Lord, Help My Unbelief - Pastor Sandra Roach

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Thanks for listening, and we pray this message encourages you today.

Today I'm going to start a sermon series, and I'm going to talk about belief today.

And I'm I'm uh preaching from the scripture that says, I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.

So today we're going to look at this passage of scripture that is relevant to all of us at some point in our walk with the Lord.

It is so relevant.

God wants to get us from where we are to where he needs for us to be.

Amen.

Are you ready for that?

Are you ready to go deeper in him?

Are you ready to pull down the walls that might be keeping you from him?

Okay.

You see, we come to a hard place.

In our Christian faith-based culture, we quote Scripture and say we're standing on this scripture for our healing or our breakthrough from overwhelming circumstances.

However, as time goes by and we haven't seen our healing or our breakthrough, what do we do?

And that's what we're going to examine today.

So, Mark 9, if you look, if you turn to Mark chapter 9, you look at Mark chapter 9, you see that it begins with the transfiguration of Jesus.

Mark 9 · chapter mention Mark 9 · chapter mention

And and uh Peter, James, and John are there, they're they're amazed by this supernatural event, by a supernatural God to a supernatural Jesus, and they have the two witnesses are there.

It's a beautiful picture, and so they've just come down off this high with God.

You ever had a high with God?

Have you ever had an encounter, a moment with God, and you think, man, everything in my life has changed because of this one moment.

You're thinking, woo-woo! And then you come down from the mountain.

That's right.

Where everybody's been down here fighting a devil.

And you're telling them, oh, you just wouldn't believe.

You're being super spiritual.

You wouldn't believe the encounter I had.

It was so awesome.

And I saw Jesus face to face and in all his glory and everything, and they're going, Well, good for you.

Come on.

Because I was fighting devils while you were having your encounter.

What I usually tell people, if I tell them something like that, and they say, Well, I was fighting devils, I was saying, Thank you for giving me a break.

Because I'm usually the one fighting devils, okay?

All right.

So when they came down from the mountain, the scene changes to the disciples left behind trying to cast out a demon from a boy unsuccessfully.

You ever been there before?

I mean, you're saying all the right things.

It ain't happening exactly like you read it, okay?

So I want us to pick up there Mark 9, and I'm going to start reading in verse 14.

I'm reading out the New Living Translation.

When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them.

And some teachers of religious law were arguing with them.

When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe.

And they had to gr and they ran to greet him.

What's all this arguing about?

Jesus asked.

One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him.

He is possessed by an evil spirit that won't let him talk.

And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground.

Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.

So I ask your disciples to cast the evil spirit, cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn't do it.

Jesus said to them, You faithless people, how long must I be with you?

How long must I put up with you?

Bring the boy to me.

Let's take a pause here for a minute.

Most scholars believe that this boy suffered from an ongoing disease called epilepsy.

Doctors today will tell you there's no cure.

They'll give medicine for it that will sort of ease up the episodes, but they say there's no cure for it.

But you see, in this story, we got to picture something.

Have you ever had the doctor say there's no disease?

I mean, there's no there's no healing, there's no way you can be healed of this disease.

You ever had that?

If you haven't, you can feel hopeless.

And so they didn't have all the technology we have.

We're so great, and they weren't.

But they had Jesus.

But I've come to tell you, not only did they have Jesus, but we have Jesus.

So I'm putting my faith in Jesus.

And it may sound hard for you to hear right now in your circumstance, your dilemma, your sickness, your uh need for deliverance.

It may be hard for you to hear, but you see, I know Jesus.

I have a history with Jesus, I know a healing Jesus, I know a delivering Jesus, I know a restoring Jesus, I know a saving Jesus, and I know that a soon-coming Jesus is coming for his church.

Hallelujah.

Somebody give him praise if you know him that way.

Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

So then I have no idea where I left off.

Oh, I do.

Verse 20.

So they bought no that anywhere.

Jesus said to them, You faithless people, how long must I be with you?

How long must I put up with you?

Bring the boy to me.

So they brought the boy.

But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, come on.

When the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.

And listen to what Jesus asked.

He wasn't like, what are we gonna do?

Let's call it who all is involved in the deliverance ministry?

Who here has taken the training?

Somebody, disciples, go through the crowd and see if there are people who can help us with this because this is a difficult situation.

Jesus didn't say.

He didn't say that.

He stops and says, How long has this been happening?

No.

Come on, how long has this been happening?

Jesus asked the boy's father, and he replied, Since he was a little boy.

The spirit often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him.

Have mercy on us.

Help us if you can.

See, Jesus knew that he needed to get to something here.

And so, you know, Jesus is really great at psychology.

If you let people talk long enough, they're gonna tell you the problem.

If you can.

If you can help us.

Okay.

Jesus said, What do you mean if I can?

Jesus asked, anything is possible if a person believes.

Do y'all believe that?

Anything is possible if a person believes.

Wow.

The Father instantly cried out, I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief.

We're gonna look at that statement because I think that's crazy.

I believe, help my unbelief.

I believe, no, I don't.

I believe, help my unbelief.

We're gonna examine that.

I believe it's gonna help you today in your walk with the Lord, okay?

Yes, Lord.

When Jesus saw that the, we're gonna continue reading verse 25.

When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit.

Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak.

He said, I command you to come out of this child and never, are you hearing that?

Never enter him again.

I've been in church all my life.

Do you want the lies people will tell you?

Now you got to do this and this and this and this to stay delivered.

Like Jesus, I'm gonna tell you, I I have a problem with us making excuses and giving entrance to the devil to come back.

Does anybody else feel that way but me?

Do you like?

Do you have a problem with come on?

Uh uh now if you don't follow these religious rules, that same devil's gonna come up on you.

So, what does that tell us?

Jesus is good, but he's not that good.

That's a scary thought.

But it's in the church, it's in the church, and you know what I'm gonna do?

Kick its tail out of the church.

I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of hearing, I'm sick of hearing people make excuses for the work of the rotten devil because we didn't follow rules.

Jesus never said that.

We added that little addendum because when we feel like, oh, something, oh, I feel like, oh, today I don't feel delivered.

You ever woke up and felt it was in a really bad mood?

Well cranky to your family, didn't feel real saved.

Yesterday you felt great.

There were angels following you.

They were they were singing songs of heaven around you as you walked and ministered to people.

Today, the angels had another assignment, and I'm being hateful.

Beloved, I want to tell you something.

Your salvation isn't dependent on your action today, your salvation is dependent on Jesus' finished work.

Not trying to finish the finished work of God, but stepping into the fullness.

I am loved by God, I am cleaned by God, and I am kept by the power of God.

I'm telling you, church, when we start believing what the word says instead of what religion tells us, we're gonna be free.

Free, do y'all hear me?

Free.

Anybody want to be free?

Oh, come on.

Hallelujah.

So then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into a violent convulsion and left.

The boy appeared to be dead.

A murmur ran through the crowd as the people said, He's dead.

They're gonna write, hey, he's dead, he's dead.

Jesus couldn't do it, he's dead.

Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet and he stood up.

Afterwards, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, Why couldn't we cast out that evil spirit?

Jesus replied, This kind can be cast out only by prayer.

Now, your translation that you've got may say by prayer and fasting.

I I did sort of a research last night, and it goes about half and half.

So you may feel like you need to fast to get rid of it as you pray.

But here's the deal: unbelief will go as you seek the Lord.

The word says it.

Now, what we've got to understand is do we believe the word or not?

Come on.

Because Jesus, who we worship today, is the word.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us, so we beheld his glory.

The glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

And the only begotten of the Father came to bring many sons and daughters to glory.

And we were restored back to complete union with God.

Father, do you trust Father?

Ah, hallelujah.

So we're not going to debate today whether to fast or to not.

Ask the Lord.

But they all agree.

It's not that before you pray, God is willing to deliver or heal.

It's to pray that you doubt He'll do it.

Are you hearing me today?

It's not that you're praying, so it wouldn't this be horrible that someone you brought your child to be prayed for, to be healed.

We said, no, no, you'll have to bring them back later.

We've got to really pray this through before we can pray for your child.

Is that God?

No, it isn't God.

It's anything that's in us that we believe more than we believe what the word says about who He is.

Oh, come on, we're gonna go somewhere today.

Number one, Jesus said to the father of the boy.

That said, if you can help us.

And Jesus replied was, What do you mean?

And the father responded was, I believe.

Help my unbelief.

Now I know that we all can somehow relate with where the father was.

He had seen and heard that Jesus could heal and deliver.

And in his desperation, he brought his son to Jesus.

He had seen that people were getting up from a sickbed.

Their eyes were being opened that had never seen before.

The dead were being raised, so the Father came to the disciples asking that Jesus might heal his son.

He believed what he heard because there was corresponding evidence of healing and of life.

He believed what he heard, he believed what he saw, that Jesus had the goods to heal or deliver.

So he brought his son.

I want you to listen to this and listen with compassion.

This father lived to the with his lived with his son all his life, seeing him grow worse.

Seeing him being thrown by this demon in the fire and in water to kill him.

He had seen this over and over and over again.

This was that father's reality.

Don't get upset with people because their reality is sickness and disease.

And yours is, to quote your mantra.

Come on.

The church, you know what element the church is missing in a faith-based, charismatic, spirit-filled, Pentecostal, whatever you want to call it.

You know what's missing?

Compassion.

Compassion for people who have not yet been healed.

We start using all of our phrases as if we put our Holy Ghost badge on.

I'm arresting you today.

And I'm going to quote you who I am.

And they leave just as they came.

So the Lord wants to do something in us.

He wants to teach us something that will take you from where you are to where he wants you to go.

I want to say this to you today.

Don't ever look at someone who has suffered for months or years and give them your charismatic mantra with passion.

No, no, you are the healed of the Lord.

I'm praying for you, and I know you will be healed.

See, we do that, and it makes us feel really successful, and then we have to look at them, and they're still sick, and they're still suffering, and actually maybe getting worse.

And we look at them and we we we think, okay, they must not, they must not be believing, because in our culture we are taught that you won't get your healing unless you believe.

Come on, I I'm I'm being serious.

Excuse me, please excuse me if I'm kicking over your sacred cow.

Because somebody outside may help you resurrect it.

But, well, go off the property, may help you resurrect it.

But see, if we're going to believe in sacred cows more than we do the truth of the word, we're never gonna see his kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So we say all these things and we feel better.

Can we agree that there is a difference?

I'm gonna say a sacred cow here, so don't.

Number one, when you die, you don't get angels' wings.

I just needed to say that about death because it really have y'all ever have you do you all have Facebook Christianity?

Another one earned their wings.

And it bothers me.

We were created in the very image of God, in the likeness of Him.

When we speak, we have power in our tongue.

The words that we say, we speak according to God's word.

We're not angels, angels are here right now, right now, all over this place.

Angels are here to assist us in what we have been called to do.

Hallelujah.

Somebody's gonna get delivered today.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

So I needed to say that.

Another thing that is a lie.

Dying is not healing.

Dying is you trade your body.

Dying is your body is dead in the grave.

Well, they got their, they got the ultimate healing.

No, they didn't.

They died.

They don't need that body anymore.

Glory to God.

That ought to kick a shoe in the devil's mouth.

Because let me tell you something.

If I leave this place, I'm going to a whole lot better.

It's going to be good.

It's going to be good all the time.

There's going to be no sickness and disease.

There's not going to be any fighting in the church.

There's not going to be any rhetoric about the world and how tough the devil is.

When I leave this place, I'm going up.

I'm going up where I'm seated in the spirit right now.

I'm preaching from that place in heavenly places.

He said, when you got saved, you were seated in heavenly places.

In Christ Jesus, far above all principalities and powers.

No devil can touch me there.

But you see, today I'm bringing you the truth from a heavenly perspective.

Hallelujah.

We say all these things and God goes.

Well, we know who taught them that.

Jesus.

Why do we say all these things?

Because we feel like we must answer for God because He didn't heal.

Are y'all hearing me?

He didn't do it.

So we have to give an answer for the why.

I never give.

I had somebody I was at a funeral in this building.

I was at a funeral, and someone came to me and they said this God is going to have to give me an answer for why she died.

No, he's not going to give you anything.

Because you believe in the natural instead of the supernatural power of God.

And you're believing in something other than God.

Oh, come on.

Sometimes it's better to listen and just say, listen, I'm praying the word over you.

I love you.

And I'm believing in you and I'm praying the word over you.

And I can't depart from the word because I love him and I love you.

Just saying that.

Then you're not making them.

Okay.

You ever make people feel like they're something other than who they are by the things you say?

Oh, come on.

We're not religious.

Number two.

So what is God saying to us today?

He's saying, why don't we look at the interior problem?

There's an interior problem here.

The interior problem was the reality of this boy's life every day.

What this desperate father had to see every day.

That was what was eating him alive.

Every day he's seeing his son go through this.

If you've never had a sick child, you have no idea what it is to see a sick child suffer, and you have no way of helping them.

Other than praying for them.

This desperate father saw convulsions being thrown in the fire and the water.

He lived with this every day.

Let me take a break here.

Yesterday on our flight back to, it was yesterday, yes.

You know, have you ever had a blur?

You just go and go and go and go.

Okay.

So yesterday we were on a flight back from uh Clearwater to Knoxville, and all of a sudden I heard screaming, and there were two children that were level three autistic.

No way to correspond, no way to communicate, and just screaming, just screaming.

My heart, I saw them.

One of them had she had convulsed so much that she had her leg hung in her the her stroller, her umbrella stroller.

She was probably about six years old, and she couldn't get out, and she's just letting and they're letting her because I think they were thinking if we try to interfere, it could get worse.

So she's having all of this.

Then another one is standing there with his head thrown back, screaming his lungs out.

And then I realized they're on our flight.

And so my heart started hurting.

I'm getting ready to check in.

I kept looking over there.

My heart is hurting.

We get on the plane, and they came in.

They were all the way in the back.

And the stewardess was not happy with her congregation, if you will.

And she would come up, there was something happened.

They were way back, something happened, and they're getting she's getting unrolling paper towels and rolling her eyes and making remarks to the other stewardess.

Her her deal was in the back, and she's walking back there, and I can tell she is furious with the situation.

So I I hatched a plan.

Now, Sandra, if anyone complains, you tell them you'll trade seats with them.

Because you can go through anything.

You can be with them to pray for them.

And I'm sitting there and I'm getting more emotional and I'm wanting to stand up, turn around to the back and say, if you're having a problem with the sound, I'll trade seats with you.

Now, wouldn't that have been weird?

And I did not do that.

I chose to not be that weird.

So I'm sitting there and I'm I'm praying, Lord, give them peace in the midst of this storm.

Give them peace.

And we never heard another scream.

It was just peaceful.

It was just peaceful.

I believe I wasn't the only one praying on that plane.

I believe that God booked Christians on that plane so we could pray for their safe travel.

See, that at still, it just week on vacation, I took time to explore internal blocks in our life.

As I was reading this passage, I saw with compassion more than I ever had before, the condition of the Father.

I said to the Lord, I said, Lord, I'm gonna be really honest with you now.

It's just me and you were on vacation, no one back home will know a thing.

But see, God doesn't ever do that, he always makes me come home and tell on myself.

I said, no one will know this, but you and I, I'm believing for three huge, massive breakthroughs.

Three, not one, not two, but three.

Massive breakthroughs, and I'm not seeing any change.

And I'm praying, I'm quoting scripture, I'm standing, and I'm not believing any change.

And then I said, What in the world am I believing?

And he immediately told me my internal blocker.

Wow.

And he said, if you'll give me what you believe, if you'll give me what you really believe about you, come on.

If you will give me what you really believe about you, I can move.

I can move you into real faith that really believes.

See, I'm risking everything by getting up in front of my church and telling you all that I had I had a an internal block.

You know why?

Because when I stand in this pulpit, I have to be strong in the Lord.

I have to be a spiritual giant.

I have to, when I when I preach something, man, I've got to, you know, I've got to believe everything.

I've got to walk in all of this.

But beloved, I want to tell you this.

Pastors and spiritual leaders are dropping like flies because we expect spiritual giants instead of equippers of the saints.

What I'm telling you today is going to remove your internal block so that you can move into the fullness of faith.

And to do that, I have to expose that I have an internal block, hoping, come on, church, hoping you're not gonna say, well, wonder what's going on in pastor's life.

Wonder what's there.

Now I've been noticing some things, I don't know if you have, but I've been noticed how she's the devil's attacked her physically.

I've been noticing that uh she's been losing weight, thank you, Jesus.

Is it an illness?

And so, see, we come up with these ideas because see, I have to be Sandy Super Saint up here.

I have to be someone who never fails and who knows it all.

And I'm telling you, beloved, I am here to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

The apostle, the prophet, the pastor, the teacher, the evangelist, they are all to equip you to do what Jesus did.

Nothing more.

I am not a spiritual giant, I am a daughter of the living God.

We have put people on platforms and made them giants and bowed down to their awesomeness, and they they run from everywhere wanting to bow to them.

That is an idol, and the church is full of idolatry instead of faith in Jesus.

Hallelujah! So I said what I meant, and I meant what I said.

Jesus said, I want you to look at what you're believing, and it was towering.

It was towering.

And then he walked me back, took my hand, walked me back to my childhood, where I was repeatedly told that over and over and over and over, and you know what that does that develops an internal block.

And when you believe what the word says, can you believe it for you?

Because your internal belief.

See, the father said, Jesus, help my own belief, because I see this every day.

Uh since I held him in my arms when he was delivered out of his mother's womb, and I held him in my arms.

I saw him grow, and he had this disease.

He had this demon.

They called it a demon.

Now we call it a disease, okay?

How many of you all know that diseases don't come from God?

They were right.

Come on.

And this belief was internal.

I never said it.

I didn't say, listen, church, I can believe for a lot of things, but you know, I'm believing this too.

And y'all would have gone, oh my Lord.

Okay.

But I didn't, you don't realize it's there.

Come on, it's in there, but you don't realize it's there.

But Jesus came and he took my hand and walked me out of it.

Where was the deliverance team?

When Jesus shows up, you don't need a team.

You just have him, and that's enough.

See, this daddy said, Jesus is on the scene.

Whatever's going on in me, he's gonna be healed, he's gonna touch him and heal him.

But he says, Here's the deal.

But how is God gonna heal you?

How is God gonna deliver you?

Now we have two problems: the internal blocker and allowing God to bring breakthrough the way he wants to bring it.

Not the way we've chosen for him to bring it.

Do you know what's exhausting?

Being in a group of believers and they're telling God how to do his job.

Y'all ever been around that?

Drives me nuts.

Drives me nuts.

And Lord, this is this is what's happening, and and so this is what I'm believing you need to do, and you and only they've cleaned it up with what you want to do.

Come on.

This is what you want to do, yeah.

And I do too.

Maybe me more than you, but this is what I want you to do, and so instead of saying, Lord, I'm believing for your healing.

You did it before and you'll do it again.

I believe that your word is true because your word says by stripes we were healed.

So I'm standing on the word, Lord.

I'm not gonna try to tell you how to do it, I'm not gonna tell you when, although I would love for it to be now.

I'm just telling you, I believe your word is true.

Oh, come on.

And then he said, Allow me to remove the interior false evidence that speaks louder than what my word says.

In our culture, come on, lean in, people.

In our culture, we don't allow this type of conversation.

Forgive me if I'm stepping on your toes of name it and claim it, blab it and grab it.

Please forgive me if I'm broaching a subject that faith-based people don't allow to be talked about.

When are we gonna be real with each other?

When are we gonna say this is what I'm believing?

And with compassion, you hear them.

You can even cry with them.

And then you can pray the word with them.

See, when my mother passed away, I was young, I was in my 20s, early 20s, and people would come through and they would say she was a good one.

Oh, she was a woman of prayer.

Oh, I know you're gonna miss her, but you'll see her one day.

Twenty-three, twenty-four-year-old people, you know, I was wanting to say, in all honesty, why didn't why didn't he take my dad?

Mom and I were closer than my dad and I.

And that sound, you're going, oh god, she said that.

That's how I was feeling inside.

Because at that time I didn't have a relationship with my dad like I did before he died.

And so down the crowd, there was a dear friend, and she was crying.

And somebody would say something, and I'd look up, she was still crying.

Then I glimpsed ice with her, and she looked at me and she was crying and shaking her head no.

And I began to cry.

And when she got to me, she grabbed me.

We cried together.

You know what she said to me?

I have no words.

I have nothing.

But I love you, and I loved your mother.

And we stood there and wept together.

Do you know of all the things that were done on that night?

That's the only one I remember.

It's someone who has compassion on where I am and can cry with me and can pray with me and can love me right where I'm at instead of all of the.

I mean, everybody, everybody had had one of the mantras that you say as you go through the line.

Sometimes it's just good to say, listen, I love you and I'm praying for you.

It's enough, it's enough, but we feel like we've got to be deep.

You ever feel like you've got to be deep?

Yeah.

You see, we're afraid to discuss with each other what's going on inside.

Those inner thoughts that speak to us daily out of our past or out of our present suffering.

Are you all hearing this?

And then when we do venture to speak, what we are fearing.

Come on.

There's the word, what we're fearing.

Do you know people who have long illnesses are fearing something?

They live with it every day.

This father lived with this every day.

He had fears, my son will never be normal.

What will his life be like when I die?

Who'll take care of him?

We have these fears, and what do we get?

Fear contaminates faith.

Perfect love casts out fear.

Instead of remembering that the love of God was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and that we know how to react or not react.

We know how to act on the word, beloved.

We know how to love with the love of Jesus.

And sometimes just be there to love instead of feeling like we need to bring correction.

And I sat with God and repented because everything he spoke to me, I had to say, guilty, guilty, guilty.

And then he said, I want you to say this before the whole congregation.

Isn't that sweet?

You see, and then we're left feeling it's true.

I'll never be healed or delivered because my faith isn't big enough.

That voice that speaks to us, telling us, I will die.

Come on.

I'm a failure.

I'll never prosper.

I can never be good enough because, and you fill in the blanks, I will never be good enough, dot, talk, talk, because your internal belief could be based on what you're experiencing every day, or what someone close to you said and reinforced over and over in your life when you went through a time of struggle.

We all have different stories, okay?

We all have them.

We're not here to examine today, we're not here to examine your interior blockers or how they came or what they came from.

What are you believing that's causing this block toward healing or deliverance or breakthrough of any kind?

What are you believing?

Do you want to know?

Do you want to know?

Do you really want to know?

Okay.

Ask God in prayer.

Listen, we go to people too much to find out what's going on instead of just asking God in prayer.

The prayer this father prayed, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

Didn't make Jesus angry.

No, it brought Jesus to move with compassion.

Isn't that glorious?

I love that.

That's what Jesus said to the disciples.

When you pray and see no results, ask God.

He is so loving and compassionate, he will show you.

Just ask God, he'll show you.

Just ask him, what is this internal belief that is causing a block for where I'm at?

You may not have one.

Maybe God is wanting to do something in your life, and it may not be your way, but it's his.