Ron Dunn Podcast - Miracle, Anyone? (Ron Dunn Podcast)

Episode Date: September 4, 2019

I'm 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 turned the world upside down. We've been having snow and ice in Dallas. And when I left there today, it was raining cats and dogs. Of course, that's better than hailing taxi cabs, but I just enjoyed looking at the blue sky.

I wasn't certain it was still there, and I appreciate the opportunity of being with you. Actually, Pastor didn't really tell that accurately. I've been wanting to come to this church for a long time. And I've written him several letters 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 and 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. 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 says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire when you pray, believe that

you receive them, and you shall have them. And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, 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 know you're glad to hear that because if you're like most people, you say, well, boy, that's exactly what it will 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. 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. It is 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 practically every time I read something like this, he stands up 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. And I think those things are very important, but I think that I had always been led to believe that, you know, 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 had 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. 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 root. And Simon Peter is amazed. And the words there express the fact that he's startled. And he says, Master, behold,

looky there, the fig tree which you cursed hath 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, you 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 a fig tree. 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 chapter 21 and verse 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 pulpit 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 Judas 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 unto this mountain. He didn't say if one of you disciples shall say it. 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 any time Jesus uses that phrase, 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 you'll 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 rocks 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 if 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 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 proof 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 gone to conventions, attended the Southern Baptist Convention, post-national meetings. 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, brainpower. And 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. And 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.

And we're constantly falling behind. And I know this year in Texas, for instance, our baptisms are the lowest they've been in ten years. And what's so embarrassing about that is that this past year they put on one of the biggest, most expensive, slickest evangelistic thrusts 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 Texas because of all of these things that they were going to do, all of these programs. And they had hired some Christian movie stars

and ex-heroes and a few ex-zeros even, and had gotten their testimony. They put them on television. They hired one of the finest advertising agency in the state. And what is so embarrassing is that after all of that, you see, their baptismal voice had been in 10 years. And I attended the evangelism conference, and, you know, it's very interesting the reasons they gave. What were some of those reasons? They gave one reason for 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, that our own evangelism

comes 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. Do you remember when Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration? He has with him there James, John, and Peter, and he 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, 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 a go at it. None of them could do it. I wonder if they went in alphabetical order. Maybe Andrew tried first, and he couldn't, and 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? 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 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 and things like that. 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. Why? 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 relieved 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 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 in this matter of faith. We place the emphasis upon faith. Jesus did not place the emphasis upon faith. He placed the emphasis on God. You say, Preacher, what are you saying to us? What I'm saying to you 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 have 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'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 enough, 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, 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? Oh, 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 gonna 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, see? 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. As a matter of fact, having faith in your faith isn't the last analysis of 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 twelve 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, we're standing around talking, and a friend of mine said, Preacher, won't you get out there and walk on that ice? I said, Maybe you're only sent to ever walk on the water. He 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, 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. I 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 way, 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.

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 under 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'll 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 eyes to get him right out there in the middle. I didn't have much faith in the eyes. 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 to shore. 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 yonder in the middle of that lake, was he more secure than I was with my weak faith kept throwing 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 crack. He knows that any minute something awful is going to happen, God's going to let him drown. And here's 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 sight and we drove off, I said, I wonder how in the world did that fellow 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 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. Do 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 the faith. Quit looking at your faith. Like some little kid plants a seed and digs it up every day, says it's growing. 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's just said. He's 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 a matter of praying and uh in all of those references he does the same yeah 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 you 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, 100 percent asking, petition. And if you study carefully, you'll find that most of the petition was for himself. Petition, asking, 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 you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Seeking you shall find. Nothing shall be open unto you. If ye that are 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... Well, let's 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. I mean, it never occurred to me that they wouldn't. And I never worried about those things you know 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 usually run into the world. I ask the world to meet their needs. They're going to have no thoughts. You see, my prayer is an expression of my faith. If I really believe that God's going

to give me all that I need, then I'll ask, you see. You know, if the president of your bank were to write you a letter tonight saying, listen, friend, anytime you need any money, don't worry about it. Your credit's good, unlimited credit. I'd 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'll 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 says,

this power that removes mountains, that 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 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? You know, I would never have thought to put in anything about forgiveness. I mean, 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, 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 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, your relationship to others. Now, I want to put it all together. Friends,

if you're 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. I mean, you may have all the faith in the world. You say, man, I still can't remove 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 chapter 7,

Jesus again 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 you would that men should do to you, do you 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 I'll 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 right, I've heard about the golden rule, talked about the golden rule, and I saw something there when I said 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 to 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.

I don't want anybody gossiping about me, so I'm not going to gossip about them. I mean, that's the golden rule, friend. 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 put 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 than that? 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. Did you know that folks got some unconditional forgiveness? He just says, forgive. Well, they've not apologized. Doesn't make any difference. They're not sorry.

Doesn't make any difference. They'd probably do it again. Doesn't make any difference. He says, forgive. I'll forgive them if they'll forgive me. That's not what it says. Not only unconditional, it's to be unilateral. Well, I mean, after all, God 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 it was chosen to send him before the foundation of the world you say well I came to him one day and repented and he forgave me you know why you came to him and repented because he in Christ had already forgiven you and then

this 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 says forgive. It says forgive. Well, I would forgive, but I don't think I can forget. It doesn't tell you to forget. You know, there are a lot of things that we hear when preachers preach, and we just simply accept that as scripture, and it's not. I've heard you've got to forgive and forget. If you haven't forgotten it, then you didn't really forgive it. Well, 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 remember something is the ability to forget is God. And 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. You say, well, 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, where Coral 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 IOU. You know, I was in the hospital with an ingrown toenail, and the pastor didn't come and hold my hand. Boy, I owe you to 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 and I owe you 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 and so you're blocked away from the blessings

of what God does. There's a preacher that 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 and said, I can't afford it, I can't pay it, don't have it, that'd been fine, you know. Well, I'd see this fellow at the conventions and, you know, and I'd see him all don't have, that'd been fine, you know. Well, I'd see this fellow at the conventions

and, you know, and 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, I think I said, huh, God's blessing him so much,

why don't you get right and pay me my $60. My wife said, huh, God bless you so much, why don't you get right and pay me my $60. My wife said to me, last year at Kansas City, said, well, you ought to go to him and talk to him. I mean, he's got the problem, and he owes you that, and you ought to go to him. And I said, no, you know, it's all right. I'm just, you know, forget about it. And, uh, uh... You know, I find it difficult to pray for him, and,

you know, if he'll be serving us, I don't know how he's going to do it. He owes me $50. Well, I was past here 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, 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. And 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 at him and I said, brother, all right, I want you to take this $50 check as a gift of yours from me.

Cost me $60 to get right with him. But 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. You know what forgiveness is? Forgiveness, friend, is tearing up the IOU. That's what forgiveness is. What's that? You say, what does it mean?

It's 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 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 speaking that you come back and say I can't tell because he treats

everybody the same. He treats everybody as though they were his friends. That's what it means when it says God sends you right on the just

and unjust. That's what forgiveness is. I mean it's no longer an issue they know they owe you nothing and you treat them as though they were your best friend 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 what's the size faith? You've got to pray. You've got to pray. And stand on praying ground. You must be right.

Take your breath. and stand on plain ground. You must be right. Thank you, brother. The Ron Dunn 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. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn.

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