Well, hey, Resonate, it's good to see you, or if you're at the University of Idaho or
Central Washington, it's good to be seen by you.
I know you're there, I love you, thank God for you, wish we could be there.
But if you're new to Resonate, my name is Josh Martin and I'm one of the pastors here.
If we don't know each other, I want to introduce myself to you a little bit.
I have a 17-month-old daughter and I talk about her a lot, like they make fun of me
because I'm always talking about her.
I almost brought a photo, but then there'll be more jokes.
And so I have a 17-month-old daughter, she can walk, and recently her thing is holding
hands while walking.
She likes to hold hands while walking.
Now before you think that's cute, I need you to know that when my daughter holds hands
with me while walking, it has nothing to do with some sort of mutual relationship, right?
She's not holding my hand because she loves me, she's usually holding my hands because
she's taking me somewhere that she wants to go, right?
Maybe I need to get used to that.
But she puts a grip of death on as many fingers as she can grab and she starts pulling and
tugging and saying, come here, come here, come here.
So I follow her because I'll do anything she says, right?
And so I follow my daughter and she is pulling me to places that she wants to go, namely
her toy box in the living room.
And while I'm being pulled, I'm like, man, how did you get so strong?
Like these are like baby workouts or something like this really hurts, like, stop, right?
So she's pulling me to toy box in the living room.
Now when she gets to the toy box, there's actually two of them in the living room, she
immediately starts to rummage through lots of toys, like I don't know how we got so many
toys, but all of a sudden you just got a lot of toys, like 50 plus probably.
She rummages through the toys until she finds her five favorite toys and she pulls them out
and she lays them on the ground in front of her and she looks at me in great delight like
she did it.
So I brought with me my daughter's five favorite toys.
So right now at home, she is struggling because she did not know where her toys are.
I put them in this box and I snuck out the house, right?
Because if she had seen me, grip of death and she had pulled me back, right?
So I have with me Dolly Minnie, which she pronounces ménée, which sounds French, right?
Dolly Minnie, lady, lady in the tramp, Cougie, right, go Cougs, and Elmo, okay?
So these are her five favorite toys that she goes into the living room and throws on the
floor and squeals in great delight.
Now here is the next part.
She wants to take these toys into her bedroom to play and she can't because she's two foot
seven, 23 pounds, so she can't carry all the toys, right?
And so that is a problem to her.
So in her great strategy is this.
She takes the toys and she looks at them and she goes, I'll give the biggest toy to dad.
So then she turns and gives me Elmo.
So now I'm holding Elmo and that's all I get to hold in this scenario.
Now she goes back and figures out how in the world does she get her little 23 pound body
to take the rest of these toys and carry them to her bedroom.
And my wife and I, like you can call this cruel if you want to, but we have video after
video after video of watching our daughter try to pick up the toys, drop one, take a
step, drop it, pick it up, grab another one, lose that one, fall on the ground, lay on
the toys, try to get up while laying on all toys, bear hugging the toys.
Nothing has ever worked and it's never going to work.
She can barely hold Minet by herself, right?
So she cannot do it.
She is not powerful enough to accomplish the task ever.
Like it's never going to happen.
And dad is standing there holding Elmo doing my duty, hanging out, holding Elmo.
Now the piece that is frustrating is that my daughter does not understand that she
is A, powerless to accomplish the task and B, her father is accessible to her right there.
Like I could grab Elmo, Dolly, Cougie, Minet and Lady with one hand, grab my daughter with
the other, walk into the bedroom and we can play our little hearts out, right?
But she doesn't recognize that my power that is available to her is actually able to accomplish
the task.
So in other words, she's just going to keep wrestling the four toys endlessly and she's
never going to get the joy that she's after.
So thinking about this series and thinking about that illustration when it happened to
me last week again for the hundredth time and I went to film it again, I thought, man,
it like occurred to me, you can call the Holy Spirit or not, but it occurred to me like
is this not the exact same thing we do to our heavenly Father?
Is it not?
That we look at the issues in our lives, the favorites in our lives and we go, okay, God,
tell you what, you take the big issue, you take Elmo, God, right, he's the biggest.
You take the big issue, which is the fact that I'm not a Christian and you deal with
that.
So God, you help me become a Christian.
Thank you, Jesus, that I am now a Christian.
You gave me belief.
You hang on to Elmo.
I'll be down here dealing with the rest of the issues on my own.
I have no desire to hand you all of my issues.
I just want to hand you the big one and then go about my life doing whatever I want and
then if someone were to ask you in that moment or really in any moment in your life, hey,
are you a Christian?
You'd go, of course, I've given God Elmo, of course I'm a Christian, right?
He took my big issue, but if they were to look at the rest of your life, it would look
as if you say you believe or have believed, but then you live as though God does not exist
at all in the day to day struggles, failures, frustrations, decision, moment by moment,
life, kind of life, sort of stuff.
You have no evidence of God in that, but you're a Christian, of course.
God has Elmo.
All the while struggling through the rest of the things.
So no matter where your background is, if you're a believer, if you're an unbeliever,
if you are a, you know, a lot of church background, no church background, I'm so glad you're here.
Because for the next few weeks, we're going to look at the Bible and say, God, can you
help us see places where we are inadvertently, unintentionally, accidentally living as if
though you don't even exist?
God, we're accidentally atheists.
It looks like we have no belief in you because we don't take our unbelief and engage us.
So we're going to look at the Bible and say, how can we actively engage the places of unbelief
in our life so that we do not inadvertently live our whole lives as if though we do not
believe in God at all?
Because listen, I think that if we can learn how to experience God's power, like that He
can hold all of it, if we can learn how to experience God's power, then we can learn
how to battle our unbelief.
If we can figure out how to battle our unbelief, then the truth is you and I will not bail
from our faith.
Because if you don't learn how to battle that unbelief, you're going to go out from college,
you're going to get a job, you're going to start dealing with unbelief, and if you don't
know how to battle, your default is going to be bail.
And we're going to find you years from now, you're going to go, of course I believe, but
I live like I don't.
There's no evidence at all that I'm a believer.
So first I've got to show you a warning in Scripture, then I'm going to show you some
wisdom in Scripture, and in order to do that, if you have your Bible, you can grab it in
turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3.
We're going to read a warning found in Scripture on how it is that we can actually live and
walk in what we believe.
This will be on the screen, of course.
We have a Resonate app that always has Scripture on it as well.
The second Timothy chapter 3 is a letter written by Paul, the Apostle Paul, the greatest missionary
the world's ever known, incredible church planter.
He had a guy that he was mentoring named Timothy.
Timothy was in his 20s, maybe young 30s.
He's a pastor in a church, and Paul is writing a letter to Timothy, and we're going to get
to read that letter, and it's like the Holy Spirit is reading that letter to us.
So in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1, we're going to read the warning that Paul gives
young Timothy about what this looks like.
It says, you should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult
times.
So the last days are everything after the resurrection of Jesus, so we're living in
the last days right now.
There will be very difficult times.
Remember people will love only themselves and their money.
They will be boastful and proud scoffing at God disobedient to their parents and ungrateful.
I love that disobedient to mom and dad make the list.
It's like slanderers, horrible, boastful, proud, don't clean their room, don't do their chores.
It's in the list, right?
They will consider nothing sacred.
They will be unloving and unforgiving.
They will slander others, and they will have no self-control.
They will be cruel.
They will hate what is good.
They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and they will love
pleasure rather than love God.
That is 18 things on a sin list, I counted before I came, 18 things on a sin list that
Paul tells Timothy, they're going to be people who live like this, and our default might
be to look at that list and go, man, that sounds like some really bad people.
But the truth is this list, those aren't bad people, those are church people.
This is a letter written to the church, this next verse should startle you, right?
They betray their friends, they're reckless, they're puffed up, they love pleasure rather
than love God.
And verse five says, but they will act religious.
Your translation may say, they have a form of godliness.
They will act religious, but they will reject the power that will make them godly.
Avoid these people.
And as if a list of 18 issues were not enough, he goes on to give this horrible picture of
what this looks like, he says, they are kind, they are the kind who work their way into
people's homes and win the confidence of vulnerable or gullible women who are burdened with the
guilt of sin and are controlled by various desires.
They are forever following new teachings, but they're never able to understand the truth.
They have this huge laundry list of sins, 18 of them, and if that's not enough, oh, they're
the kind of sleazy dude that takes advantage of women at parties and finds his way into
their home at night.
So if the 18 isn't enough, here's a little word picture for you.
Are we tracking with the kind of person that Paul is telling Timothy to avoid?
And you go, man, it sounds like a bad guy, Paul goes, no bro, that's a church guy.
They have a form, they act religious, but they deny the power that will make them godly.
So here's the warning in this.
There are people in the church, there are people in our church, there's people in Timothy's
church, there are people in the church going through the powerless postures of religion
without engaging the powerful person of Jesus.
Going through the motions, religious activity without real relationship.
This is, I want to act this way because it looks religious, but I have no desire to look
like Jesus.
I want a form of godliness, but I don't want to be conformed to be like God.
I want a form of Christianity, but I don't want to be conformed to be like Christ, which
this passage of scripture really blows my mind that there would be people in the church
that struggle with this huge list of sins and all the while they want to act religious.
They won't take that stuff to Jesus, instead they just act religious.
This blows my mind because I think Christianity is an incredibly weird hobby.
I think it's a horrible hobby.
I think it's actually a lame way to live your life if you don't love the Christ who gives
you life.
You know it's weird, right?
Like people were just singing and like some guys lifted their hands.
You know there's no other place in the social world where that happens, right?
This is a weird hobby.
This is a horrible way to live realizing that I have so many struggles, I have so many sins,
and my only antidote to all those issues is act religious.
That's it.
If you're struggling with the list of 18, if you're the kind of guy that was just illustrated
by Paul in this passage, and your only antidote is, man I need to really act religious.
Listen, that is powerless, and my heart breaks for you because that is a pitiful hobby.
Living this out without knowing the God who gives you life and breath and power to live
this out.
But I want to answer some maybe obvious questions.
You might ask what are these powerless religious acts?
Here's what they are.
powerless religious acts are, number one, attention to rituals and ordinances.
So these kind of people, man, they may take communion, they may tithe, they may give to
the church, they may have been baptized, they may actually even be one of those people that
lifts their hands in worship, they may actually pray.
Now usually they just pray in public because they don't want to pray in private because
in private that's relational, public, that's like just image kind of stuff.
So they actually live out the rituals and the ordinances.
And attendance to Christian gatherings.
They always come to church, they always go to village, they might even be in a huddle
and usually they bring their Bible and bring their journal and want to show up and sit
up close.
This is the attendance of Christian gatherings.
The third thing that is a powerless religious act is, man they are accustomed to Christian
language.
So they might actually say that they're saved.
You might meet one of these people and they're like, yeah man I'm saved, I'm sanctified, I'm
spirit filled, I'm walking with Jesus, hashtag adventure, are you on my Instagram?
Like it's obviously me and a Bible and a cup of coffee, you know, set just the proper way
with the sunshine on it so it looks like I'm killing it with the Lord, right?
This is what powerless religious activity can look like and you might go, man why would
anyone do that?
Where do you get this from?
Well there's a couple places, you might got this from your parents.
Maybe your parents actually love and follow Jesus and you just saw that growing up and
so now it's just a part of your schedule and you just do it.
Maybe your parents gave you that.
Maybe you just hang out with Christian friends, all of a sudden your roommates were believers
and so you just started following them to stuff and you just sort of picked up on what
to do because all your friends are doing it.
You know that in worship, like you can worship like this, you can worship like this is a
really special one, you know like hand over the heart, you can worship like that, you
can worship like this, you can really go for it and worship, you can kneel, man if any
of you kneel down like that, man write that down.
If you're trying to fake it, you kneel, no one will ever question you, you know like it's
a big deal, right?
So you pick this up from your friends but there is no real affection in your heart for Christ.
But there are postures in your life that look like they love Christ.
Or maybe this is national pride, you may think that's crazy but God bless America is almost
a religion in itself.
I mean you can look this up on your own, I think these statistics are ridiculous but
I saw some stuff that said 94% of Americans believe that there is some form of God or
higher power.
Are you kidding me?
94% would say yeah, there's probably something out there.
It even goes further that 77% of Americans would say they believe in a God and maybe
even the God of the Bible, 77, 7.7 out of 10 people believe in a God, are you kidding
me?
Now I think oftentimes they say I want just enough of a God, I want to give God Elmo,
kind of, I want just enough of a God to maybe get me out of hell and get me into heaven.
But the truth is man I don't want God like up in my life, I don't want God like being
like a decision maker, I don't want God actually asking me to do stuff that's costly, I just
kind of want to believe, I don't want to live like I believe.
But in the actual language when you look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 it says they have the
form of godliness, they have the rituals of religion, in the Greek this is the word morpho.
It's like they morph into things.
So if you're thinking about like the mighty morphine power rangers right now, that's a
really great illustration, right?
They're just kind of living life and then all of a sudden here comes a major dinosaur
looking a Lego creature guy, I need a morphine to a power ranger to go, I know that's a little
after your time, whatever, right?
So the power ranger picture, they morph into things, that's what Paul's saying.
So another way to say it is yeah, when they're over here with the athletes they
look like this, when they're over here with the party crowd they look like this, and when
they're over here with fraternity sorority world they look like this and when they're
over here with church people they look like this, they look like this over here and like
this over here, and like this over here they morph like this over here and they look like
that over there, and this over here, but in the end they never look like Christ, ever.
but they morph and they change and they have these different forms but they
never actually have godliness. It is a pretend weapon with no real power. This
is powerless Christianity which is ultimately a christless Christianity.
This is saying I have a weapon called Christ but not actually having a weapon
called Christ so I brought another toy you can see that I rated my daughter's
toy chest for this sermon so she's gonna be frustrated hopefully you
appreciate it right. So I could tell you hey guys I have a gun right I have this
incredible weapon here and if anything ever goes wrong I am available and
accessible to protect you because I walk in a lot of power I have a weapon
now all of a sudden my question is asked how's it going man I thought this
was like a power powerful weapon hang on let me try again this this is there's
Pat no oh it's Paul goes yeah that's what their Christianity looks like looks
like a gun that shoots bubbles. Avoid those people because yeah they they say
they have a weapon they say they have a gun they say they walk in power they
pretend that they know Jesus they pretend that they walk in the power of the
Holy Spirit but when it comes down to it their gun shoots bubbles avoid them
there's no power in that there's no power in that there's people that want
Christ but they don't want the cost and Paul tells Timothy you need to avoid
these guys because they're in they're in your church if this was if this was
Timothy's church and there'd be some of you guys who would want to hang out with
Timothy be texting Timothy like hey man let's get together hey man let's hang
out but but you guys are the kind of guys that only want to learn stuff and
never want to live stuff like you ain't trying to live anything but you're
trying to get next to Timothy because Timothy has some power and some some
leadership and so you want to get next to him you want to learn some stuff you
maybe you want to be preacher you maybe want to be a village leader you want to
learn some stuff you don't want to live anything Paul would take Timothy's
iPhone and look at and go oh that guy no man that guy wants to learn that guy
doesn't want to live that guy's gun shoots bubbles you avoid that dude let me
show you these other guys that walk in power and might and love the scripture
and love Christ and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit these are the kind of
people that God is after and Paul is telling us that with a broken heart Paul
is telling us there are people in our church that are sinful wicked-hearted
powerless church people and Paul says with with just loving harsh truth it is
better if you weren't even here it'd be better if you weren't even here it breaks
his heart to say that but what he's trying to say is maybe if you would
realize you're not a Christian you might become a Christian because it's
faking it it's not working because there's something in the Bible you have
to understand there's a non-negotiable in Scripture and it is this Christians
have power non-negotiable Christians have power the power of the resurrection we
celebrate the fact that Jesus came from the dead the most powerful event in
human history the death has been defeated now there is power acts chapter 1 the
disciples are together they're about to go tell the world about the resurrection
and Jesus says you don't get to go yet you go when the power of the Holy Spirit
comes upon you and then when the power shows up oh man you will be my way not
you're gonna be not maybe you are you will be my witnesses and Jerusalem
Judeus Mary and the ends of the earth when you have power but I won't sit you
out I will not send you out powerless I will not send you out with religion but
I will send you out with the power of the Holy Spirit that has accomplished in
the resurrection those accomplished in the cross and if you walk in that you
are a powerful Christian there is nothing else I can say about the gospel
except the gospel is the possession of power power of sin power of death power
of your issues the gospel possession is power gospel proclamation is power
gospel ownership is power the Holy Spirit brings power and no matter what
the world tries to do to put a lid on the gospel it can't because it's not
powerful enough in 1949 China became a communist country and they decided that
instead of of abandoning Christianity they were gonna give it a form of
religion so 1949 China becomes communist country and they say in order to be a
Christian you must register your church with the government so to say it another
way to be a pastor in China means to be a government employee so here's what they
want to do they say we want to give you a form of godliness to appease your
religion but we would like to keep all the power you can have a building you
can do the things we're gonna put some cameras in there and we have all the
power so in 1949 this goes live in 1951 China kicks out all foreign missionaries
it's illegal to be a foreign missionary in 1953 China declares we did it we
finished the task there are no more foreign missionaries in China in 1953 in
1953 there's 700,000 Christians in China 1953 700,000 Christians no more
missionaries the church can do some religious stuff but the government has
the power you know what happens since then real believers go yeah we're not
gonna do a powerless form of godliness because to possess the gospel is power to
proclaim the gospel is power and I know the government doesn't like that because
this is a more powerful power than your little fake power so you know what
happens is this above-ground church and its appearance of godliness is rejected
by real believers and they go underground and they say if you're going to
offer me some form of godliness but deny its power then I'll take a different
form of godliness to show you the power of God we'll go underground so 1953 700,000
Christians no missionaries church has to be a government thing and what
happens since then I want to read you some stats in 2009 it was reported there
was 23 million Christians in China in 2010 it was reported there were 33
million Christians in China in 2011 it was estimated there are 67 million
Christians in China and in an article published in 2014 or sorry November 14
2014 it was estimated that China now has over 100 million Christians how is that
possible they kicked out the missionaries they controlled the church they
told these 700,000 here you can have appearance of godliness that is possible
because the power of God cannot be stopped by some sort of form of human
religion this article goes on to say that by 2030 there's an estimation that
there's gonna be 230 million Christians in China making it the world's largest
Christian nation are you kidding me the one where it's illegal to do that is now
the world's largest Christian nation yeah isn't that like God to say oh you want
to show power that's cute here's what real power looks like so there's this guy
at Purdue University who's kind of the foremost leader Professor Yang in
Christianity in China and he says this he says but even if Beijing does expand
its struggle against Christianity the whole country the very most they could
hope for is to slightly delay the moment when China will become the world's
largest Christian nation the current suppression and campaign for demolishing
churches pulling down crosses and throwing people into prison won't
significantly slow the growth in believers Professor Yang from Purdue
says if anything it actually adds fuel to the fire of Christian revival in
China friends this is what the power of the gospel looks like when it is
unleashed in the life of believers nothing can stop it the gospel in the
local church is the unstoppable force that God has towards the world but you
cannot fake it you have to experience it and own it and believe it and walk in
it there is no power and faking it looking religious is powerless which
kind of begs the question okay if that is true what in the world is keeping us
from walking in power what is it that's stopping us from living in the kind of
power they're experiencing in China the experience in the scriptures what is
keeping us from power and the answer is one word and the word is unbelief what's
keeping us from walking in the power that God offers is unbelief now let's go
back to where we started I started with we gave Elmo to God remember big
unbelief now we're Christians now primarily we turn and we take all the
rest of our unbelief the rest of the toys and we go okay God I got this I know
it's gonna fall and I'm not gonna I'm gonna go like one step per ten years here
but we're gonna do this you know I'll take care of the rest and and instead we
go no no no I'm gonna I'm gonna look at all that stuff and we go that's my
unbelief I need to take it to the place that I took my first unbelief I need to
take my second third fourth and fifth unbelief to the same place that I took
my first unbelief so I'm not trying to convince you this morning or this
evening I'm not trying to convince you that you're an unbeliever I'm trying to
convince you that you have unbelief you're a believer I don't doubt that Jesus
is incredibly mighty to save I would never doubt that I'm saying you have
unbelief I'm even trying to go a step further to say I'm saying every sin in
your life and my life is rooted in unbelief I'm saying that every place you
feel powerless against sin every place that you fail every place that you're
frustrated is really a battle against unbelief so in 2nd Timothy you see like
the fruit of unbelief is these 18 issues that he lists but it's not really that
they have 18 issues it's they have the issue of unbelief you're tracking with
that like to say it another way it's like in Galatians 5 the fruit of the
spirit love joy peace patience kind of as good as faith was general self-control
please do not go work on self-control work on engaging the spirits don't work
on love work on engaging the spirit and by engaging the spirit love joy peace
patience kind of goodness all those things will thrive all those things will
flourish if you engage the spirit in the same way don't engage greed love of
money struggling here no no no engage your unbelief if you engage your
unbelief that list of issues will be powerless towards you but if you start
with that list of issues you're gonna be powerless towards your unbelief that is
a subtle shift that I'm pleading with you to get that we must engage our
unbelief some of us are holding on to issues that you're gonna be powerless
against them unless you engage your unbelief with the power of the spirit so
I've showed you a warning in Scripture I want to show you a piece of wisdom in
Scripture out of Mark chapter 9 and you don't have to turn there I want to read
this to you almost like it's a story and I want you just to picture this in your
mind and mark chapter 9 you see one of the wisest things ever done in this
interaction this man has with Jesus let me just read this to you mark chapter 9
verse 14 says when they returned to the other disciples they saw a large crowd
surrounding them and some teachers of religious law were arguing so we got
some we got some ritualistic religion people arguing imagine that right okay
sorry the religious people are arguing and when the crowd saw Jesus they were
overwhelmed and with awe and they ran to greet him he says what are you talking
about Jesus asked what are you arguing about and then one of the men in the
crowd he spoke up and said teacher I brought my son so that you could heal
him he's possessed by an evil spirit that won't let him talk and whenever the
spirit seizes him it throws him violently to the ground and he foams at the
mouth and he grinds his teeth and he becomes rigid so I asked your disciples
to cast out the evil spirit but they couldn't do it so I've tried myself
couldn't work the religious leaders they just want to argue they can't help me
I actually found some disciples and tried to ask them to help me but they
couldn't do it either in verse 19 Jesus says to them you unbelieving people he's
saying you're unbelievable you're unbelieving is unbelievable maybe Jesus
had a rough day right you're killing me how long must I be with you how long
must I put up with you bring the boy to me so they brought the boy and when the
evil spirit saw Jesus evil spirits have great theology in the Bible when they
saw Jesus it threw the child into violent convulsions and he fell on the
ground writhing and foaming at the mouth this evil spirit doesn't go oh here
comes Jesus good I've been wanting to fight Jesus he goes oh no Jesus and
throws the boy on the ground verse 21 how long has this been happening Jesus
asked the boy's father and he replied since he was a little boy the spirit
often throws him into the fire throws him into water and it tries to kill him
have mercy on us and help us if you can he's at the end of his rope it's like I
tried the religious guys they didn't work I try the disciples I didn't work I've
tried myself it doesn't work this demon is trying to kill my son would you have
mercy on us if you can what do you mean if I can Jesus asked anything is
possible if a person believes and the father instantly cried out Lord I
believe help my unbelief and then Jesus told him okay cool go home and work on
your unbelief and come back later when you have it figured out then we can
really accomplish something no that's not let me read you what really happened
when Jesus saw the crowd of onlookers was growing he rebuked the evil spirit so
apparently the belief mixed with a little unbelief was okay with Jesus as long
as you ask him to help so Lord I believe help my unbelief can you heal my son if
I can of course I can't do you believe yes of course I believe will you help my
unbelief and so Jesus looks at the evil spirit he says listen you spirit that
makes this boy unable to hear and speak he said I command you I don't negotiate
with you I don't play with you I command you to come out of this child and I
never enter him again exclamation point and then the spirit screamed and
threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him the boy appeared
to be dead the murmur ran through the crowd as people said he's dead but Jesus
took him by the hand and helped him to his feet and he stood up there's so many
powerful things how many times does it look like yeah that guy's dead that guy
has no hope everyone's murmuring Jesus goes bro just take my hand you're not
dead get up I can save I'm powerful to save I can help you and then the story
in verse 28 afterwards when Jesus was alone in the house with the disciples
they asked him why couldn't we cast out the evil spirit and Jesus responds this
kind can be cast out only by prayer which I think is anecdotally awesome the
Jesus was go they go hey why couldn't we do it and he goes you guys weren't prayed
up I'm kind of always prayed up so it doesn't really matter like bring
anything of me done done deal but you guys need work on that stuff right so
just like you haven't prayed enough I was ready bring them on right that's not
what the sermons about just underline and write awesome okay the father in
this story likely didn't have a long list of sermons that he had encountered
before this he probably didn't know the narrative of the kingdom of God the
doctrine of grace the position of justification the theory of the Trinity
and how it works out in the world he didn't know any of this stuff here's all
he knew he knew he had a need that he was powerless to fight against and he knew
he was standing in front of someone who was powerful to accomplish his need so I
think that we've got to be reminded today that endorsing sound doctrine
doesn't save you even saying oh yeah I believe the Bible like that that even
doesn't save you even saying I believe in justification even that doesn't save you
if on top of that is not a I believe in Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit
has brought me from death to life therefore the kingdom of God and
justification and grace and the Trinity all those things have now come to life
but in those things alone there is no life if you have with if you have all
that stuff without Jesus then you don't have Christianity because Christianity
without Christ is not Christianity Jesus in the story is incredibly gentle with
unbelievers all the while being incredibly harsh with fakers it's much
more powerful to tell Jesus your unbelief than it is to sit around and fake it
all the time my hope for our church is that we would all transition our prayer
life from Lord help me to Lord help my unbelief all of us pray Lord help me Lord
help me Lord help me Lord help me my prayer for you is that you would switch
that and pray Lord help my unbelief Lord help my unbelief Lord help my unbelief
Lord help my unbelief of course I don't doubt you but sometimes I don't believe
you're gonna come through for me Lord help my unbelief you guys want a Bible
verse like you want a life verse I know that most of you think Philippians 4
13 I can do all things through credit that's a great verse tattoo it on your
body probably already have right so great verse no joke there that's that's
cool great verse but you want a life verse how about that one Lord I believe
would you help my unbelief that verse listen to me that is a saving faith
that is not a faking faith that is a saving faith Lord I believe you know I
believe I trust that you conquered my sin on the cross but you know I have
unbelief will you help my unbelief that is a saving faith that is a coffee mug
verse that is a life verse that is true because if you just go through faking it
like oh yeah Lord I believe but you know I do whatever I want that's not going to
save so if you're to say okay Josh what are you asking of me I'm asking you to
do one thing identify places where you're powerless and pray Lord help my
unbelief identify places in your life where you're powerless where you're
failing we're frustrated where you're sinning we're struggling identify those
places and choose not to fake it identify those places and say Lord would you
help my unbelief and you might ask like why are you saying unbelief well I'm
saying unbelief because I actually think you have one issue in your life not
lots of issues in your life I think you have the issue of unbelief and so you
might go man I'm really struggling and really you know battling through
loneliness I go okay loneliness is that's a legit thing but I don't think you're
gonna cure your loneliness by getting more people in your life what if it's
not that you're lonely what if you have a desire for intimacy that's a really good
God-given thing you have a desire for intimacy but you don't trust that God's
gonna provide for your needs so maybe it's not that you're lonely maybe it's
that you're not trusting God for your needs maybe underneath that loneliness
you don't believe you have any friends maybe you sit in a room full of people
when you go I don't I don't believe any of these people like me I don't believe
I'm always the last one to get invited to stuff I don't believe I have any
friends I actually don't even believe I like myself sometimes truth is I don't
think I'm very lovable I know you're talking about giving stuff over to God
I don't even know that God loves me and so what if underneath the loneliness is
all of this unbelief that Jesus would love for you to take to him so you
could find the security and identity that he offers what if our heart cry was
not merely oh God I'm lonely God would you keep me company oh God I'm lonely
would you make me feel better what if our deep heart cry was I'm lonely because
I'm a sinner and I live in a dark and broken world and I believe wrong things
about you God I believe wrong things about you so God would you help my
unbelief would you help me believe that you have good for me would you help me
believe that these people are actually my community would you help me believe
that you're not holding out on me that there is going to be a husband one day
or there is gonna be a wife one day would you hold on to the truth of that and
say God help my unbelief and that in that list of 18 it says these people love
money they love money and you go yeah I'm gonna work on my love of money no
you're not you have an unbelief you trust your savings account more than you
trust your savior that's unbelief there's something under that in the end you
don't believe that God can provide for you you don't think that God's a betting
better money manager than you are you believe that what you have you're
entitled to and you can do whatever you want with it it even goes further you
might think man every week you know some site pastor stands up and tells me to
worship the Lord through giving and I go no man that's for you guys I know what
it's like you don't believe that giving to Jesus through the local church is
actually for your joy you don't believe that you go no it sounds like it's for
the church it sounds like it's for the church and we get up week after week and
we plead with you it's for your joy it's for your heart it's for your good it's
for your worship and you go no it sounds like it's for the church you don't have
a love of money problem you have an unbelief problem and you need to take
an unbelief to Christ another one says they love pleasure rather than love God
and you basically go I just do whatever I feel like if it feels good I do it but
what if underneath that the truth is you're afraid you're insecure what if the
truth is you believe that that waiting until you're married to have sex is not
a good idea what if that's what you believe what if underneath that I do
whatever I want is this belief that you go God doesn't actually mind if I have
sex I can live with this girl if I want to I can live with this guy if I want to
I'm free to do whatever are you a Christian of course I'm a Christian I gave
God my Elmo of course I'm a Christian but I do whatever I want because God
doesn't have any say so over this I'm a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of
God because frankly I believe that God's no fun the following Jesus is super
boring and I'm in college and everyone says college is four years where you're
supposed to have fun right Josh what's so big what's so big of a deal about my
21 run it's only one time it's only one night it's only a few drinks I have a
lot of ability to handle my alcohol I'm 120 pounds I can drink 12 vodka's right
it'll be fine I can do whatever I want am I of course I'm a Christian oh yeah
man don't but you're living like you don't believe any of it maybe it's an
inverting maybe it's unintentional maybe you're accidentally acting atheist but
the Holy Spirit is pleading with you that that's powerless and you're
unbelieving something there's something underneath that the heartbreaking truth
is that every place in our life where we're failing and we're frustrated and
we're struggling and we're sinning every one of those places is not because God
is able to provide it's not because God's unable to provide it's because we're
unable to believe every single place it's not because God is not mighty to
save or God's not going to provide or God's not for you or God's not secure it's
not that that is not true so you can't believe that he's good and that he's
for your good so we want you to take that unbelief to Jesus the powerless
unbeliever says Lord I believe but I'm gonna do whatever I want you don't have
any say so over that but the powerful believer shown in scripture says Lord I
believe and I'm not going anywhere until you help my unbelief because I am in
I'm committed I refuse to be religiously ritualistic I refuse that powerless
garbage I'm going to stay here until you help my own belief because I'm in is it
hard of course it's hard is it costly of course it's costly but it is the
greatest joy of your life to engage that unbelief to battle that unbelief always
realizing that God is with you and God is for you so my encouragement to you
this may feel like 90% bad news sermon but this my encouragement to you is to
follow the model of the father in Mark chapter 9 and take your unbelief
directly to Jesus bypass the religious people they can't help you I would even
say bypass the disciples there's some stuff that I can't help you with and
your village leader can't help you with your roommates can't help you with
there's some stuff that you need to take directly to Jesus and say man what I
believe was you help my unbelief because this is is killing me this is
struggling like you're watching me try to carry this stuff God would you help
my unbelief right now the most powerful thing that I think you can do is
confess your unbelief to Jesus and if you go man through the course of this
sermon I'm not sure I'm a believer will praise God you can take that unbelief to
Jesus and he can heal you and he can comfort you and he can walk with you
and he can infuse you with the power of the Holy Spirit made available through
Christ right now he can offer that to you the power is available to you right
now the weather has been changing a little bit in our city and my daughter
and I go to the park and she gets on the slide and she's terrified to go down
because it looks big and it looks scary and she's not sure she can believe that
it's safe and it's secure and as her father it is my joy to help my daughter
overcome unbelief it is my joy I climb up on the slide I hop on I go let's go
down together it's not as bad I will help your unbelief so you need to realize
that maybe your greatest unbelief is that you don't believe God wants to
anything to do with your unbelief you're not realizing that God will climb on
the slide God will go down with you God will cheerly God will be secure God is
fully capable fully ready to take on your unbelief and it's his joy to do so
would we as a church be courageous enough to make it our joy to take him our
unbelief and every single time you will see that Christ is better Christ is
sufficient Christ can save and in the end Christ will deal with your unbelief
and slowly conform you into the likeness of Jesus and conform you out of the
likeness of ritualistic powerless religion and I love you enough to tell
you that and I plead with you right now right where you are take your unbelief
to Jesus and I know that's hard so I want to pray that you might do that
wherever you're at and there are gonna be people in the back if you go man I
I'm not a believer I'd like to take my own belief to Jesus for the very first
time there will be people available for you to go talk to and you can just walk
up to them and you can say hey can you help my unbelief and they will pray with
you and they will point you to Jesus right now today so as I pray the band's
gonna come up and all of us all across this room on all the campuses we're
gonna take our unbelief to Jesus and we're gonna watch him joyfully help us
respond and walk in power so let's pray together
Father I pray that we would identify the places in our life where we're walking
in unbelief got identify the places in our life where we're powerless and God
we would invite you into those places even right now God I pray that that
none of us in this room are struggling to identify the places of unbelief in
our life but God I pray that we do not stop at identification
God I pray we do not stop at going okay I recognize I have unbelief but Lord
rather we we take a step further and we expose that unbelief to Jesus God I
pray that that we would go back to the cross again today the cross is where we
first found our faith in Christ where he gave his life for us God that's the
place of our first faith I pray that the place we took our first unbelief is the
place we take our second our third our fourth our fifth one hundredth one
thousandth unbelief God I pray that we keep taking it to the cross and every
time we take our unbelief to the cross God I pray you infuse us with the
powerful belief that Jesus can accomplish anything that he can overcome
anything and God I pray that you would help us realize today that it is your
joy to help us battle unbelief and it grieves your heart when we live our
lives as though you don't exist it grieves you so God I pray that we
would we would stop grieving you this morning and we would greet you with our
unbelief and say Lord I believe would you help my unbelief and in that moment we
would find you so faithful we would find you so good we would find you so
powerful we'd find you so capable and God all of us would walk out of church
today with a new sense of empowered belief
God remind us what we believe and help us of our unbelief I pray in Jesus'
name Amen
