Ron Dunn Podcast - Miracle, Anyone?

Episode Date: May 24, 2017

Ron Dunn Preaches from Mark 11:12-14.

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. Glad to be here tonight. I'm glad to be anywhere tonight. First time I've seen the sun in three weeks.

Beautiful weather here in Atlanta. And somebody's turning the world upside down we've been having snow and ice and Dallas and when I left there today it was raining cats and dogs which that's better than hailing taxi cabs but I just enjoyed looking at the blue sky I wasn't certain it was still there. I appreciate the opportunity of being with you. Actually, the pastor didn't really tell that accurately. I've been wanting to come asking him if I could come.

And he always wrote back and said, well, you're just not ready yet. So I wrote him, I said, brother, listen, I'll come for nothing. He said, now you're ready. That's the truth. I want you to open your Bibles tonight to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 11. I'm going to begin reading with verse 12, and I'll read through verse 14, and then I'm going to skip down to verse 20 and read through verse 26, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 11, verses 12 through 14, and then verses 20 through 26.

And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if perhaps he might find anything thereon. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it. And in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursed is withered away.

And Jesus answering saith to them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any, that your your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses but if you do not forgive neither will your father which is in heaven

forgive your trespasses now i have some good news for you tonight there's not anything wrong with anybody here and a miracle wouldn't cure and i'm i know you're glad to hear that because if you're like most people you say well boy that's exactly what it'll take is a miracle anything less than a miracle won't solve my problem. I think we live in a miracle-needy age, and probably more than ever in my own lifetime. What we need desperately is a miracle of God. And there is no problem that the Church has, and no problem that you face in your home or in your personal life, that a miracle wouldn't cure. Of course, that's the trouble with miracles, there's never one around when you need one.

I think by and large the average Christian today has very little expectation of God performing anything miraculous in his life. I think most of us would be surprised if God did work in a miraculous way. I remember some time ago I was reading through the book of Hebrews and I had come to the eleventh chapter. In the last verses of that eleventh chapter, some very thrilling statements are made concerning what God did through the lives of those people because of their faith. And he speaks about closing the mouths of lions and being delivered from the edge of the sword and from the violence of fire, subduing kingdoms and obtaining promises. And it's a very thrilling resume of what these folks did.

And there was a little voice in the back of my mind that said well that's all well and good but you can't really expect god to work that way today now i'd heard that voice before i'm not certain exactly who that is speaking to me but he's been there a long time and and practically every time i read something like this he stands up and and he says, Now that's nice and that's good, but you know God doesn't work that way today. And I've heard that most of my Christian life. And I decided that night to find out where I first heard that statement. For I had to admit that in all of my Christian training, I couldn't remember ever being taught to expect

the supernatural. I think I had been taught that your success in the ministry was determined by your preparation, your training, and that's not to slight those things. They are extremely important. If I'm going to be limited, I want the Holy Spirit to limit me. I don't want to limit myself. I think those things are very important, but I think that I had always been led to believe that to be successful you had to be trained and prepared, and it all depended upon how clever you were and what new ideas you had and what new plans you had and as far as expecting the supernatural, the miraculous, to attend your life and your ministry. And I decided that the first time I had ever heard that was not in the Bible. And I went through the Bible and I've never yet

found anywhere in the Bible where God tells us not to expect him to work today like he did then. And I came to the conclusion that where I'd gotten that idea was from preachers who were trying to save faith and from teachers trying to explain away an impotent church. And I still feel the same tonight. I don't see anything in this book that leads me to believe that God does not want to work today in supernatural, miraculous ways. And so I don't think we ought to be surprised at God working in that way. As a matter of fact, I think what Jesus is saying to Simon Peter and the rest of these disciples is that this is exactly what you can expect. You see, Simon Peter was surprised when he saw that fig tree.

They had heard Jesus the night before curse the fig tree. They had heard Jesus the night before curse the fig tree. The Holy Spirit adds that little phrase in verse 14, and his disciples heard it. And the next morning as they were passing by, they noticed that the fig tree had died, withered from its roots. And Simon Peter is amazed, and the words there expressed the fact that he's startled. And he says, Master, behold, look at there, the fig tree which you cursed has withered away. I suppose he expected Jesus to be surprised, too, at the fig tree dying, and he just expresses surprise. Well, look at that, Lord. You cursed it, and it's withered away. And Jesus very calmly replies, have faith in God. For verily I say unto you,

ye say to this mountain, be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in your heart, it shall be done. Now I think what Jesus was saying is this, Simon, do not be amazed at the withering of a fig tree. That's nothing. As a matter of fact, if you know how to trust God, you can do far more than wither fig trees. You can say to a mountain, get out of the way and it shall be removed.

As a matter of fact, that's exactly how Matthew reports this incident. In Matthew 21, we have this account of that same incident, Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, if ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. You see what Jesus was saying? He was saying, Peter, that fig tree, the withering of that fig tree, is simply an object lesson. That's simply a preview. That's simply a foretaste, a token of what can happen. Don't marvel at that. I say unto you that if you have faith in God, you can do far more than wither fig trees you can move mountains

and i believe jesus meant exactly what he said now somebody said well i believe that's one of those dispensational promises you know that was made only to those disciples well i don't think it was because he said that whosoever shall say under this mountain he didn't say if one of you disciples shall say he said whosoever shall say unto this mountain and you'll notice he uses that little formula for verily i say unto you now you watch it as you're reading the gospels there are some things that jesus says to his disciples that were only for them but anytime jesus uses that phrase verily i say unto you or verily verily i say unto you, or verily, verily I say unto you. That is a little formula that he uses that always signifies that what he's saying is an eternal principle. He's enunciating a principle. And he says, whoever you are, whoever it is,

as shall say unto this mountain, be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done unto him. And I have no reason to believe that this verse was limited to those first disciples. Now what does Jesus mean when he says you can remove mountains? Does he mean that you can literally, I mean literally, cause a mountain of rock and stone and dirt and trees and grass to move over? I really don't think so. I don't think that Jesus is actually saying that you and I could go to Mount McKinley or Mount Everest and stand at the foot of it and say a few words and see that mountain pick itself up and cast itself into the sea.

I don't think that's what Jesus meant. I think he meant something far greater than that. As you study the Bible, particularly in the Jewish realm of thought, you will find that mountains symbolize hindrances, obstacles, barriers. And I think that Jesus, when he uses the expression of a mountain moving, I think he is referring to those things, whatever they may be, however formidable the object may be however great the barrier may be i think that jesus is saying that if you know how to exercise faith in god if you and i know how to trust god there's not anything that can prevent you from doing the will

of god that as you live your your Christian life and as you follow me in this matter of discipleship and service, if you find yourself confronted with a mountain, if there's something that's blocking your path, preventing you from being what God wants you to be and doing what God wants you to do, he said, if you have faith in God, you can remove that mountain.

And I think our Lord was saying that to that believer who knows how to have faith in God, there's not anything that can keep you from doing the will of God and not anything that can keep you from being what God wants you to be. And I think that is a message that the Church of Jesus Christ needs to hear today because most of us spend our Christian lives making excuses why we're not what God wants us to be. And yet Jesus says, even if it's a mountain, even if it is something as immovable and impregnable as a mountain, you can remove it. It can be removed. There's not anything, my friend, that can keep you from being what God wants you to be. Now I want us to look at this truth tonight, and I'd like to

make some suggestions about it. Number one, this kind of power—by the way, let me define a miracle for you, all right? A lot of fancy theological definitions of miracle, but I'd like to give you mine. And I think this agrees with the others, but it says more than the others say to my own heart. A miracle is God doing something that only God can do. Now, that's a miracle. It is God doing something that only God can do.

Achieving something that man cannot achieve, building something that man cannot build, destroying something that man cannot destroy, it is God doing something that only God can do. Now, first of all, I want you to notice that Jesus says this kind of power is released by faith. This kind of power is released by faith. How do you go about moving a mountain?

How do you go about accomplishing the will of God? How is it that I can ever be in this life what God wants me to be, what he saved me to be? Jesus said, have faith in God. Have faith in God. This kind of power is released only by faith. I've been in the ministry since I was a young, very young person, younger than I am. I've been in the ministry since I was a young very young person younger than I am I've gone to conventions into the Southern Baptist Convention associational meeting have you ever noticed that every year or so we have a new reason why we're not getting the job done. Have you ever noticed that? You see, it's a little embarrassing to us, really. It really is embarrassing to us. We have so much, there's no shortage of resources, no shortage of money, no shortage of manpower or brainpower.

We have the finest programs that the mind can conceive, and the finest paper to print them on, and the finest printers to print them. The machine is so well oiled and runs so smoothly that it's a little embarrassing when you put all of this together and what comes out is not what you expected. We're constantly falling behind. I know this year in Texas, for instance, our baptisms are the lowest they've been in ten years. years and what's so embarrassing about that is that this past year they put on one of the biggest most expensive slickest evangelistic thrust they've ever had and everybody was predicting the year before that 1977 would be the year of revival and they were predicting how great revival would spread throughout texas and even beyond tex Texas because of all of these things that they were going to do all of these programs

and and they had hired some Christian movie stars and X heroes and and a few X zeros even and Had gotten their testimony they put them on television. They hired the one of the finest Advertising agency in the state and what is so embarrassing is that with after all of that you see their baptism of the Lord they've been in 10 years and I attended the evangelism conference and I you know it's very interesting the reasons they gave what were some of those reasons I they gave one reason was the shift in population and a few other things like that well every year when I first started preaching television was just really starting you know to become everywhere I mean you know

everybody was getting it and it was all fresh and new and everybody was enamored and hypnotized by it and they used to say well you know you can't have revivals much anymore because of television everybody's sitting home watching television. Every so often, you know, we have an excuse. I've often wondered, it would be interesting if the Lord Jesus Christ were to attend one of our conventions. And by that I don't mean that he's not there, but you know what I mean. That, you know, they put him on the program. And I would like to hear his reason.

You know, it would be interesting if the Lord could have spoken to us at our own evangelism conference this year and told us why we were not getting the job done. You know what I think he would have said? I think he would have said to us what he said to his disciples in Matthew 17. You remember when Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration? He has with him there James, John, and Peter, and leaves the other nine in the valley. And while these other nine disciples are there with the crowd waiting for the return of the Lord, a father brings his demon-possessed

boy to his disciples and asks them to cast the demon out of the boy. And they tried, but they failed. Now, what was so frustrating to these disciples is that in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus had given them the power and the promise that they could cast demons out. And here they were unable to do what Jesus had plainly promised them they could do. And folks folks that's very frustrating well when the lord returned to the scene you know the story jesus immediately dealt with the situation and the bible says the disciples came to him privately i don't blame them they must have been embarrassed everybody watching them they all had to go at it none of them can do

it i wonder they went in alphabetical order maybe andrew tried first and he couldn't in bartholomew and all down the list and everybody there watching them you see their problem was this lord why could we not cast him out that was their question why could we not cast him out and what did jesus answer i was reading a book by a well known bible scholar and he was dealing with that, and you know what he said? He said the reason the disciples could not cast that demon out is because that gift had been a temporary gift. Well, that's not what Jesus said. You know what Jesus said?

He said, Master, why could we not cast him out? And Jesus said, because master why could we not cast him out and Jesus said because of your unbelief Because of your unbelief That's it that simple nothing about there being a temporary gift Nothing about you know demons are stronger than they used to be nothing about the times changing anything like it he said because of your unbelief and I remember what the Lord said according to your faith so be it and he could not do many

mighty works in Capernaum watch because? Because of their unbelief. Now folks, I want you to understand tonight that every failure in the life of the church, in the life of the individual Christian, is a failure of faith. I mean, ultimately, to trace it back to its cause, it is a failure of faith because we do not know how to believe and jesus said to his disciples have faith in god for i say unto you that you can say to this mountain and if you believe and do not doubt you'll have whatever you say this kind of power is released only by faith now that leads me to say that perhaps the most important thing for a believer to learn is how to trust God and you see most Christians don't know how to trust God they don't know how to believe God Jesus said have faith in God now what does it mean to have faith in God

I want you to notice what he said have faith in God now the word God is in the emphatic position in that verse even though it doesn't come through in the English translation the emphasis is placed not upon faith but upon God now I want to try to tell you where most of us miss it translation, the emphasis is placed not upon faith but upon God. Now I want to try to tell you where most of us miss it in this matter of faith.

We place the emphasis upon faith. Jesus did not place the emphasis upon faith, he placed the emphasis upon God. You say, Preacher, what are you saying to us? What I'm saying to you is is this that the strength of faith lies not in the faith itself but in the object of that faith faith is only as valid as its object the important thing is not the faith but the object of that faith now there's a phrase that i'm sure some of you've heard. I read it some years ago in one of these positive thinking books and it's becoming very popular again among certain

groups. And the phrase is this, have faith in faith. Have faith in faith. Now the only thing wrong with that is it's wrong. The Bible never tells us to have faith in faith. You see, most of us place our faith in our faith. Let me show you what I mean. Over here is a mountain. Here's a problem we're having. Here's something that God has given us to do. Here's a challenge placed before us. And we know that what it's going to take to move that mountain is faith and so you know what we do well we pull out our faith and examine it and we

weigh our faith and we measure it and we evaluate it and we say well I just don't know if I have enough faith I don't know if my faith is strong enough. Oh, I'm just so weak in faith. If my faith were just strong, you see what you're doing? You're placing your faith in your faith. And a lot of folks excuse themselves because they say, well, my faith is so weak. I made a very interesting discovery as i studied this matter i found that with one or two exceptions every person who came to jesus with a problem with a need their faith was weak

and imperfect and yet even though their faith was weak and imperfect, Jesus still responded to that faith and met their need. For instance, you remember when the Lord and his disciples are going across the sea, and Jesus falls asleep in the boat, and suddenly a great storm comes up, and the waves begin to lash out at the boat, and the disciples are afraid they're going to drown. They run over there and wake up the Lord and say,

Master, don't you care that we perish? And Jesus stands up and rebukes them and says, O ye of little faith. Now what did he do? Their faith was weak. Oh, their faith was so weak. And what did Jesus do? Well, is this what he did?

O ye of little faith, since your faith is so weak, since you have such a small amount of faith, I'm just going to let the boat sink. Just going to let the boat sink. If you fellows had had strong faith and great faith, I would have calmed the seas and calmed the storm. But since your faith was weak and little you're going to let the boat sink is that what he did no the amazing thing is he rebuked them for their little faith and then went ahead and performed the miracle and saved their lives why because folks even though their faith was weak yet the object of that faith was right and it brought them to jesus you see the

strength of faith does not lie in the faith itself, not how much faith you have, but it lies in the object of that faith. And you see instead of measuring your faith and evaluating your faith and weighing your faith and looking to your faith, you ought to look to God, for He is the one who works, not your faith. Matter of fact, having faith in your faith is in the last analysis having faith in your faith is in the last analysis having faith in yourself. And I've got news for you, I don't have much faith in my faith. A few years ago some friends and I went on a little vacation in Colorado in the early March, early spring of the year, and it was still very much winter in this part of Colorado.

And the place where we were staying was surrounded by 12 trout lakes. And each lake, I suppose, may have been the size of the inside of this auditorium. Twelve trout lakes, and they were frozen over. We stopped beside one, one was standing around talking and and friend of mine said preacher once you get out there and walk on that ice that may be your only chance ever to walk on the water I said get out there and walk on that ice and I said no sir no where I come from the lakes don't freeze that solidly. No, I'm not going to get out there.

He said, oh, go on. He said, we ice skate on these lakes. These people ice skate on these lakes all day long. That ice is solid and secure. Get out there and slide around on the ice. Well, after a while, I decided to do so. But I didn't go out very far, about this far from the bank, and didn't put all my weight down just sort of on tiptoes

You know Because I knew at any moment that ice was going to give away and I was going to drown in that ice-cold water And I kept looking at the ice looking for cracks and so after a brief and nervous walk on the water I scurried back to the shore and when we passed another one of these trout lakes, and I looked out the car window and sitting We passed another one of these trout lakes and I looked out the car window and sitting right in the smack dab middle of that trout lake was a man sitting on a wooden crate over a hole in the ice. He had cut a hole in the ice and he was fishing.

And I looked at that sight and of course I couldn't help but remember how scared I was right there on the edge of that ice. And here was this fellow, calmly sitting out yonder on a wooden crate, hunched over a hole in the ice. And I said to the driver of the car, look at that, look at that fellow out there. I'm going to show you something. Now that man had great faith in the ice didn't he yes sir he had enough faith in the ice

to get him right out there in the middle I didn't have much faith in the ice you talk about weak faith boy my faith was weak my faith would just barely take me on that ice just far enough where I could get back ashore. I want to ask you a question.

Which one of us was safer? Which one of us was more secure? Was that man with his great faith sitting out on there in the middle of that lake, was he more secure than I was with my weak faith kept going around the edge? Well, the answer is no. Why? Because it wasn't our faith that held us up. You see, if it had been our faith holding us up, I would have sunk.

Be there yet. That man had great faith, but he wasn't a bit more secure than I was. Why? Because, folks, it wasn't faith that held us up. It was the ice. It was the ice. Now, you say, well, what's been the advantage of having great faith? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Number one, he was able to get out in the middle of things, and he was at rest and calm and easy while he was doing it. And I just stayed on the edge of things, scared to death. Any minute something terrible was going to happen. And you see, here is that Christian with weak faith, little faith, who's always looking at his faith and always examining his faith, and he barely walks around on the edge of christian life and christian living and keeps looking at the ice he knows that any minute there's going to be some cracks he knows that any minute something awful is going to happen god's going to let him drown and here is that

other man with great faith no more secure no safer but he is able to get out from the middle of things and he's at rest in the Lord and as I saw that fight we drove off I said I wonder how in the world that fella get up enough nerve to get out there in the middle and the driver of the car said these words that I'll never forget he said oh he knows He knows the ice. He knows the ice. Do you get the point? Where did that fellow get his great faith? Where did he get his great faith? Well, his great faith came from his knowledge of the ice. You know the difference between weak faith and great faith?

Great faith is great because it knows the Lord. Weak faith is weak because it has a weak and ineffective knowledge of the Lord. And friend, the strongest thing about faith is not the faith itself, it is the object of that faith. And the greater your knowledge and fellowship of that object becomes, the greater your faith will become. Well, you see, Jesus said, Have faith in God. Quit worrying about your faith. Quit looking at your faith like some little kid plants a seed and digs it up every day to see if it's growing. The best way I know to kill it. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, Don't make a Savior of your faith. It is not faith that saves, it is Christ. He said, Weak faith will not destroy you. And then he made this

beautifully eloquent statement. He said, Even a trembling hand can receive a golden gift. Have faith in God. Have faith in God. Now I want you to notice something else about this power. First of all, this power is released only by faith. Secondly, this faith is expressed by prayer. This faith is expressed by prayer. You'll notice in verse 24, Jesus says, Therefore I say unto you, and you know that little word, therefore, means that Jesus is making a practical application of what he has just said. He has just made this astounding statement concerning the power of faith to move mountains, and he says, "...therefore, because this is true, I say unto you, What things whoever

you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. Now notice how Jesus links inseparably this matter of believing with the matter of praying. And in all of those references he does the same. I read a moment ago, Matthew 21, 21. Well, the very next verse, 22, he says, And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. And in Matthew 17, when Jesus makes that explanation of why the disciples weren't able to cast out the demon, he says in the very next statement,

But this time goeth not out but by prayer. Always faith is linked inseparably to prayer. Why? Because prayer is an expression of your faith. What is prayer? Well, in its simplest form, prayer is asking. Prayer is asking. By the way, let me just, since I'm in the neighborhood visit this point for a moment. There has been in recent months, years, years, a great deal about prayer taught and about praise and worship. And I've heard some folks make the statement that the lowest form of prayer is petition, is asking. As a matter of fact, I heard a rather well-known Bible teacher

say not too long ago that when you really get close to God, you'll stop asking for things, and all you'll do is praise him. And he said, if you're still at the stage of petition, of asking, of asking, he said, you're just not there yet. Well, the Lord Jesus would certainly be interested to know that. And I'll tell you why. You study his prayer life and his prayer life was 99 and 44 percent asking, petition. And if you study it carefully, you will find that most of the petition was for himself. Petition, is not the lowest form of prayer, my friends. And all the verses that Jesus gives us concerning prayer, they are verses that speak of asking.

Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask?" Read the prayers of Paul. He's asking, asking, asking for God on behalf of others. Now, asking is an expression of confidence. You see, if I were to put it this way, when I was a little child living with my mother and dad, I had that childlike faith that my parents could and would meet every need that I had. It never occurred to me that they wouldn't. And I never worried about those things.

If my shoes got so thin I could step on a dime and tell you whether it was heads or tails. I didn't worry about what I was going to do about my shoes. I just announced to my mom or dad I needed a new pair of shoes. It never occurred to me that they wouldn't give it to me, buy it for me. And I suppose that I heard my father say this about everything else, Do you think money grows on trees? I mean, it never bothered me to ask for anything. Why?

Well, I had that childlike faith in my father. Now, the expression of that faith was the fact that I asked. I have two children, and they don't seem to be inhibited about asking me for anything. But I have news for you tonight, folks. I would be mighty disappointed and embarrassed and humiliated if I found out that my children are going to the next-door neighbors asking the neighbors to meet their needs. I think God may feel the same way, because most of us are usually running to the world

to ask the world to meet our needs, to go into our heavenly thoughts. You see, my praying is an expression of my faith. If I really believe that God is going to give me all that I need, then I'll ask. If the president of your bank were to write you a letter tonight saying, Listen, friend, any time you need any money, don't worry about it. Your credit is good, unlimited credit, and just call me on the phone. Folks, you'd have to put in three extra lines. I mean, you'd be calling him all the time. Why? Because you have faith in him. Prayer is an expression of our faith. And I can tell you what kind of faith you have if you will tell me about your prayer life. Well, I don't want to say any more about that because I want to get to this next thing.

I want you to see the beautiful progression of this passage. First of all, Jesus said, this power that removes mountains and enables us to be everything that God wants us to be and to do all that God wants us to do, this kind of power is released by faith. This faith is expressed by prayer. Now watch it. And this prayer is regulated by forgiveness. Look at verse 25. And when you stand praying, in other words, there's a mountain out there

that needs to be removed, and so as an expression of your faith, man, you're asking God to move that mountain. He said, now while you're standing in the very act of praying, forgive if you have ought against any, that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Does that strike you as unusual? Are you surprised to find verse 25 there? I would never have thought to put in anything about forgiveness. Here we are having a good time,

talking about moving mountains, talking about believing God, talking about prayer, and the Lord has to bring up this matter of forgiveness. I mean, what does that have to do with anything? Surely that's not relevant. And yet it is so very interesting that the Lord connects all three of these.

You notice in verse 25 it starts with the word, and, connecting everything else he has said before. And when you stand praying as an expression of your faith, so that you can remove this mountain when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any. I find that very amazing. You know, and we don't have time to really go into it, but the Lord evaluates your relationship to him by your relationship to other people. And when I pray, the Lord, before he listens to see if my words are theologically correct, looks into my heart.

And what he looks for first of all there is not sincerity, not enthusiasm. The first thing he looks for there is a forgiving spirit. And he says that if while I'm praying I have ought against somebody, I might as well stop praying. For until I exercise forgiveness, there is no way that God is going to hear me. There's no way that faith is going to be expressed. Therefore, there's no way that God is going to hear me there's no way that faith is going to be expressed therefore there's no way the mountain can be removed now what I find so interesting about this is that the greatest cause of unanswered prayer is an unforgiving spirit and if you're having trouble

having your prayers answered tonight and you're looking around for reasons I suggest you check out first of all all, your relationship to others. I want to put it all together. Friends, if you are not able to remove some mountains in your life, the reason may very well be you have an unforgiving spirit. Trouble may not even be your faith at all. You may have all the faith in the world, and you say, Man, I still can't move this mountain. The source of it all, the root of it all, he says, is your unforgiving spirit.

Let me share something else with you. Over in Matthew 7, Jesus again is talking about this matter of praying. He says in verse 11, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?' And then in verse 12 he says, "'Therefore,' connecting the two thoughts, "'Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. You see, there it is again. In connection with that tremendous promise on prayer

is the condition of our relationship with other people. Therefore, as you would have men do unto you, so do unto them. Now, you know, all my life, by the way, that's the Golden Rule, if you're not familiar with it. All my life I've heard about the Golden Rule, talked about the Golden Rule, and I saw something there when I stood in that. That Golden Rule doesn't say at all what I thought it said. You know what we think the Golden Rule says? You've got gotta listen carefully

therefore whatever you don't want done to you don't do to others I don't want anybody punching me in the nose so I'm not going to punch anybody else in the nose I don't want anybody stealing from me so I'm not going to steal from them in the nose. I don't want anybody stealing from me, so I'm not going to steal from them.

I don't want anybody gossiping about me, so I'm not going to gossip about them. I mean, that's the golden rule, friends. If you don't want somebody doing it to you, then don't do it to them. That's not the golden rule. That's not what it says. And you may sit in this building and say, Man, I kept the golden rule because I haven't done a thing to anybody today that I wouldn't want done to me. No, you haven't.

That's not negative. That's positive. He doesn't say whatever you don't want done to you, don't do to others. He said whatever you would that men should do to you, do also to others. He's talking about a positive outgoing goodness. If you want others to do good things for you, those things that you yourself want others to do to you, you take the initiative and do to them.

You get it? Now look at the connection. He says, If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask? You see, when I pray, I'm wanting God to give me good things. God says, All right, if you want me to give you good things, you must give good things to them that ask. You see, when I pray, I'm wanting God to give me good things. God says, all right, if you want me to give you good things, you must give good things to others.

And you're a hypocrite if you're asking me to give you good things, and yet you won't give good things to others. Always Jesus connects praying, believing, and our relationship to other people. So he said, when you stand praying, if you have ought against any, forgive. Well, I would forgive, but I hadn't apologized. Oh, I'm sorry. You must have a different translation than mine. I didn't know it said forgive if they apologize. It says forgive. Well, they're not sorry.

Does it say forgive if they're sorry? Well, they don't deserve it. It doesn't say that. I'll forgive them if they promise not to do it again. Funny, my Bible doesn't say that. I'll forgive them if they promise not to do it again. Funny, my Bible doesn't say that. Did you notice folks got some unconditional forgiveness? Who gets that forgiveness? Well, they've not apologized. Doesn't make any difference. They're not sorry. Doesn't make any difference. They'll probably do it again. Doesn't make any difference. It says forgive. Well, I'll forgive them if they'll didn't forgive me until I repented. Oh, is that right?

It's funny, I read somewhere in the Bible that he was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And that it chose us in him before the foundation of the world. And you say, well, I came through him one day and repented and he forgave me. You know why you came through and repented? Because he in Christ had already forgiven you. And then his available forgiveness enabled you to come to him in repentance. And then you came into that forgiveness experientially. I think he took the first step towards you. You didn't take the first step towards him. If you think you initiated that business, you're wrong. Well, you don't know what they did to me. It doesn't matter. It just says forgive. It

says forgive. You say, well, I would forgive, but I don't think I can forget. It doesn't say to forget. You know, there are a lot of things that we hear, and preachers preach, and we just simply accept that as scriptural and it's not. I've heard, you've got to forgive and forget. And if you haven't forgotten it, then you didn't really forgive it. Folks, that is totally unscriptural. The Bible doesn't say that.

You know why? Because you and I do not have the ability to forget. Matter of fact, the best way to has the ability to forget is God. And you see, if I could forget it, then that wouldn't make forgiveness very much. I mean, if it's blotted out, you know, I mean, if it's blotted out, well, sure, I'll forget. Why? Because I can't even remember what you did. Real Christian forgiveness is when you know what they did, and you know what they did, and you know what they did, and yet you still forgive.

So what is forgiveness? Let me, in closing, just share with you what I think forgiveness is. You know, all of us have a little book. You may not have known it, but you have one, which calls accounts receivable. And in that little book, we keep IOUs against certain people. If somebody does something that we don't like and they offend us, we write their name down and beside it we put I-O-U. You know, I was in the hospital with an ingrown toenail and the pastor didn't come and hold my hand.

Boy, I-O-U. Find the pastor you know have you ever had anybody owe you money and they wouldn't pay it and every time you see them all you can think of is what they owe you that's what the Bible means when it says that our unforgiveness

puts people in debtor's prison you see if you're holding an an eye against your pastor, he might stand up here and with the mighty anointing of God just preach down the heavens, but it wouldn't bless you. Why? Because all you can see is what he did to you. So you are blocked away from the blessings of what God does. As a preacher, it owed me $60. He bought some material from my office and never paid it. And the office would send him a bill, you know, every month

and went on for about two years. He never even acknowledged it. You know, if he had just written that I can't afford it, I can't pay it, don't have it, that would have been fine, you know. Well, I'd see this fellow at the conventions, and you know, when I'd see him, all I could think of was that $60, you know. I'm serious. He left the pastorate, went to evangelism, and we were at a meeting, a conference-type meeting,

and he stood up and gave the testimony of how God was blessing him. You know, I didn't hear a word he said, but I think I said, Huh, God blessed him so much, why don't you get right out and pay me my $60? $60. you get right and pay me my 60 bucks. My wife said to me, last year at Kansas City, said, well, you ought to go to him and talk to him. I mean, if it's a problem, and he owes you that, and you ought to go to him.

And I said, no, I, you know, it's all right. I'm just, you know, forget about it. And, uh, um, laughter But you see, uh, um... But you see, I, you know, I find it difficult to pray for him, and, uh, you know, hear the sermon he's on? Oh, you hypocrite. That was me at sixty dollars.

Well, I was past year at the convention in Kansas City. He came up to me after one of the sessions. He said, I want to talk to you. He said, you know, I need to apologize and ask your forgiveness. He said, I've owed you some money for a long time. He said, you know, things have been bad and we just haven't had the money and I want to apologize. He pulled out a check for $60 and gave it to me. The Lord said, All right, now you know what you have to do. I looked to him and I said, Brother, all right, I want you to take this $60 check as a gift of yin from me. Cost me $60 to get right with him.

And if you think You see, if somebody owes you something, that's all you can think about. And we have our little IOUs against these people that owe us things. You know what forgiveness is? Forgiveness, friend, is tearing up the IOU. That's what forgiveness is. What's that? You say, what do you mean? It's just tearing it up. You don't owe me a thing, brother.

I mean, I still remember it, but it's not an issue. You know when the Bible says that God sends the rain on the just and the unjust? You know what that verse means? That means God treats the just, unjust, just as though they were just. I mean, he doesn't treat the unjust any differently

than he treats the just. God doesn't treat his enemies any differently than he treats his friends. You know, you can tell who a fellow's friends are by the way he treats his friends. You know, you can tell who a fellow's friends are by the way he treats them. And wouldn't it be interesting if somebody said, let's find out who his enemies are. All right, all you have to do is watch how he treats everybody, and boy, you'll be able to tell from the way he treats people who his friends are and who his enemies are. And after about a month of close scrutiny, you come back and say, I can't

tell the difference. He treats everybody the same. He treats everybody as though they were his friends. That's what it means when he says, God sends the rain on the just and the unjust. That's what forgiveness is. I mean, it's no longer an issue. They owe you nothing, and you treat them as though they were your best friend. And Jesus said that if you want to remove the mountain, take faith. And to exercise faith you've got to pray, but to pray and stand on praying ground, you must be right with your brother. I want you to bow your heads now for a moment. Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn

materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.