Matt Hagee - Are You Curable?

Are you curable? Jesus said it this way: "Whoever hears these words and does them, he is like a wise man... Whoever hears these words and does not do them, he is like a foolish man". One of the challenges with this verse is not that it's not simple. It's that it's not easy. How many of you know that simple isn't always easy? You know I mean here's the plan, NASA. We want you to take this rocket, land on the moon, plant a flag, and come back. Simple, three steps. Simple is not easy. Hearing the word is simple. Doing the word is not always easy. And the challenge with doing the word is that until you do it, it doesn't work in your life. Last week, "He sent his word and he healed them".

Why did they need to be healed? You can discuss all of the symptoms that you want. But the only thing that causes the need for a cure is the sin in your life. Sin resists everything that the cure wants to do in your life. The cure is the word. It will heal every situation and circumstance. But sin is the cause. And until you get rid of the sin, you cannot receive the cure. "He sent his word and he healed them". Why did they need to be healed? Because of sin. But oftentimes, we take on that idea that we can do it our way. And when we take off to do it our way, we wind up in sin. And suddenly, we need a cure. "He sent his word and he healed them". People say, "Well, I don't know that I've been wandering". Sure, you have. Everyone has.

Isaiah 53:6 says so. "We like sheep have gone astray. We have gone our own way". Have you ever tried to solve your problem your way? All the time. You've been doing it since you were born. One of the first phrases you ever learned to say, "I can do it all by myself". And that's a problem when it comes to living your life with God, because apart from him, you can do nothing. You're see, people want to make the sin conversation a complicated conversation. And they want to slice and dice what is sin and what is not sin. But the Bible makes it very simple. In James, it says very clearly, "To him who knows to do right and does it not, to him it is sin".

Now how many of you have ever known to do right and you did it not? Kale? Krispy kreme? To him, it is sin. The challenge with sin is that sin resists everything that God wants to do in your life. The Bible says he'll keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. Sin resists the peace of God. The Bible says, "In his presence, is the fullness of joy". But sin resists the presence of God in your life. Look at a church full of people. One person is freely receiving the presence of God and the fullness of his joy, and the next person is standing there ticked off because we're not done on time. Why? It has nothing to do with God's presence. It's here! It has to do with the resistance of the sin factor in your life pushing God's presence out. The Bible says that he (Jesus) triumphed over powers and principalities and darkness, but sin will cause you to forfeit what he gave you.

Paul said, he'll supply my every need. But sin resists God's ability to provide for you. It says, "He sent his word and healed them," in Psalm 107. In the New Testament, Peter said that by his stripes, we're healed. And sin resists God's ability to heal you. Church, we have a cure, but we have to deal with the cause if the cure is going to work. Because whenever you read Psalm 107, it gets right down to a straight-up diagnosis. It's hard to hear. But Psalm 107 said it and Jesus said it. And here's what they said, "Fools in their transgressions". Here you have this perfect cure. Here you have this perfect word, and you're going to resist it? Fools!

You say, "Well, I don't like hearing that". That's harsh. Well this is what Jesus said, "If you hear it and do it, you're wise. If you hear it and you don't do it". Why? Because it works. It works. It does not fail. It cannot fail. It will establish the reason for which he sent it. If it only worked some of the time, I could understand an argument against it. But I promise you this: it has not ever failed and it will not fail you. So why resist it? The Bible says in Psalm 14: it says, "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God". And let me tell you: when you begin to live and act as if there is no God, you are living and acting foolishly. Psalm says, "The fool has said, there is no God". Let me give you this translation: the fool behaves as if God doesn't exist. And sometimes people who come to church and carry a Bible start to behave as if God doesn't exist. They know to do right and they just don't do it. You know what God's word says: you just don't do it. We pick and choose the portions of scripture that we want to partake of. But we don't participate in the part that requires something of us.

Look at Joshua 1:8. It says, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. You shall observe to do all that is written in it, and then you will have good success". How many people do you know love to quote that part about having good success, but they forget the part about observing to do all that's in the law? When you observe to do all that's in the word, you don't get a choice: you just do it. The Bible says, "Give and it shall be given unto you". You don't get a choice about giving: you just do it. The Bible says, "Pray, because the prayer of the faithful avails much". You don't get a choice about prayer: just do it. The Bible says, "Remember the sabbath and keep it holy". You don't get a choice about the sabbath: you just do it. But oftentimes, we love to argue. "Now pastor, I don't understand this concept of give and it shall be given unto you. Could you make that a little more clear"?

Well see, it's real easy. You give and then God says I'll give it back to you. "Well, I just don't understand". Well let me tell you something. I don't understand how these little green things called plants engage in this process called photosynthesis. I don't understand how the molecular structure of oxygen that comes into my lungs, departs as carbon dioxide. But then the carbon dioxide becomes something that the plants take in. And they then convert it back into oxygen. Don't get any of that. But you know what I'm not going to stop doing? Breathing. So what does your understanding have to do with your obedience? Nothing. You just want to make it the reason why you don't obey. There are all kinds of things that I lack understanding in that I obey all the time. Gravity is a big one. No clue how the moon keeps me stuck right here on earth, but I'm glad it does. But when it comes to God's word, rather than just do it, we want to discuss it.

How does this work, this whole seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened? Well, it's real easy. You pray in faith believing, and let the name that is above every name go to work on your behalf. Jesus said, "Whenever you hear it and you do it, you're like a wise man. When you hear it and you don't do it, you're like a foolish man". When you look in the book of Luke, in the 6th chapter, at the same passage of scripture, verses 46 through 49, Jesus is having this same discussion. And the way it's recorded there is Jesus said that the one who digs down deep and builds on the rock. That's letting you know that the first thing you come to is not the foundation you're looking for.

Sometimes in life you've got to dig down deep. Sometimes it takes a little bit of effort to get to where you want to be, which means that if you start praying, sometimes you're going to have to dig down deep with that prayer. You're not going to get to say, "Now I lay me down to sleep," and God sends you a truck full of blessings. You're going to have to pray for a little bit, which means you've just got to keep on digging. Whenever you give, you might have to keep on giving. Whenever you ask, you might have to keep on asking. Whenever you work, you might have to keep on working. But I promise you: the foundation that's down there at the bottom is well worth the building on.

One of the things that you're going to have to block out of your mind is the fools that surround you, because while you're digging, people are going ask, "What are you doing? Why are you praying? Why are you giving? Why are you volunteering? Why are you witnessing? Why are you going to that Bible study? It doesn't help. It doesn't change anything. It's not worth anything". Look at the entirety of the parable. Jesus said there were two builders. They both knew how to build. Oftentimes, in our mind, we want to make the wise man the really good builder and the foolish man, a bad builder. You couldn't tell the difference between the two. They both build houses. And everybody went, "Oh, wow: what a beautiful home". They both knew what to do. They both had the resources to do it. The difference was not how they built. The difference was where they built. And the thing that separated the two was not the builders, but the weather. Don't you ever allow yourself to believe that just because you're a child of God, you don't get to walk through the storm.

"When the storm came". There is your eternal weather forecast. A storm is coming. I don't know when, but it's coming. The storm just left. Here comes another one. In Luke 6, it says, "The flood and the wind beat vehemently". In Matthew 7, it says, "The waters rose". Same water hit both houses. Same wind blew on both doors. Same rains fell on both roofs. It had nothing to do with the walls, the windows and the doors. It had everything to do with where they were built. And when the storm came, the wise man's house stood. And when the storms came, the foolish man's house fell flat. Church, the world we're living in is filled with storms. We've got more storms going on in our world today than you can count, not just literally, but absolutely in every way. We've got political storms, and financial storms, and economic storms, and emotional storms, and physical storms. You look at all the statistics, and all the bad stuff is up, and all the good stuff is down!

It doesn't matter about the weather on the outside. It matters about who's on the inside. Because when the storm comes, when the storm comes, I want my life to be built on a rock that can withstand the storm. I want my marriage to be built on a rock that can withstand the rain. I want my children to live in a home where we're not worried about the weather on the outside because we've got Jesus on the inside. Church, it doesn't matter about the storm that we're going through. It doesn't matter about the weather. It doesn't matter about the builder. It matters about the foundation, because our foundation is built on a promise that never fails. Our foundation is worth putting our faith in. Our foundation is dependable. Our foundation is great and greatly to be praised. Our foundation has a name, and his name is Jesus Christ! Give the Lord a handclap of praise!

So we have a cause. The cause is sin. We have a cure. The cure is his word. We have a need and the need is to apply it. This is what Hebrews 10:23 says: it says, "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering". That's a very important statement, "Without wavering". "For he who promised is faithful". How many of you know that God is faithful? "He who promised is faithful". One of the reasons why we choose to stop treatment is because we don't get to see the results when we want them like we want them. How many of you have ever had a headache, and you took an aspirin, and you were mad it didn't work in 60 seconds? I mean you haven't even wiped the water off your lip, and you're like, "I've still got a headache". You've got to give it time.

And here in Hebrews 10, it says give it time, because he who promised you is faithful. If you don't see what you want right away, keep trying. If you don't get what you asked for right away, keep asking. If you don't have the victory that you needed right away, keep fighting, because he who promised you is faithful. Think about it this way: Abraham gets a promise. "Abraham, I'm going to make you the father of many nations". Abraham got that promise 4.000 years ago. He got that promise when he was a hundred, and he didn't have any grand kids. I know people in their 60's that are mad they ain't got no grand kids. Abraham was a hundred and finally had his first son, Isaac. But God said, "I'm going to make you the father of many nations. I'm going show you a city whose builder and maker is God".

Now it's simple. We sit here and we look back at that promise, and we're like, "Yes, way to go Abraham: you believed God". The book of Romans tells us that Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him as righteousness. But it wasn't so simple for Abraham. God said to Abraham, "Abraham, I want you to move away from your family. Get away from your father's house to a place that I'll show you. And I will show you a city whose builder and maker is God". Could you imagine being Sarah, his wife? Honey, we're selling the house. Where are we going? I don't know. But it's going to be good when we get there. Now in order to understand Abraham's situation, don't put him in a mud hut at the end of a dirt road. Abraham wasn't homeless. Abraham lived in the city of Ur in the Land of the Chaldeans. In the city of Ur in the Land of the Chaldeans in the time that Abraham was there, that was Manhattan, baby. He had a flat penthouse overlooking Central Park.

So Abraham packs up and he moves. And he's looking for this city whose builder and maker is God, because the God that he's never seen and the city that he's never lived in has also promised him that he's going to be the father of many nations. Now how many of you understand that simple ain't always easy? God says, "Abraham, I want you to take that son that I gave you, because I promised you that I would make you the father of many nations, so here's how this is going to work, Abraham. Tomorrow morning, get up and take that boy to the top of a hill, and sacrifice him to me". I mean it's simple: right? "Take your son and sacrifice him", that's not hard to understand. But simple is not always easy. "God, you said you're going make me the father of many nations. How am I going to be the father of many nations if you've asked me to kill the son it took me so long to have? You said, God, that I was going to see a city whose builder and maker was God. I left a really good place to come out here and live in the rocks with the sheep. Where's the city at"? Abraham didn't do that.

The Bible says, "The next morning when the sun rose, Abraham was already on his way to Moriah," Isaac in hand. Why? How? Think about it. Kill the promise? Sacrifice the son? You're just going to have to find another way, God. I'm not doing this. The only way Abraham could do it is because he knew God was faithful. He said, I'm going to hold to my profession without wavering, because he who promised is faithful. He's so faithful: that even if I sacrifice this boy, God's able to bring him back. He's so faithful: that even if I don't see the city I'm looking for now, it's going to show up somewhere in the future. He's so faithful: that even if no one else understands what I'm going through, God Almighty will not fail me, because he is able. People say, "That's crazy". Go read Hebrews 11. It says that Abraham did it, accounting that God was able to raise him from the dead. He said, I still believe that God's going to take care of me, even if it doesn't seem like the situation is fixable.

So where is the city? The Bible tells us when and where Abraham's going to get the opportunity to see the city. You have to look in Revelation 21. "I John (John the Revelator), I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God". There it is, Abraham, Revelation 21, the city whose builder and maker was God. And then John says, "And I heard the one who sat upon the throne (that's Jesus), as he said to me, 'it is done'". Why is it done? Because in Revelation 21 that 4.000-year-old promise that God made to Abraham, 4.000 years on my wristwatch is a long time. "But a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day". "It is done".

The one on the throne is going to walk over to Abraham and say, "Abraham, you remember when I told you? You remember when I told you, Abraham, that I was going to make you the father of many nations? Well Abraham, take a look. Everybody who's here for the celebration in heaven today, they're all yours. They came from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through Judah to Jesus. And from Jesus, they were redeemed by the cure of the holy Word of God. And every tribe, and every tongue, and every kindred, and every nation, they're all here today, Abraham, because I kept the promise to you. Abraham, do you remember when I told you to get out of your city and to leave your father's house, because I was going to show you a better place? Well right here, this new Jerusalem, this place is your place. And you don't ever have to leave this place. You can stay for eternity, Abraham, with all of your descendants, spiritually and physically. They're here, Abraham, because you believed in me. And now, in Revelation 21, 4.000 years after I had the conversation with you, it is done".

Now child of God, if it's not done until Revelation 21, guess what? It's not over. It's not over for you. It's not over for you. Whatever promise God has made you in the past, it's not over. Because if he's still got a promise that he's keeping to Abraham in tomorrow, then he's got one for you today. I don't care what they're telling you about the economy: it's not over. I don't care what they're telling you about the future of your job: it's not over. I don't care what they're telling you about your physical health: it's not over. I don't care what they're saying about what we're looking at next year.

The God that we serve today is on his throne and will be tomorrow. And it's not over until God says it's over! And when he says it's done, I promise you: you'll be the head and not the tail. You'll be above only and not beneath. You'll be blessed in your going out. You'll be blessed when you come in. When he says it's done, you'll have victory, because he is the one in whom we triumph! Give the Lord a handclap of praise in this house today! It's not over! It's not over, because if God said it, he'll do it. And as simple as it is to hear, simple's not always easy. Because in order for the word to work, we simply have to say, "God, not my will, but thine be done. Not my way but yours. Not my wish but your word". I promise you this: no matter what you need today, there is a cure. And it is the word of the living God. Now whether or not it works in your life is up to you. I want to pray over you before we leave this service today. Would you raise your hands?

Father, today we've heard your word. Now give us the confidence to leave this place and put it to work, not just to hear it but to do it: not just to allow it to encourage us but to live upon it. Let it become that lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path. Let it lead us and guide us and comfort us. Let it be a shield of protection around our hearts and our homes and our lives. And let it be a sword that defeats every enemy and everything that would rise against us. God, give us the confidence to stand fast in our profession, knowing that you are faithful, faithful to keep every promise, faithful to perform every word: faithful, Heavenly Father, even when it seems impossible, because you are the God who does the impossible.

Now Lord, for those in this place that need your word to work in their life today, I pray that everything that they would lay at your feet, you would begin to move in that situation. For those who need a touch in their physical body, I pray that your word would heal every sickness and every disease. For those who need a touch in their heart today, I pray that it would be the joy of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow. For those, Heavenly Father, who need an answer, I pray that you, God, would show them through wisdom, and discernment, and the leading of the Holy Spirit exactly what to do, because your word works. So let it work in us today: that we would testify to your goodness and your grace and your mercy in all things. We ask these things, in Jesus' name.