part when God is revealing himself to us, yes, well God is very gracious in that, amen? There's a process where you're coming to faith. Amen? You're hearing things that's pulling you, it's drawing you forward.

And so you're coming to faith, but there reaches a point in time where God has made himself clear to you and you refuse to believe. You choose against God. It's an activity against God. And when that happens, you are on a very, very bad place, amen?

You are on incredibly thin ice. You're in a bad place in life, amen? Now listen to me, saints, please get this. What we're talking about here this morning, it is critically important.

And it's not just simply about salvation or not salvation. Amen? Now if you're unsaved here this morning, well then that is front and center for you. Everything else goes into the background.

That's the main thing. You made himself clear to you, yet you refuse to believe. You refuse to make a decision. You are choosing against God.

If that's where you are this morning, do not leave here. I cannot urge you. I could not exhort you strong. Do not leave here today until you fix that, amen?

It's a dangerous place for you to be, amen? To continually choose against something that God has made clear to you. But thank those of you who are here this morning, you're already born again. That's not the issue for you.

But get this. It doesn't just concern salvation, it concerns everything in our life and our walk with God. What about the promises of God that God has given to you? Are you believing those, amen?

Are you choosing against what God has made it clear to you? This is my promise for you. Maybe it's something that you read in the Word of God and you say, okay, yeah, it's right there. It's black and white.

God says, this is a promise for me. Do you believe that or not? Or are you in Apathea? Well, I just don't know if that applies to me.

I'm just struggling to believe. I'm just struggling to believe. Has God made it clear to you? Listen carefully.

Somewhere in here you're going to cross the line from Apathea to Apathea. That's a dangerous place to be, amen? It could be something that God has just quickened to you. Maybe not something that you read in Scripture that's there.

All the promises of God are yes and amen to those of us who are in Christ Jesus. It may be something that we're just going to quicken to you. This is a word for you. This is my word for you in this situation that you're in.

I will not choose against you, God. I will not be one of those who refuse to believe what you say to me. How about this one? I believe that I am who God says I am.

Well, I don't know why I'm just struggling with that. How long have you been a Christian? How many times have we talked about these things? How many times have you read these things?

Come on. When are you going to come to the place where you stop choosing against what God has clearly said? It's a dangerous place. You don't know how I'm just struggling.

I mean, don't give yourself a pass too quickly on these things. It's critically important. If we are going to be conquered, if we are going to be overcomers, if we are going to be possessors of the things that God has for us, then we have to deal with this obstacle of unbelief in our life. I'm not even saying amen this morning.

You have to deal with it. Jesus wanted his disciples to be overcomers. He wanted them to be conquerors. He wanted them to be possessors.

And so he had to deal with this issue of unbelief, this same obstacle of unbelief in their life. And sometimes people would. I mean, the disciples, they had an obstacle of unbelief. Yeah.

Have you read the Gospels? Yeah. Oh my goodness. I mean, you know, and you can just see story after story.

Yeah, what do you happen? In Mark 4, you got Jesus in the boat and they're traveling across the Sea of Galilee. He and his disciples, the storm comes up, you know, and the waves are coming over the side of the boat and they're all freaked out. And Jesus is down to sleep.

They wake him up. Don't you care that we're about to drown? We're all going to die. He comes through, he stands up, he looks at it, he rebukes the wind and waves and everything's calm.

And then he turns and addresses, not the wind and waves, he addresses the disciples and he says, man, you still don't have that. And then you get just four chapters later and you're in Mark 9 and we just read that, you know, where he comes up on this father with his son and disciples couldn't cast it out. And if you go back and look at those words, how long am I going to have to put up with you? You unbelieving generation.

How long? Whoa. I mean, he threw down on his disciples. Amen?

By now you should have gotten it. What seems so unkind? It's not when you're back here. Amen.

He's gracious and kind. But when it's been made clear to you, things change. Time to grow up. Time to stop acting like I'm still struggling.

And face the fact, look in the mirror and say, I am in apotheo. I am choosing against what God has said. Amen? And we find this in Mark 16.

Look at this. Mark 16, verses 9 through 11. Mark 16, 9 through 11. When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, it's a resurrection.

When he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. They did not believe it.

And it doesn't end there. But 16, 12 through 13. That's the next two verses, yes. Afterward, Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country.

These returned and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. See, at this point, the disciples are a lot like many Christians today. Amen? We got unbelieving believers here.

Amen. That's what we got. And we see a lot of that in the church today. They had walked with Jesus for three and a half years.

They had seen all these amazing miracles. They watched him walk on water. They'd seen him raise Lazarus from the dead. But unbelieving stopped them from believing in the resurrection of the Lord.

This is not apostaea, the inability to believe, the struggling to believe. This is apotheo, an active resistance against believing. Can you see that? Amen.

It was made clear to them and they chose to reject it. It was made clear to them, but the disciples chose to reject it. Wow, Pastor Miles, you're saying that really definitively. How can you be so sure?

Well, because the Bible makes it clear. Do you realize that Jesus told his disciples 17 times? Shut up. 17 times.

He told them that he would be crucified, dead, buried, resurrected. He told them 17 times about his death and resurrection. Can you believe that? He told them he'd be mocked by the Gentiles, handed over to Gentiles, mocked and scurged, flogged by them.

Crucified. And three days later he told them that he would rise again. 17 times. The disciples should have been at the tomb that morning waiting for him to come out.

Should have gotten there early while it was still dark and pulled up a chair and said, I'm going to be the first one to sing, come out this morning. Amen? It's reasonable after 17 times. So this is a big issue.

You want to be a conqueror. You want to overcome things in this life. You want to overcome. Come on.

Anything and everything that this world can throw at you, this fallen world, anything and everything that the devil can come against you. You want to be an overcomer of that. You want to rise above that. Stand on top of that.

Be more than a conqueror over all this thing. We're going to have to deal with unbelief. Or we won't get there. We can sing about it.

We can talk about it. We can. We just won't live it. Amen?

Until we deal with this kind of unbelief. Amen? So how do we get this kind of unbelief out of our life? How do we do we do that?

It may give you four ways that the scripture gives us for you and I to get rid of this unbelief from our life. And I hope by now every single one of you, no matter where you are on that spectrum of your walk with God, I hope you're already saying, man, I want those four. Amen? I want those four.

So here we go. Here's number one. Number one. Stop saying negative things.

You want to get this kind of unbelief out of your life. Stop saying negative things. Life and death is in the power of the tongue. The Word of God tells us.

And we need to be careful about the things we said. And I get this immediately going to get some pushback from some people today in the church. Oh, this sounds like a positive confession movement or name it and claim it. Listen, because some people took truths in the Word of God and pinged them off over here into a deep ditch, does not mean that you and I reject the truth.

Amen? We don't throw the baby out with the bathwater as old saying goes, all right? So the truth is there. Right?

Stop saying negative things. Look at this verse. Romans 10, Romans 10 verses 6-8. But the righteousness that is by faith says, do not say, you got that.

Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down. Or who will descend into the debt? That is to bring Christ up from the debt.

But what does it say? The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith we are proclaimed.

Now this is one of those complicated verses that very few Christians understand, you read it and you kind of go, typical Christians read this verse and they go, that is kind of confusing and we just go on. Amen? We don't understand what it is saying. There is some wonderful truths that are in here, a couple of them.

Here is one of them that is really important to what we are talking about and what we are looking at this morning. Here is one of the things that it is saying. Faith does not begin by saying certain things. Faith begins by not saying certain things.

That is one of the truths that is in this passage. Faith does not begin by saying certain things. Faith begins, it starts by, stop saying certain things. You make a decision, listen to me saying you make a decision to not believe, to not confess, things the devil is trying to feed you.

No thoughts that he is sending, those fiery darts of the enemy. You refuse to pick those up. You refuse to believe them. You refuse to say them.

Amen? Yeah, come on. Before God can give you the positive, he has to deal with the negative. True.

I mean before he can deal with the positive, he must deal with the negative. You see, because we have come into our walk with God with all kinds of negative thinking from this world around us, from this culture around us. See, we can't start by saying positive first, we have to deal with the negative thing. So because of this negativity stuff that we brought with us when we came into the kingdom of God, it's sort of like a trip to the dentist.

Amen? You see, when you go to the dentist to get a feeling, he doesn't actually start by feeling your tooth. The first thing he does is he drills out the rot and decay, and then he fills it. You see, what God wants to do is to drill out the rot and decay out of your mouth.

Amen? To get that unbelief, those statements of unbelief out of our mouth, he wants to drill those out, and then he starts to fill it with positive things. Amen? Where we speak what the word of God says.

How many of you remember the story of Jericho? Joshua chapter 6, remember that story? Some of us know it, some of us know it well, some of us know kind of generally what happened. I mean, what happened there?

Jericho, these mighty fortress, it's around that city, and it's like, oh my goodness, how are we ever going to conquer this thing? God says, here's the direction, he gives them to Joshua. And Joshua relays them to the people. Here it is, you're going to get together, we're going to march around the city one time, each day for six days.

We're going to march around. And then on the seventh day, we're going to march around, and then at the end of marching around, they're going to blow the trumpets, the people are going to shout, and the walls are going to come down, and we're going to conquer the city. And can you imagine the people of God? I mean, these are the same people that wind every time you turn around, the water is running at the bitter, you know, we just brought us out to the desert, we're going to die.

And so here you go, they're there, and it's like, okay, now we got to deal with the thing, and here's the plan. We're going to march around the city one time of day, six days, seventh day, we're going to march around one time, and then we're going to blow the trumpets, and then the whole thing's going to fall down, and we're going to take the city. Come again? Are you serious?

And God knows this about his people, and so here's the one little thing that he adds that sometimes people miss in there, he says, until that happens, nobody say a word. Nobody say a word. Keep your mouth zip shut, because I know you, I know what you're going to do, this is not, this is crazy. Can you believe that?

What a stupid idea. I mean, what are we doing here, Jericho? Anyway, it's the most fortified city in all of the Cayman. I mean, let's start with something small.

Let's work our way. So God said, just shut your mouth until it happens, amen? Because life and death is in the power of death, we can what? Cancel out something that God himself is wanting to do.

Amen? You see, once God has drilled out all the negativity out of your mouth, he can fill it with his word, amen? Which then when we speak it, it becomes golden faith in our mouth, amen? So we need to build, we need to make sure that we stop saying that, and then we need to build this declaration of the Word of God daily over our life.

But daily, you need to say these things out loud. Don't think, let's say them, declare them, whether you're driving down the road in your car, whether you're walking, whether you're in your morning prayer time, declare those things. This is what you say, God, this is a promise that you've given me. What I'm going through right now, here's what your word says about that.

Here's that word that you quicken them and just declare those things, speak them out, declare them over and over and over again. I made it a little settle in your heart. It will build faith to overcome unbelief in your life. Amen?

2 Corinthians 4, 13, look at this verse. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 13. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, and therefore I spoke. Amen?

See, according the Word of God, God's Word, I believed it, and now I'm going to... Well, five of you, I mean come on. I got it. Now I'm going to speak it.

I believe it. Now I'm going to speak it, amen? That's number one. Here's the second way that we get this unbelief, apotheo, unbelief, out of our life.

Number two, simply believe the Word of God. A simple, childlike faith in the Word of God. Now, many, many years ago, God showed me this in my life, and I hate to admit it, but I was through it. I mean, I've been a believer for quite some time, and walking with God, serving in different churches, in different leadership capacities, in different churches, and God really confronted me with this.

In a big way, there was just a short season where he just kept coming back to this issue, and he said, Miles, you sit in judgment over my Word. Oh, Lord, I mean what? I mean, any of you try to argue with God. Anybody here ever win?

I never have. I'm like, well, no God, you don't understand. Let me explain it to you. I mean, I'm going, what?

I mean, no, no, judgment. Oh God, that's a harsh word. I would never judge your Word. I said, yeah, sure you do.

Most all of it you believe, but there are certain things in there that you're not sure about, and you're like, well, I don't know about that. And you're sitting critiquing my Word, not really simply believing it. I'm telling you, I'm repent of that. That's what I was saying, and I repented of it.

And since then, I just have a simple, childlike belief in the Word of God. It is the Word of God. Do you believe that? All scripture is God-breathed.

It's written of the Holy Spirit. It is the Word of God. If it isn't the Word of God, then let's just go home and stop playing church. Man, just shut it all down and forget the whole thing.

Amen? Yeah, if it is the Word of God, well, then let's act like it. Amen? Let's believe it.

It is God's Word. And so I have the, I'm even pastors conferences in different places here in the US and abroad. I've had different leaders, pastors coming. You know, you really do believe everything in the Word of God?

Yeah, absolutely. It can't be serious. I mean, the whole story of knowing the ark, just knowing the ark and the flood, and you believe all that? Absolutely.

No problem. You believe it all? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well, what about when Joshua was in that battle and he was trying to mop up, you know, the bad guys and he prays and he asks God, stop the sun, hold the sun in the sky so we don't run out of daylight so we can finish these guys off?

You believe that God held the sun in the sky? Yeah. Do you really think that's a problem for God? I mean, come on.

You're not much of a God if he can't do that. I mean, not really God. None of stuff difficult for him, man. Wow, come on.

You believe that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, a whale, a swallow, a donor. You don't believe that? Sure I do. Absolutely.

What? You believe that a whale swallowed Jonah? Yeah, sure. Let me tell you something.

If the Bible said that Jonah swallowed a whale, I would believe it, ain't it? Now, it doesn't say that because that's not true, ain't it? But if it's said that, then it's true. Well, how is that possible?

I don't know, but all things are possible with God. He can make anything and everything happen. Come on. It's real simple, ain't it?

Just simply believe the Word of God. Stop arguing with it, ain't it? Stop debating over it, man. There's a three-fold commitment that I came into.

I'll tell you, it stood me in good stead through all these years. Three-fold commitment. Number one, believe every word. Believe every word.

Number two, obey every command. Believe every word, obey every command. And here's number three, claim every promise. Believe every word whether you understand it fully or not, just believe it.

Second, obey every command. Stop trying to find some wiggle room to get out of it. Just obey it, man. And number three, claim every promise.

Oh, yeah. The Word of God is one of the most amazing, incredible, wonderful gifts that God could ever give us as His children, Amen? And we need to just simply believe it, Amen. Receive it the way we should.

Look at this translation of Colossians 3 verse 16. It's one of the most wonderful expounding of what's here in the Greek words in Colossians 3 verse 16. It says, let the Word of Christ take up residence in your life. Now just pause.

I want to break this down. Don't read ahead. Just think about that for a minute. Let the Word of God take up residence in your life.

Just pause. Let it take up residence in your life. And come to feel completely at home in you. Isn't that good?

Let it take up residence and feel completely at home inside of you. Receive it the warmest, most extravagant and luxurious reception that is possible. That will drive unbelief out of your life. Amen?

That's number two. Here's the third way that we deal with unbelief and become the overcomers that God has called us to be. Amen? Number three, hate unbelief.

Hate unbelief. It's a third key if you want to deal with this unbelief in your life. Learn to hate it. Ever since God showed me unbelief in my heart, I have waged war against it.

I have waged war against it for almost four decades now. I've come to hate it. Men like God hates it. I hate it.

I don't dislike it. I hate it. I have a passionate hatred for any unbelief that pops up in any situation in my life. Come on.

You know it. It pops up and you're like, oh, no, I'm not going to just kind of set that aside. I'm going to turn and go after it. Viciously attack that thing in your life.

I am not going back. I'm not going back to those devilish unbelieving thoughts that you've stuck in my mind. I'm not going to do it. How about you?

Because that's exactly what they are. There is a spirit behind that unbelief. That's why Jesus said to Peter, get me behind me Satan. What he's saying?

He's speaking words of unbelief. Jesus. Ah, I know where that comes from. There's a spirit behind that unbelief.

And that spirit of unbelief blocks the spirit of faith that comes from God. So get this, in every situation that you find yourself, in each and every one of them, you either have one spirit or the other. There's no in between and you can't have both. Amen?

You either have a spirit of unbelief or you have a spirit of faith for every situation that you're facing. Every situation that pops up in your life is one of the other, take your pick. And you need to hate unbelief the way God hates unbelief. Amen?

Get a passionate hatred for in your life in every area where you see it, go after it. Amen? Every area where the Holy Spirit reveals it to you, go after it, deal with it, get it out of your life. Amen?

That's number three. Here's number four. Fourth why? That we get rid of unbelief in our life.

Here we go. Lay hold of the life of God. How do I get rid of this unbelief from our life? Lay hold of the life of God.

Lay hold of it. Grab hold of it aggressively. Amen? Even violently.

You lay hold of that thing. That wonderful Greek word, La Bono, which very aggressively grabs those things of God. Pull them to yourself and hold on to them tightly. Don't let anything pry out of your fingers.

Lay hold of the life of God. God's own life. In 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verse 12, Paul says to Timothy, fight the good fight of faith. That's a good fight.

The fight of faith is a good fight for you and not to be in every single day. In every single area of our life. That's a good fight. Amen?

Fight the good fight of faith. Then he goes on to explain how you can fight that fight and win it with the very next word. Lay hold of eternal life. In some ways I always enumerate several things.

No, I think it's very different from that when you look at it in the Greek. There's a tie there between those two. It's like, listen, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold of eternal life.

That's one of the keys that the Apostle Paul, this great man of God, who's at the end of his life, who's sharing with his young protege Timothy. Let me give you some of the keys that I learned. Here's how you fight that fight of faith and win. Lay hold of eternal life.

God's own life. Amen? To Paul giving him the key here. And what he's saying, if you get filled with God's life, then you're already on your way to victory.

Amen? You're already on your way to a victorious life. Again, whatever situation you find yourself in in the moment or future ones that you're going to find yourself in. You're on the pathway to victory when you get filled with God's life.

And Abraham is one of the great examples that we have in Scripture of this truth. Look at this in Romans 4, in Romans 4, verses 20 and 21. Romans 4, 20 and 21, it says, yet he's speaking about Abraham, yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. Oh, did you get that?

He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God. He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God. Now if you look at this in the Greek, this is literally what it says in the Greek. This is the way it says it, in the Greek.

Against the promise of God, he did not decide by himself. That's literally what it says in the Greek. Against the promise of God, he did not decide by unbelief. Amen?

I'm sorry, I said by unbelief. Against the promise of God, he did not decide by unbelief. So what Abraham is saying essentially is this, I don't know how this is going to happen, makes no sense to me, but I'm not about to say that you can't do it God. I will not say that, I will not think that, I will not believe that, I will not say that.

I'm not going to say you can't do it God. I'm fully persuaded you can do anything and everything that you say, man. I'm fully persuaded that every promise that you give is going to be fulfilled, man. And then it goes on to say in that verse what happened, Abraham was strengthened in his faith.

That's a very powerful statement, man. In the English it's powerful, but oh wait do you see what's there in the Greek? It literally says there that Abraham was dynamited with faith. We're doing them again, that word that we love so much.

I mean that's dynamite, that's where we get dynamite from. He is dynamite with faith. I mean he's empowered with faith. And what's fascinating about this is you got to stop and realize Abraham doesn't dynamite himself.

This is in the passive voice, man. What that means is Abraham didn't do it to himself. Who did it? God did it.

Abraham's the recipient of being dynamited with faith. Oh did you get that? Oh it's so important. There's so many wonderful teachings out there today and have been for a number of years on faith.

But along with it there's some things where people took something and it's true and they just put this nasty little twist on the end of it that's not actually biblical, man. For example, you get this, it's God's faith. We're dynamited with God's faith. It's his life, his faith.

And when you look at passages you hear taught so many times on faith like Mark 11 verse 22, Jesus said to his disciples, have faith in God. Have faith in God. Come on. Have faith in God.

Come on. Get with it. What's wrong with you? That's the way it reads.

And that's the way we hear it taught. But that's not what it says. Oh what? I mean that's not really what it says.

You can look at it in the Greek. I mean it's very clear. It's not even an argument. Amen.

It's possessive form in the Greek. He doesn't say, have faith in God. Come on. You manufacture it.

You make it. Come on Sam. Get with it. Have faith in God.

What's your problem, man? It's all on Sam. That's not what he says. He says, have God's faith.

It's possessive. God's faith. Can you see the difference? Have God's faith.

You can't manufacture your own. Come on. Because the truth is you and I can't manufacture faith. God's the only one in the universe that God's faith.

Amen. Yeah. So don't try to manufacture it. Don't beat yourself.

I need to get more. I need to manufacture. No. I just need to draw in God's faith.

I need to learn how to drink that in, which is to drink in the very life of God, the presence of God, the life of God. When I drink that in, his faith comes with it. We should actively, aggressively receive God's faith. Amen.

We receive him, receive his life. We receive his faith. Amen. We can't manufacture it, but we can aggressively pursue it.

Amen. Seek it. Receive it. Amen.

Actively receive it. Have you been dynamited with faith? Have you been dynamited with God's faith? Well, I'll tell you that destroys that unbelief in your, in my life.

All right. So four keys that we look at this one. Let's recap quickly. This one.

Well, we're done. Getting unbelief out of our lives. Four ways. Number one.

Stop saying negative things. And everybody here said, amen. Stop. Come on, somebody down.

I'm going to stop. No more. No more. I'm not doing that anymore.

Stop saying negative things. Here's number two. Simply believe the word of God. Childlike faith.

I'm going to believe it. Amen. That is God's word. Here's number three.

Hate unbelief. Passionately go at it. In any area of your life where it pops up, go after that thing. And here's number four.

Lay hold of the life of God so that he might dynamite you with his faith. Amen. I would you stand with me this morning. I'm going to turn it over to Pastor Michael.

Let him take this where he wants to go. But let's just close him very quickly before I turn it over to him. Father, thank you. Thank you for these truths Lord.

They're simple truths but they're powerful truths. They're life changing truths when we put them in our lives. Father, you want us to be overcomers. You destined us to be more than conquerors God in our life.

Amen. You want us to live victorious in this life over anything and everything that this life or the enemy can throw at us. And we thank you God that you give us faith for that. Amen.

Deal with unbelief in our life this morning. Father, we ask in Jesus' name, deal with this, get this out of our life so that we can truly be that which you call us to be. In Jesus' name we thank you and the church said, Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.