Ep 28 – Five Faith Killers, Part 4

Hi thomas Mahairas with it’s all greek to me, Vicki and I have been discussing for all these weeks on a lego piece does these five places in Matthew’s Gospel and they’re only in Matthew on the little faiths and all the context of where jesus christ addresses the disciples and tells them that they have little faith. This last one, he actually is very upset. We’ll talk about that in a minute. But first let’s go and check out what Vicki and I have been discussing and thank you again for joining us with. It’s all greek to me. Hi tom and Vicky mo Mahairas and we are delighted to be back with It’s all greek to me. We want to be able to continue on this word Olivo pistols, which is Little faith or legal little and pieces is his faith. There are five times that Jesus Christ uses this word our Lord in Matthew’s Gospel. Chapter six, in chapter eight, Chapter 14, Chapter 16 and Chapter 17 uses this word only in Matthew and he is identifying in each case a different aspect of an enemy that comes to attack our faith. The first one is distraction in Matthew chapter six Made him now is 6:25- 34. This was faith for provisions. The second was discouragement. The loss is faith for peace In Matthew 8, 18 through 27. The 3rd 1 is doubt the stars. Oh, faithful protection. Matthew 1422 through 31. The 4th 1 is dialogue, that is the alloy, asian male, Matthew 16 1 through 12. This is faith for perception and finally demonic faith for power and authority. This is the word, them onion and of course allegro presto, in each case, he re proves and rebukes the disciples because of their little faith and he’s calling us to trust him and his word and keep our eyes fixed on jesus who is the author and the finisher of our faith. So Vicky is it’s been exciting looking at these words together with you and uh what do you think about the category that we’ve kind of opened up and developed? I like it a lot because uh, the Lord himself used that same word about these five areas and it’s the only place that is really in the bible. So it’s wonderful to have God’s word to open up these greek words and know that God is really concerned about us when we personally have little faith in him and in all these areas of problems and that we’re gonna have to happen to experience. He wants us to have great faith and put all of our confidence in him. What I really like about this is that the practical application to the spiritual principles, because everyone’s got problems with anxiety with worry, everyone’s got problems with fear and dread and discouragement, depression. Uh, there’s so many areas of our personal life are as couples, as a family, job related social problems in the world. I just think that many times people think that the bible is for pie in the sky, it’s some kind of a philosophy, but they don’t understand the specific and incredible uh you know, handbook for life. This is this is the handbook that comes along with the rules when you get a car, when you get a machine, god created us. But he gave us his handbook to show us how we function and how to better work. So we’re gonna look at this in Matthew chapter 17. Now, I’m gonna ask you to read the passage from four verse 14 through 23. This is the last place in the gospel of Matthew where our Lord jesus christ uses the words Olivia, resto So it’s the, it’s about the demo niac Vicky Verse 14 and when they came to the multitude, a man came up to him falling on his knees before him saying, Lord have mercy on my son, for he’s a lunatic and is very ill and he often falls into the fire and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples and they could not cure him and jesus answered o unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to me and jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to jesus privately and said, why could we not cast it out and he said to them because of the little nous of your faith oligopoly stows for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed you shall say to this mountain move from here to there and it shall move and nothing shall be impossible to you. And you know it goes on a little bit further in the text but this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting and talking about the spirit world that we need uh you know to to fight the demons and the devil. Uh we need fasting, we need prayer, spiritual warfare, spiritual warfare, incredible passage of scripture. Now when you think about this passage of scripture and you realize that here’s this poor man, he comes to his disciples and and ask for help, they can help him. But it’s because they really didn’t understand the power and the authority that they already had, That Jesus Christ had already given them back in Matthew chapter 10 you know and he gave them the authority to go and to cast out demons out of people And here was a perfect situation and uh and the Lord jesus christ when he says because of the little nous of your faith, what’s he talking about? Well, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, he had already given his word to them in Matthew chapter 10 when you read Matthew chapter 10, it clearly identifies that we’re gonna see this in as we go through this short uh power point and the notes, the Dominion is a demon, a fallen angel always refers to demons in the new testament. The only exceptions being acts 17 18. And as we go down this word, as we go down this word, what I just said was that the authority over unclean spirits was given in Matthew chapter 10 and verse one, just look at it. They’re so when our Lord sees the multitudes and the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few in chapter nine, he says, pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. Well, he’s not going to send laborers in his harvest to do the work and not give them the equipment, the work. We’re talking about the harvest we’re talking about is not grapes, is not wheat. It’s, it’s people He saw, he saw people falling down. They had all kinds of unclean spirits it says and and and he felt compassion for these people. And uh, and then in chapter 10, read that scripture verse to me Vicki right there and having summoned his 12 disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal them to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. You see right here right before in chapter nine verse 35 jesus was growing about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom verse 35 of chapter nine and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. So there is no chapter divisions in the original text. And so what you’re having here is a continuation of what was given in the chapter before. So now he gives them the authority and the power to go out and do the healing and the and over every kind of sickness, every kind of disease that he himself was doing in chapter nine in verse 35 C and the disciples didn’t really believe it. That’s why when here comes uh in Matthew 17, here comes this father with with with the boy And he’s asking them for help tom I’d just like to say something right after that verse in verse 36 and seeing the multitudes, Jesus, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. And you know, it’s so important that he goes on to say the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech or pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. It’s such a spiritual problem here. Even the demonic problems on this planet are taken care of by God himself. But the attitude of our heart has to be compassion and we look at people, we can’t see them as trees, you know, walking without life, they have to we have to have compassion and he said, he said these people are distressed and they’re downcast right? And I just think I don’t know those greek words, but I’m sure they’re really emotional and and tender in the heart of the people. Yeah. So what we have here is that the heart of jesus coming out for people? He wasn’t talking about wheat, he wasn’t talking about grapes, he wasn’t talking about uh some some physical uh fruit. He was talking about spiritual fruit and he gave the authority and the power to us, the disciples of jesus christ. And when you go to Matthew 10 1 you see that he summoned his 12 and gave them the authority over the unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness It tells us this very clearly in this passage in Matthew 17, it also continues to explain in this passage uh in luke chapter 10 verse 17 through 20 that the 70 returned with joy saying Lord, even the demons are subject to us, subject is epo Taso come under our authority and our word to us in your name, the name of jesus is above every name and every tongue and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and here he said to them, I was watching satan fall from heaven like lightning behold, I give you authority excuse era, which is delegated authority. He’s got the authority now he delegates it to us just like uh you know I was thinking of this yesterday when, when young men and women go through, you know the police academy and then they come to a date when they graduate and then they are inaugurated and and confirmed and they get a badge and they get a gun and they are given delegated authority. They’re given a power Vietnamese and excuse to both. And it’s incredible to tread on the serpents and scorpions and over all the power over all the Vietnamese of the enemy and nothing will injure you. You notice the words potash, so you notice the word excuse to, you notice the word Vietnamese in this passage dealing with jesus christ and his authority and his power and his uh dynamite and his excuse to over all of the evils, evil powers of the devil, the demons. And then as it winds this passage up and he says, and nothing will injure you. That’s us nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you. But rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. There’s something even greater than the fact that satan and his demons are subject to the name of jesus christ and to the people of jesus christ to preach the gospel of jesus christ and are in the church of jesus christ. There’s something greater than that that our names are recorded in the heaven, which belongs to jesus christ event. We are so excited to be, to have our names recorded tom and Vicky my Mahairas tom and Vicky Rose rick, Adela and Anastasios does my hair as tom Mahairas recorded in heaven. Now we may get the recording messed up on this planet because sometimes people change your name. Like in my case I was Anastasia’s nothing call me tom over here, but in heaven we got the proper recording of the name. Isn’t this a powerful passage of scripture, Honey? So our Lord jesus here, he makes a contrast uh and identifies the allegro presto the little faith in verse 20 like you, why don’t you pick it up and he said to them because of the little nous of your faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain move from here to there and it shall move and nothing shall be impossible to you. So in the context, I believe that the mountain that he’s talking about is this demonic force in this little boy’s life and that this father is begging for help. And so how how do you make the transition from that to the mustard seed to casting out the mountain? Well, the verse right before it’s just when the disciples came privately, they asked jesus, why couldn’t we cast out this demon. And once again Jesus Answers for the 5th time because of the little nous of your faith and the authority that God gave to us in the scriptures, we have to claim it. It’s just like when you become an american citizen, uh somebody just told me yesterday they became an american citizen when they got that stamp and that paper and the document they believed. And so the same thing for us, we have been stamped with the image of God. The power of the Holy Spirit is on our life and we have the power and the authority, nothing is impossible that we have to do on this planet by faith in God. That is so powerful. What you said about getting a citizen paper and when we become believers, not, not when we become apostles and we become some great preacher, we become believers. The moment that happens, we have his name stamped on us, jesus name and jesus Power in jesus, destiny says, don’t don’t rejoice that the angels, the demons are subject to you. The demonic forces are subject to you but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. We become citizens of heaven. What a fantastic fantastic series that we’ve had on this word Oligopoly stows and how our Lord really opens up these five areas in our life for us to really grow in our faith. So this fifth allegro presto in Matthew 17 is talking about faith for power and authority. The Lord, jesus christ tells them that this cannot go out except by prayer and fasting. Now I want us to look and understand that. Why did jesus get so upset with the disciples? Well, there’s a big reason here in Matthew chapter 10 and verse one, We see that Jesus summoned his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. That is really important because in Chapter nine of this verse 35 of Chapter nine, he went about the synagogues and the villages teaching, preaching healing every kind of sickness and every kind of disease and of course the demo maniacs, that was part of the healing and here in this passage, it says that he gave them power over unclean spirits in Matthew chapter 10. Now it’s continuing in the context 9 35 36 38 then chapter 10 verse one and they already had the authority, they had the power, they had the extra CIA and the Vietnamese to heal the demons, to cast the demons out to heal the little boy, the little the man, whoever it was in Leucadia was a demo knee ankle. Several of them. Now we have a situation where the Lord is really upset. I want you to see here how he deals with this situation in Matthew chapter 17 when they came to the multitude. A man came up to him in verse 14, Matthew 4 17 verse 14 and falling on his knees before him saying Lord have mercy on my son for he is a lunatic and it’s very ill for he often falls into the fire and often into the water and I brought him to your disciples and they could not cure him. And jesus answered and said, now this is this is an all unbelieving. In verse 17 it says I’m believing in verse 20 it says little nous of your faith. So one is a Pistorius without any faith, unbelieving and perverted generation. So he wasn’t really addressing the disciples, he was giving a general statement, but it included the disciples and then he says, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to me? You see the solution is jesus christ in every situation with a demo niac with a person who you have no ability to help this person, whether it’s counseling, we always have to remember that we’re not smart enough, we’re not spiritual enough, we don’t know enough. But jesus christ can come into that situation and can absolutely touch the person and change his life, Jesus rebuked him And it says in verse 18 and the demon came out of him and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to jesus privately and said, why could we not cast it out? Great question and he said to them because of the ali rope, a steer, the little nous of your faith. You see how important faith is in dealing with people with trouble in dealing with fathers who are brokenhearted and dealing with the maniacs. Uh there’s so many reasons why we need to really, what is this? Little faith? Little faith is that he had told us something, but we didn’t put confidence in what he told us. Faith comes by hearing Romans 1017 and hearing by the very word of Jesus Christ or about Christ and let me say this to you that that is great faith when you hear it and you rely on it, you believe it, you do it, you walk on it, you give it to other people, that’s faith when you’re questioning it, when you’re I’m not sure, oh this problem is big. When you start looking at problems as mountains, you can’t solve the problem, you can only solve the problem when you bring the problem to jesus and everything is a little inhale when you’re dealing with the god of the universe, who created the universe. Now notice what he says because of the little nous of your faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, a little bit of faith in the right person is worth more than the amount of faith in the wrong person, jesus is the right person, he says, if you have faith as a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed, you shall say to this mountain and he was, he was looking at the largest mountain in Israel when he said that many people believe that this was the largest mountain in Israel. Look at this mountain. Uh you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it shall move and nothing shall be impossible Adina toe without any dynamite, without any strength to you. Nothing, nothing, nothing shall be impossible to you who have even a little bit of faith, you have only one piece t. They said come on belief and then he added this, but this does not come out except by prayer and fasting. Listen, I have dealt with the maniacs. There was one on 42nd street that I actually spoke to and and in the name of jesus christ commanded the demon to come out. The demon came out, the guy got saved. Came to the Manhattan bible church the next day and because I told him come tomorrow he came, I’ll never forget dealing with the Dimon yakup at word of life. One early morning I dealt with a man in in the trailer park demo niac. There was another one uh white house in uh the Word of Life Island. When my wife and I was staying with our Children and they woke me up in the middle of the night and uh Vicki and I talked to this girl, she was like 16 years old and she was smiling and laughing like a yeah like a like a witch and the lights went out while we were talking to her about the Lord and Vicki quoted a verse of scripture. She said, The Lord sees in the darkness as well as in the book. The lights came back on. I was like thank you God, you know it was, it was just in the middle of the night. Listen, we don’t want to be dealing with people like this and yet they’re real, satan is real. Demons are real but God is real and his promises are real and the holy spirit of God is real. And when you can quote and speak the name of jesus christ from your lips from your heart and command in the name of jesus christ that this demon depart from here and go to the abyss. Now this is what Jesus taught us to do. And he gave us the authority Matthew chapter 10: verse one and the power excuse to Kathie lee to me, Vienna, me excuse to the dynamite. The Vietnamese which is delegated power and excuse here. The force and the dynamite is uh the power of force coming out and the ecstasy a is the delegated power and he gave that to us to have over all of these demonic forces. You have ar arcs out here. You have rulers, you have keratosis. There are different names for these demonic forces. Yes, pneumonia is one of them, this demon here and and he gave us the power through prayer through fasting through the word of God through unity as we work with God together that God will change people’s lives. We saw that little girl up at word of life Island transformed before our eyes into a pretty young woman. She was, she was a raging animal before we talked to her about jesus christ. Listen you have to be filled with God’s spirit, you have to know God’s word. You have to walk with God, you have to know that you are not doing this for some show but you’re helping people and we have we have to have even a little bit of faith in the right person that’s jesus christ. Now I love this passage, don’t you love this passage. Now Jesus was upset very upset about the disciples Because they didn’t you know what did they forget that he had back there in Matthew chapter 10 after they he said the harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few and the next thing you know he sends them out but he gives them authority and power to go and do the job that he’s called them to do. We have been called to do a job, he’s equipped us. He’s given us power and authority to go out and deal with the spiritual evil forces in this world whether they’re in the, in the spirit world and even the authorities in our life which many times are evil authorities that are placed there, God has us there and he knows who’s around us. And God is there to guide us and to protect us and be with us. And if he allows us to go through suffering, he’s there. He will never leave us as we just read And or ever Forsake us in Matthew chapter 28 Uh and verse 20 notice what he says in luke’s gospel in chapter 10 the 70 return saying Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. So yes, he’s given us his power but he’s given us his name. His name is like, you know the signature, we’re not here for ourselves. We are slaves of christ. We belong to jesus christ. The king is jesus christ were his subjects and we go with his gospel. The Gospel of the Kingdom. Notice what it says. Uh and the demons are subject epa castro there under our power through your name. Because jesus christ is the one that gives us that power. And he said to them, I was watching satan fall from heaven like lightning. And behold, he says, I have given you authority. There’s excuse to to to tread upon the serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall injure you. He’s talking about. Obviously spiritual poisonous attacks from the devil. He says, I’ve given you power over all of this. And nothing that satan is going to be able to do will be able to injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, That the spirits are subject to you. He says rejoice. Here’s what you rejoice over. That’s your name to honor Masu that your name is recorded. Uh huh uh paragraph. Oh in heaven’s stone. You’re a no in heaven. So the Lord tells us to rejoice and what not. That we have some spiritual authority or power over demonic forces, spiritual forces. That’s amazing that you know, because I remember a time as a drug addict. I remember a time as a hippie. I remember a time, you know when I was without christ, how fearful I was that demons were coming to take me. That satan had my mind through the LSD and all the junk that I was on the housing had controlled my life. And what a joy to know that he doesn’t have that anymore. But more than that there’s something even more than that greater than that because you can have your house clean and the demons can leave and then go on. And seven other demons come worse than the first one. But better than anything is to know that my sins have been forgiven. He who knew no sin became sin for me that I might have the righteousness of God in him and but as many as received empty those he gives the right to become the sons of God even to those who believe on his name. Will you believe on his name. Will you take his power to the people all around you? Don’t be a person with little faith. I have great faith and trust the name of jesus, God, bless you until next time. It’s all greek to me.