Matt Hagee - You Better Believe It
John 5 tells us very quickly and clearly, the power of belief and the danger of unbelief. You have to understand that there are consequences to both. And truly, in this world, it really doesn’t matter what the topic is, there’s only two types of people. There are believers and nonbelievers. And when you make your decision about whether you believe or you don’t believe, the next thing that will happen is your behaviors will be based on what you believe.
1 John 5 describes these two types of people: he who believes and he who does not believe. Just as there are those two types of people in this chapter, there’s only two types of people in this room. There’s only two types of people who are watching today. Doesn’t matter where you’re watching from, how far you are from this sanctuary. There’s only two kinds: believers and nonbelievers. You can’t tell me, «Well, I’m figuring it out. Give me some time. It’s a process». No, its not a process, it’s a decision. You’re either in or you’re out.
And here’s what the Bible has to say about believers. 1 John 5, it says, «Believers have a testimony». It says, «There is a witness within them». 1 John 5:10, «He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself». That’s powerful, especially when you understand who the witness is. Hebrews 4 calls him a great high priest. His name is Jesus, the son of the living God. He makes it possible for you and I to go boldly into the throne room and find grace and mercy in our hour of need according to Hebrews 4:15–16. I have a testimony today and his name is Jesus. Because I believe in him, he’s up in heavenly places right now talking about me down here on earth. His word says that his blood speaks a better word. What does that mean? What I don’t know, he does. What I can’t do, he can.
So, right now, he’s up in heavenly places talking about battles that I haven’t fought, but he’s already gonna give me the victory. Talking about mountains that I haven’t climbed, but he’s already gonna move them. Talking about problems I haven’t solved, but he’s already got the solution. He’s already binding whatever the enemy has put in front of me. He’s already blessing whatever I put my hands to. He’s already doing more than I can ask, think, or imagine. Why? Because I believe. That’s powerful. But go read the rest of the verse. And it’s dangerous for nonbelievers.
1 John 5:10, «He who does not believe has made him a liar». When you don’t believe God at his word, you’re looking up into heavenly places and you’re not going boldly into the throne room. You’re saying, «God, I think you’re a liar. I don’t believe you». Now, I know we’ve got several states and several nations watching, but I’m gonna take you down to Texas for a little while. Where I grew up in Texas, if you had the courage to call somebody a liar, you better enter into the laying of hands ministry pretty quick because around these parts, we call those fighting words. And what happens whenever you choose to not believe in God, you do not have the testimony that the believer has.
When you refuse to believe in God, when you refuse to take God at his word, when you refuse to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, it’s just like you saying, «God, you’re lying». And when you call God a liar, you don’t qualify for the blessings that the Bible has for you. «God, I don’t believe what you said about, 'ask and you shall receive, ' so I’m not gonna ask». Well, guess what? Then you won’t receive. «God, I don’t believe what you said about, 'give and it shall be given unto you, ' so I’m not gonna give».
Well, guess what? You don’t get pressed down, shaken together, and running over until you’re obedient to do what his word said. «God, I don’t believe what you said about the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up, so I’m not gonna call for the elders of the church, and I’m not gonna be anointed with oil, and I’m not gonna pray over my sickness». Well, guess what? You get to keep sickness. Whenever you don’t believe in God, you don’t tarnish his majesty, you don’t pull him off the throne, you don’t make him try to come down here and prove himself to you. What you do when you don’t believe in God is you disqualify yourself from receiving anything that God has for you and that’s dangerous. How dangerous is it?
1 John 5:12. It says, «He who has the son,» which means you believe, «Has life». And then it says, «He who does not have the son, who does not believe, does not have life». You’d better believe it, because it’s a matter of life and death. It’s not enough to say you believe, he expects you to behave like you believe. This is one of the challenges we face in our lives. What we say, we often don’t do. And until your behavior and your beliefs line up, then you yourself are deceived. Here’s what the Bible says in Malachi 3:6. «I am the Lord, I do not change». And some people wanna say, «Well, that’s God, the father». But here’s what it says in Hebrews 13:8, «Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever».
So, if they don’t change, then you need to understand the commitment that he required of his disciples around the Sea of Galilee is the same commitment that he requires of Cornerstone Church here this morning. We’re at a very dangerous time in church history. This is the Laodicean era. This is the time when the church is neither hot, meaning that they’ll take a stand, nor are they cold, meaning that they don’t wanna endorse the dark side. We just wanna stay right in the middle. But Jesus said, «Because you’re neither, you’re not hot, you’re not for me, and you’re not cold, you’re not against me. I’m gonna spew you out of my mouth». And what you need to understand is that we live in a world where people who call themselves Christians and followers of Christ, they want to adjust the unadjustable. They want to expand the solid rock that is a standard of truth. They want to evolve what cannot be broken.
Read what the Bible says, «The grass may wither and the flower may fade, but the word of the Lord, it endures forever». Jesus said, «Heaven and earth will pass away but my word will, by no means, pass away». He settled the argument when, in John 17, he said, «Your word, oh Lord, is truth». Church, you have to understand that this book is still the standard of truth in heaven above, and it should be in your life today. I don’t care what the world says has changed, my God will not change. Not now, not ever. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Generation to generation, this truth endures when everything else fails. When you look at the power of believing in his word and you begin to behave like you believe, then the Bible says whatever you ask in faith, you’ll have it.
Jesus said, «Whatever you bind will be bound. Whatever you loose, will be loosed». He told the disciples, «When you speak to a mountain, it’ll be cast into the sea because all things are possible to them that believe». Now, on the contrary, nothing is available to the doubter. Nothing is available to the nonbeliever or the skeptic. James 1:6-7 says, «He who doubts is like a wave that’s tossed by the wind. He’ll receive nothing. He’s double minded and unstable in all of his ways». Why is he double minded? Because with his mouth, he says he believes, but with his behavior, he doesn’t believe. With his mouth, he speaks faith, but with his actions, he doesn’t act in faith. So, he’s got two minds and God says, «I’m not gonna endorse that kind of behavior. You get nothing».
When you ask God for something and don’t believe that God is able, you make God try and prove himself when he’s already done enough to do that. Read what Matthew 13:58 says. It says that Jesus was in a certain place and he could not do mighty works there because of their unbelief. It doesn’t say that Jesus was in a certain place and Jesus was having an off day so he couldn’t do anything. It says that the power and the presence of the miracle working Son of God, the word made flesh was at a certain place, but the word made flesh could not do anything because the people who were there with him didn’t believe in him.
How many times has he come into our lives? How many times has he come into our circumstance? How many times has he been there with us, and it wasn’t that he could not bless us, it’s that our unbelief kept him from being the blessing that God sent him to be. There are times when his spirit and his power are present, and yet it’s our unbelief that keeps him from achieving what needs to be done. You cannot ask God to prove himself. He has already done it time and time and time again. You have to believe God and believe him here and believe him now.
You see, your natural mind, the one that is conformed to the world, it says, «I’ll believe it when I see it». But your transformed mind says, «I’ll believe it and then I’ll see it». How do you behave in your waiting season? How do you act between the time that God has promised it and its arrival? You’d better behave like you believe it because that’s where the miracle comes from. It doesn’t come because God said it, and you’re gonna sit there and just doubt it until it shows up. Our expectations create in us either the willingness to endure or the frustration to quit. If you expect it to come, then you endure. But if you expect it to arrive, you’re disappointed when it’s not here.
Have you ever gotten one of those notices that says, «Your package has been delivered,» but you know for a fact it’s not delivered. And the reason you know it’s not delivered is because you’re standing at the delivery place and your phone says. «Your package is delivered». And you’re going, «No, it’s not». You’re disappointed because what you expected hasn’t arrived on your schedule. Now, if you didn’t have the app, you’d be thrilled whenever it showed up. Because you have sent a message to someone that you’ve never seen, with personal financial information that you shouldn’t give, to an undisclosed location that you don’t know where it is.
«Oh, it’s made in America». Which universe? 'Cause if you ever call customer service, I promise they’re not speaking king’s English. And when you think about all of the unknowns that you’ve engaged in, you should be thrilled when that $47 lip gloss shows up. I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about people you know. By the way, I don’t wear lip gloss. But because what you expected or what you were prompted to believe would be here on a certain date, at a certain hour, at a certain time, and it’s not there, now you’re frustrated, now someone’s failed you, now someone’s let you down. Well, you do the same thing when you put God on your calendar. And God says, «Just endure. Have enough expectancy to know that I will not tell you a lie. Believe with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength».
Some people want to know what God’s promises are for their life. Well, let’s talk about some general promises before we talk about specific promises because your faith has got to engage at some level. And when you don’t believe in his general promises, God won’t share with you the specific promises. Look at a general promise that he gives to all of his children, Matthew 28:20. He says, «I am with you always, even to the ends of the age». Now, if Jesus cannot tell a lie, if he is the truth, and he says, «I’m with you always,» how many of you know that that means he’s with you always? But if you behaved like you believed it, would you do the things you always do? Would you go the places you always go? Would you say the things you always say? Would you act the way you always act?
When you go through troubles and trials, would you throw up your hands and feel like you’re abandoned? He’s with you always. Even in the doctor’s office when you don’t get the report that you wanted, he’s with you always. Even when you walk through a season of sorrow and it’s not the outcome that you expected, he’s with you always. In the darkest hour that you’ve ever known, the light of the world is right there with his arm wrapped around you. Whenever the doctor tells you, «These are the results,» the great physician is sitting in the chair with you.
Whenever you go to the graveside of someone you love, the conqueror of death, hell, and the grave is shaking the keys of victory over the casket and he’s telling you, «I’m with you always. I will not let you down. I will keep my promise». The dead in Christ shall rise and we shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. He’s with you always, but we don’t always act like he’s there. Another general promise. He promised he would return. John 14:3, he said, «I go to prepare a place for you». And then he said, «I will come again». Say that with me, «I will come again. And I’ll receive you that where I am, there you may be also».
Church, Jesus Christ is coming back. Do you believe it? You’d better believe it. And you better behave like you believe it. You better spend your days watching and waiting, not worrying and doubting. You’d better spend your time dressed and ready to go. You’d better have your oil lamp full because when the trump of God sounds, those who are watching and waiting shall be snatched off of the face of this earth, and they’re going to go see Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. You have to believe it because I promise you this, when the trump sounds, we’re gone in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Give the Lord a hand clap of praise.
Now, those are general promises. And many of us want God to give us specific details. He’s not gonna give you specific details until you prove you believe in what he’s given everybody. Behave like he’s coming back. Behave like Jesus is with you because in doing so, you exercise your faith. Romans 12:3, it says that, «God has dealt to each of us a measure of faith». That means that he’s given all of us a portion of faith and it’s our job to work with it. When you work with faith, when you act in faith, when you believe in faith, when you pray in faith, when you read the Word of God in faith, you are exercising your faith and it grows. And as your faith grows, you have the ability to believe God for more.
Consider this church. When this church started just a few miles from here in a living room with just a few families, what we had faith for was that we would be able to go from where we were to a few folks. And then once we got a few folks, we believed for a room full of folks. And then once we got a room full of folks, we believed for a sanctuary full of folks. And then once we got a sanctuary full of folks, we believed for a larger sanctuary full of folks. And now, we sit in a sanctuary that seats thousands and we’re talking to a hundred and twenty nations around the world. Why? Not because 60 something years ago, the decision was made, «This is where we would end up,» but we grew to this, exercising our faith and believing in a God who said, «All things are possible to those who believe».
Things that are exercising are growing, they’re getting stronger. If your future is not growing and getting stronger, you need to go find some faith. You grow your faith when you read the Word of God, Romans 10:17, it says, «Faith comes by hearing and hearing by,» what? The Word of God. How much of this word are you hearing? Is Sunday all you get? How much of this word are you reading? Or is it only read to you? How much of this word are you meditating on and speaking? Because you better believe what God told Joshua. «You shall meditate on it day and night, and you shall speak it, and it shall proceed out of your mouth, and whatever you do, you will have success».
When you begin to read, and hear, and saturate your life in the Word of God, your faith starts to grow. When you come to church on Sunday and then you spend the rest of your week saturated with the doubters and the skeptics of this world, your faith starts to shrink. You can’t wash off in a 90 minute service what they’re gonna put on you in 6 days. So, you’ve got to feed your faith and exercise your faith. And then as your faith starts to grow, you’ll see God start to move mountains of impossibility. Which means that the one thing that you have to truly develop is your willingness to endure. Your willingness to endure. You can’t do it once and expect everything to be there all at once. And if there’s a problem that we have in our modern world, it’s that we don’t like to endure, we don’t like to wait.
I don’t care how much you wanna celebrate your patience, you ain’t that patient. I’ve never seen anybody walk into a «Waiting room», what a terrible word to put on the door. «Waiting room,» what? I don’t want a waiting room, I want a «Go through» room. You walk into a waiting room and they say, «We’re running behind today». And you go, «Oh, praise God. I’m so thankful. I just love sitting around and doing nothing. Hallelujah». No. You may not say what you’re thinking, but you ain’t thinking, «Hallelujah». And what we do as Christians is we want everything to be like a push of an easy button. «God, I need your provision, so I’m gonna give once. God, I need your hand to move, I’m gonna pray once. God, I need everything in my life that’s been wrong for decades to get fixed in a day so I’m gonna believe once».
But that’s not how God works. God says, «Endure hardness as a good soldier,» that’s what Paul told Timothy. The promise that comes to those who endure is those who endure to the end, the same shall be saved. So, you have to be ready to do it more than once. You have to be willing to endure day in, day out, year in, year out, decade in, decade out because it’s through your faithful endurance that God says, «There’s somebody I can believe in».
God wants you to put your belief in him, and by putting your belief in him, you prove through your endurance that God can believe in you. He’s looking for somebody that says, «God, I don’t care how long I have to wait. If you said it, that settles it. I don’t care how big the need is, you’re bigger than the need. I don’t care about the problem, you’re the God who solves problems». You see, it’s not a moment by moment type of thing. It’s not an easy button that you push, it’s a mountain that you decide to climb, and the higher you climb, the more faithful he gets. The farther you go, the better he is.
Whenever you’re willing to take a step, even if it hurts with everything that’s in you, God says, «I’m the God who will meet you at the top and we’re going to see my plan come to pass in your life together». Whenever you have that kind of courage, whenever you’re willing to endure, whenever you begin to move like that in God’s direction, God says, «My promises are yours. The victory that you’ve longed for is yours. The needs that you have, they will be met». You ask me, «Pastor, do you really believe that God does that»?
You better believe I do because I’ve seen what my God can do. I’ve seen the broken mended, I’ve seen the captive set free. You better believe that I’ve seen chains of addiction shattered and destroyed. I’ve seen generational curses canceled. You better believe that I’ve seen prodigal children that the world gave up on come running back to the cross. I’ve seen those that declared bankruptcy blessed beyond measure. I’ve seen those that were sick and beyond help healed and restored. I’ve seen tormented minds brought to peace that surpasses understanding because I know a God who is able. I know a God who has proven himself. I know a God who is faithful. He’s faithful today, he’s faithful tomorrow, he’s faithful year in and year out, he’s faithful from generation to generation, and you better believe that he has a promise for you.