Trusting God, Part 1

Faith is confidence in the integrity of God based on His Word. Dr. Tony Evans talks about the foundation of a dependable faith.

It is believing something not seen as though it already were true because the object is worthy of your confidence. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. It's often been said that anything can be done if you have enough faith. But in this classic message from Dr. Evans, he explains why that's only true when you have the right kind of faith.

Let's listen in as he explains. The Bible speaks of mountains literally, but it also speaks of mountains figuratively. Figuratively, when the Bible speaks of a mountain, it speaks of something you can't climb over, something that is immobile, something that holds you so hostage that it looks like it is a hopeless situation. Life can get that way sometimes, where there are no answers.

The people who you thought had the answers don't have them either. You find yourself stuck at the base of Mount Everest, a mountain that you cannot climb, a situation you can't get over, a pain you cannot dull, a struggle you cannot win. That's why I want to call your attention to Mark chapter 11, and let me start by reading verse 23. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. I want to talk to you for a few moments about what it means to trust God at the base of a mountain.

What it means to trust God when you're at a base of a mountain. That is, you're in an insurmountable situation. It may be insurmountable personally, it may be insurmountable professionally, it may be insurmountable relationally, it may be insurmountable circumstantially. The one common theme is, I can't get over.

It's too high, too wide, too thick, too difficult. And even if you're not in the middle of a mountain, you probably know somebody else that is. And even if you're not in the middle of a mountain, and even if you don't know somebody else who is, keep walking and you will run into a mountain. The mountains are there. The context for this statement about mountains really goes back a few verses to verses 12 through 14.

Let's look at it. On the next day when they had left Bethany, Jesus became hungry. Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see it, perhaps he would find anything on it. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples were listening.

And here we have only one of two times that I know of in the Bible when Jesus prophesies a curse on something. Jesus Christ is hungry. It says he looks for some food. He happens to notice a fig tree with leaves on it. Now the leaves means that it is entering into fig season because the leaves come out first, then the figs. He sees the leaves so he looks to see if there's some figs for him to eat. He goes over to the tree and there are no figs on the tree.

And then he does an astounding thing. He says, may no one ever eat from you again. In other words, you don't have figs now, may you never have figs again. So he pronounces judgment on the fig tree. It had a facade. It had leaves. But it didn't have essence. It didn't have figs. And Jesus was hungry.

He couldn't eat because the figs had not yet come. He pronounces a curse. Now at the end of verse 14, there is a very important statement made. It says the disciples were listening. So they hear Jesus pronounce this negative judgment on the fig tree.

That is what leads us to our story. Because in verse 20, when they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered.

Now this is less than 24 hours, the morning of the next day. They come by the fig tree that they had just seen the day before. It says Peter being reminded, remembering what happened the day before, said, Master, Jesus, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you spoke about yesterday, when you said, may no one ever eat from you again, that fig tree has withered, and it has withered completely. That fig tree has withered from the root up. Now the root is the source of life for a fig tree. It's where you start. The life comes from the root when the root gets the nourishment from the ground and begins to grow and produces branches and leaves and figs.

So if the root is destroyed, then that fig tree is never going to produce figs ever again. Now what is shocking about this? Why is Peter stupefied? Why is Peter mesmerized? Why is he overwhelmed by what he sees? Well, I'll tell you why he's overwhelmed. He's overwhelmed because in less than 24 hours, the morning of the next day, what Jesus Christ declared had come true.

In other words, what's shocking Peter and the rest of the disciples is how quick the change occurred. It's overnight. We went from healthy looking, vibrant, full of leaves, to never being able to do anything ever again. And it all happened overnight. Look master, the tree which you cursed yesterday is not only dead today, it's dead today from the root up and it's visible because it's withered. Usually that shows up over time.

You know, it gets a little dry, a little dry, withers a little bit, withers a little bit, withers a little bit. But now he says, that thing is gone overnight. Now the reason why this is important is that's not natural. What they observed overnight was not normal. That was not something that you would expect to happen.

That was not something that you would have looked for, that quick turnaround. Now why did Jesus do this? Remember now, in the Gospels, Jesus took his disciples through various scenarios to teach them spiritual lessons. You have to understand that. He took them through various physical things like seeing a tree wither because he was trying to teach them a spiritual lesson and he was preparing them to teach us because they would become the apostles who would write the New Testament, so their job was to teach us so he would teach them by giving them something visible and physical to teach something invisible and spiritual so that they could teach us a principle.

Here is the principle. It's stated in verse 22. And Jesus answered saying to them, saying to them about what?

Look at what happened so quick. He says, have faith in God. Now, when you look at it, what has that got to do with the price of tomatoes? I mean, the word have faith in God seems to be totally irrelevant to what we talk about. We talk about a tree that didn't have figs that withered overnight. Jesus answered.

So that means he's still talking about the same thing. And he says, have faith in God. He uses this tree that they observe and the supernatural overnight turnaround to the negative that occurred with the tree to teach one of the most powerful lessons that you will ever learn as a Christian and that is trusting God to turn things around on a dime. Trusting God to turn things around on a dime, watch this, even if they're mountainous.

Because this is going to lead to a discussion about mountains. An impossible situation. What they are saying about the tree is, that's impossible. How could that happen so quick? And how could it happen so deep so quick? I mean, the root was fine yesterday because the leaves were out. The leaves are withered today because the root is gone.

How do we go from healthy and well to dead and withered in less than 24 hours? How do we go there? Jesus answers, have faith in God. Because what you need to know about God is he can turn things on a dime. Have faith in God.

Please notice what he doesn't say. Have faith. That's not enough information. You regularly hear athletes on TV say, you got to believe, you got to believe, you got to believe.

That's not enough information. Faith as a word dangling by itself is a meaningless concept. Just hang the word faith out there, you haven't said a thing. The word faith only has meaning predicated on the object that you're having faith in.

In other words, is the object worthy of the faith I'm dangling in front of it? As I've said to you before, if I were to say to you, I have faith in the tooth fairy, then that would be a meaningless statement because there is no tooth fairy. If I said, I have faith in Santa Claus, the word faith would be a meaningless term because there is no Santa Claus. That's a make-believe situation, nullifying faith. The word faith is nullified if the object is unworthy.

If you say you have faith in an untrustworthy person, then the untrustworthy person nullifies the significance of faith. We'll have more on trusting God when we return to this classic lesson from Dr. Evans' series, Freedom Through Forgiveness. Before we continue though, I want to let you know about a special package we've put together as our way of saying thank you when you make a donation to the alternative broadcast. It includes all six full-length messages from the teaching series we're currently presenting, along with a helpful companion book, 30 Days to Victory Through Forgiveness.

It's a step-by-step month-long journey toward freedom from the wrongs done to you or by you. Unforgiveness is like emotional cancer, but the principles in this message collection are the cure. And we'll send them to you as our thank you gift when you make a contribution to help us keep sharing biblical truth through this broadcast. Visit us at TonyEvans.org, make your donation online, and let us send you a copy of this special dual resource package on forgiveness. Or if you prefer, give us a phone call at 1-800-800-3222. Our resource center is open 24-7, so there's always someone waiting to help you.

Again, that's TonyEvans.org, or call 1-800-800-3222. Well, right now, let's get back to more of today's lesson. What many people try to do is get more faith. They want to increase their faith. You do not increase your faith by finding a faith pump and pumping.

You know, like you blow up a football or blow up a basketball. Let me pump me some more faith, because obviously I don't have enough of it. In one other passage, Jesus said, if you have faith of a mustard seed, which in the New Testament times was viewed as the smallest of a thing, he says, then you will be able to move mountains. The same concept of an impossible situation. Well, what he was saying was, more faith is usually never your problem.

Or my problem. Our problem is the object into which faith is being placed. That's why he doesn't simply say, have faith. He says, have faith in God. Faith is confidence in the integrity of God based on his word.

It is believing something not seen as though it already were true, because the object is worthy of your confidence. Jesus spoke to the tree, and when he spoke to the tree, he said, may no one ever eat of you again. He makes a prophetic statement based on, watch this, confidence in his own word. The reason why Jesus never worried about anything is because he had confidence in his own word.

Because, of course, his word was always congruent with God's word. He uses that now, have faith in God, and applies it to a mountainous scenario. Truly, I say unto you, whoever says to this mountain, let's talk about this mountain. This mountain, when referred to in the Gospels, refers to the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is full of olive trees. Olive trees grow all along the mountain of olives.

I've stood on the Mount of Olives on numbers of occasions, and you can see all the grows of the olive trees from which a lot of great things olives are used for over in Israel. And he says, you will be able to say to this mountain, this Mount of Olives, what will you be able to say to it? Be taken up and cast into the sea. Now that may not mean much to you, but it meant everything to the disciples, because if you stand on the Mount of Olives and look south, 4,000 feet below is the Dead Sea. So when he says cast into the sea, they know exactly what he's talking about. They're talking about the Dead Sea, 4,000 feet south. So he's standing on the Mount of Olives, they are looking at the Dead Sea, and he says, you will be able to speak to this mountain.

Now why should that grab our attention? Because Jesus is going from the lesser to the greater. Jesus spoke to what? One tree.

One tree and the tree withered from the root. But guess what Jesus says? He says, you can speak to this whole mountain of trees. I spoke to one tree, but if you have faith in God, we can lift up this whole mountain, and it will cast itself into the sea. In other words, he told the disciples, you can do something bigger than you just saw me do. I just took care of one tree. You can handle the whole mountain.

If what you just saw me do looked impossible, how much bigger will it be when you gotta handle the whole mountain? Please notice the wording here. You will be able to say to this mountain. Now, they registered with that, you should be able to register with this too, because Jesus said, he spoke to the tree, shall no one ever be able to eat from you again. Now, what did Jesus speak to?

He spoke to the thing he wanted changed. The tree did not dictate to Jesus what was gonna happen. The tree did not carry the agenda. The tree did not set up the scenario. The tree did not determine how things were gonna work out. Jesus determined how it was gonna work out, because he spoke to it and told it how it was gonna work out.

You will never bear fruit again. Now, what does Jesus do? He says, and you will be able to say to this impossible situation, a whole mountain, be taken up and be cast into the sea. So the question on the floor is, how many folks here is the mountain talking to you instead of you talking to the mountain?

How many here are the circumstances dictating the agenda, the circumstances dictating the action, the circumstances dictating the emotion, the circumstances dictating how you're gonna flow rather than you doing the talking? Jesus says, if you have faith in God, then you get to do the talking, reversing it. If you don't have faith in God, you get to do the listening. And I suspect that most of us are spending more time listening to the mountain than dictating to the mountain.

And guess what? That's why the mountain ain't gone nowhere. It's not gone anywhere because the mountain's doing all the talking. We're doing all the listening, which, back it up now, means we don't have faith in God. Because you see, he says, if you have faith in God, you get to talk, and you get to talk to the mountain, and the mountain has got to respond to you. Well, that sounds like authority to me. But why am I not exercising this authority?

Well, it's simple. I don't have faith in God. See, all of this is connected to having faith in God.

But now I hear the reaction. The reaction is, but no, I have faith in God. I trust God. I believe God.

I expect from God. I believe... Let me tell you what most people have faith in. Most people have faith in faith. So that's why they keep focusing on the faith part. They don't have faith in God because if you have faith in God, God has to define for you the faith that you ought to have in him. In other words, you can't create the faith that you want in the God that you create. Much of our faith is faith in an idol we call God because we do not speak to a matter what God says about the matter. See, unless you're saying what God is saying, it's not faith in God, no matter how much you cry when you say it, how deep you feel about it when you say it, that's not faith in God. Faith in God means that what you are having faith for is what God himself believes. If it's not what God himself believes, it's not faith in God. It's faith in what you think about God, what you feel about God. It may be faith in you. It may be faith in faith. But it's not faith in God. In other words, for it to be faith in God, God has to be the definer of what you should be believing.

If God is not the definer of what you should be believing, then you are not believing in God. So many of the mountains we speak to don't move because they're saying, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about.

Why? Because there's no God backup to the faith we're exercising. You have to have faith in God to deal with, here it is, the impossible situations in your life.

Now here it is, here it is. If it is impossible for you, it is most probable that God wants it to be that way, which means that God himself will block your attempts to move the mountain on your own because God allows impossible situations to let you see there is nothing impossible with God. Where it may be totally impossible with you. And that would be the closest thing to growing your faith. You know what growing your faith is? Growing your faith simply means seeing God act on a bigger level in your life.

That's growing your faith. You want more faith? Don't go after more faith, go after more God. When you go after more God and you see God work, you get more faith. Don't go faith hunting. Jesus said you don't need a lot of faith. Go God hunting and then you'll get watermelon size faith. Dr. Tony Evans on Trusting God, part of his timeless series from the archives called Freedom Through Forgiveness. As I mentioned earlier, this audio collection, as well as a copy of the companion book for the series 30 Days to Victory Through Forgiveness, is yours with our thanks when you make a donation to this broadcast ministry. Just visit us online at tonyevans.org to get all the details. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, tomorrow we'll hear more from Dr. Evans on the importance of making sure our faith is based on God and our trust in Him can turn our impossible situations around. I hope you'll tune in. I hope you'll tune in.