Matt Hagee - The Crisis of Faith
The battle for freedom is being fought in this nation right now. Very powerful and influential leaders in this nation desire to control every aspect of your being. They want to tell you what you can and cannot say, which is contrary to your first amendment freedom of speech. The administration printed a pamphlet of words that are approved and disapproved. On the disapproved list, such offenses as, "Sir" and "Ma'am".
Think about the important work they must be doing with your tax dollars in Washington. They want to tell you where you can and cannot go. It's called a vaccine passport. They want to tell you what you can and cannot do. They're counting how many people you put in your home for thanksgiving and Christmas. They want to tell you what you will and will not believe. They're trying to change the history of this nation and tell your children and your grandchildren that we were founded on racist principles for the purpose of oppression. That's a lie! The truth is the foundation of this nation was poured in the sacrifice of individuals who laid down their lives for three ingredients, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And the Bible accurately asks this question: "If the foundations be destroyed, what then can the righteous do"?
Right now, the foundation of our families, our faith, and our freedom are under attack. And this battle is a battle between light and darkness, truth and a lie, good and evil, and there is no middle ground. There is no room for spectators in this fight. If you choose not to participate, you are for them. As Jesus said, "He who is not for me is against me".
Today, the choice is to either stand for truth or be swept away by lies: to build your life on a firm foundation of faith, faith in God for your family, faith in God for your business, faith in God for your children, faith in his word, or be overwhelmed by the agenda that's running rampant in this generation. Today, we have to face the crisis of faith. And God Almighty gave us the solution in Exodus 20:3. We're going to begin reading at verse 2. If you're there, say, amen. The Bible says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me". Read verse 3 again, "You shall have no other gods before me".
Heavenly Father, let the truth of your word penetrate the hearts and lives, not only of those who are in this room, but those who are watching and joining us across this nation and around the world. Let that truth defeat every form of deception in this generation: that there is only one God. His name is Jehovah, and he sits upon the throne and rules in might and majesty. For these things, we give you thanks and praise. And all of God's children said, amen.
You may be seated. Today, it's a crisis of faith. Are you going to put your faith in God or your going to put your faith in a government? If you build your faith in God, you have an unshakable shelter in the midst of every storm. We've been talking about conquering the crisis. And Paul let us know from the book of Romans, "In all of these things", say that with me, "In all of these things we are more than conquerors through Christ". Consider the history of the world and how they have tried to control Jesus Christ. Empires have tried to erase him, but he cannot be erased, because if you crucify him, he comes back from the dead on the third day. Tyrants have tried to silence those who will preach his message, but they cannot silence us, because his truth is marching on.
Judges have ruled against him and courts have tried to overthrow him, but he cannot be ruled against, because he still sits on the throne and is king above kings and Lord above Lords. You cannot ban him from speech, because even if men are silent, the rocks will cry out. Every morning when you wake up, the sun, the moon, and the stars are all shouting from the heavens above, "There is a God who created heaven and earth, and Jesus is his name"! It's a crisis of faith, but it's a crisis in vain. Why? Because he's still all powerful whether you believe it or not. The Psalmist said clearly, "Why do the nations rage and people plot a vain thing"?
When your will is contrary to God's will, you're plotting a vain thing. And what you need to know is God doesn't look at your plans and adjust his. He looks at your plans and he says you're either lining up with my word or you're walking in your own way. The Psalmist said, "Why do they plan a vain thing"? "Why do kings conspire against the Lord"? Today is a day of decision for every person that is in this room. Today is a day of decision for every person that is joining us and watching online. Today is a day when you will decide Christ or antichrist. It's a day when you either choose to live by your conviction or be swept away in an hour of convenience. The decision that you make is one that will give you victory over death, hell and the grave: or the world, the flesh, and the devil will overrule you.
Today I ask you what Elijah asked the children of Israel when he stood on Carmel. "How long will you falter between two opinions? If God is God, serve him". Because the world is giving us an option today, faith in God or the government. Consider the two choices, our God who never fails, or a government that cannot deliver. Our God who said, "Try me and see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out upon you blessings that you cannot contain". Or a government who says, "Give me, so I can tell you what you need:" our God who is truth or a government that blatantly lies in order to accomplish their agenda: our God who said he would give his angels charge over you, and "No weapon formed would prosper:" or our government that uses the excuse, "Well this is the new normal".
We live in a generation that is filled with the self-deception that we can actually live without faith. But what you need to understand is everyone has faith. The question is, "Where is your faith"? It's either in the one true God or in another God. And right now, the progressive liberal and secular agenda wants to erase your faith in Jehovah God and replace it with faith in the government. Why? Because they want to control you. And they know as long as you serve God, no man can serve two masters. So what's their strategy? First, they target your worship services. They used a health crisis in the form of a pandemic to shut down your churches when the Bible tells us, "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together".
The founding fathers knew this principle, and they gave you the freedom of religion and the right to assemble. Don't you ever let anyone take it from you again. After your church service, they target your children. They have your children, in public education systems, indoctrinating them. They're using your money to change your child's mind. And they're telling your children things like, "We live in a gender-neutral world," "You can be whatever you feel like being," and there's more options by the minute. The truth is the Bible says, "He created them male and female". He created them in his own image.
Where does an individual get the confidence to know that if God is for them, who can be against them? By recognizing that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. If a liberal agenda can erase your Creators genius in your life, then they can start to tell you how you got here. But the truth is you were created in his own image, and "Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world". They target your family. They want to erase the biblical definition of a marriage. Marriage is God's idea. And whenever he originated marriage, he said, "These two," saith God, "Shall become one flesh". Who were these two? Adam and Eve, man and woman. That's a biblical marriage. They're targeting your community. They push an agenda of chaos and confusion instead of law and order.
Rather than protect and defend, they've chosen to divide and conquer. They're dividing people groups. They're dividing cultures. They're dividing economic status. They're dividing nation against nation. Why? Because as long as there's chaos, then they can control it. They've chosen to defund the police and subsidize illegal immigration. They've closed your schools and opened your borders. They rant about equality and inclusiveness. But the one thing that they cannot tolerate is the truth of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob upheld in his word. Why? Because you can either have faith in God or faith in the government.
Jesus told his disciples, "Have faith in God". Say that with me. "Have faith in God". Here's the problem with the liberal agenda: God set it straight in Isaiah 44:6, "I am the first and I am the last. And besides me, there is no other". It doesn't matter what a liberal politician speaks. "Besides him, there is no other". It doesn't matter what a professor in a university teaches. "Besides him, there is no other". It doesn't matter what the hotheads on fake news have to say. "Besides him, there is no other".
He is God. He is God who created heaven and earth. He is God who sits on the throne and rules in grace and truth. It is in him that we live, and we move, and we have our being. He is the God who holds the mountains in a scale and the hills in a balance. He's the God who has counted the stars and he calls them by name. He's the God who, in his grace and his mercy and his patience, gives us the very breath that we breathe. He is the living God, and Jehovah is his name! He is the great I am! He is the God who sits upon the throne! And besides him, there is no other! Knowing this, believing this, accepting this, why do we have a crisis of faith in this nation? If we understand, "Thou shall have no other gods before me," how did he get here?
If millions of Americans profess this truth, the only way we got here is we profess it but we don't possess it. I believe there's a verse in the Bible that diagnoses the attitude of this generation to a t. 2 Kings 17:33, it says, "They worshiped the Lord but also served other gods". That means that they had seen God do enough: that they carved out a spot for him during worship service. But then the rest of the week, they went and served any other God that they chose. How true is that of the world we live in today? We make room for God on Sunday, but we serve other gods Monday through Friday. We say God's or provider in the sanctuary, but then we go out and serve the gods of materialism, as we're willing to do anything we can, cheat, steal, and lie to feed the God of greed for the wealth of this world.
We profess conviction on Sunday, but we live by convenience Monday through Friday. The Bible tells us in Proverbs, "There is a way that seems right to man, but the end thereof is death". We discuss being surrendered to his spirit on Sunday, but we live by our own understanding and our intellect Monday through Friday. The Bible tells us very clearly, "Lean not to your understanding". How many of us are driven by self-indulgence, lust, greed, the appetite for power? Paul said in 2 Timothy that in the end times, it would be perilous because men would be unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control. And he said, "From such people, turn away". What's the answer? God gave us the answer. "Thou shall have no other gods before me".
When you live by this truth, you have defended your whole life against tyranny. Why? What is tyranny? Tyranny is when a person in power wants to use their power to rule your life. They then become a tyrant, and what they practice is tyranny. When anyone in office tells you what you can and cannot say, where you can and cannot go, what you can and cannot do, they are using the power of their office as a tyrant to tyrannically take over your life! So how do you stand up and resist that? "Thou shall have no other gods before me". You cannot be loyal to two nations at one time. You will either be one nation under God or one nation under the government. And Jesus said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand".
Look at history in the last century? What did Hitler do when he tyrannically came to power? The first thing he did is he silenced every religious organization that opposed him. What did he do to Christian pastors like Martin Niemoller when he threw him into a concentration camp? He was trying to silence him, because Hitler wanted the nation to say, "Heil Hitler". It was his mandate. And Niemoller said, "I cannot say 'Heil Hitler' because God is my furor. I serve him". Because of his convictions, he became an enemy of the state. Let me ask you this question: if living out your faith became a criminal act, could they find enough evidence to prosecute you?
People say, "W-o-o-o-e. Preacher is getting personal". It would be personal if it was between me and you. It's not. It's between you and Jesus. Why? Because he's the one who personally laid down his life so that you and I might live. He took your salvation so personally. He said, "No man takes my life but I lay it down". He asks you to accept this free gift and personally choose to live for him with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength. He asks you to consider what he personally did for you and shine for him in an hour of darkness. He wants you to consider what he did for you, and then lay down your life, which is a reasonable sacrifice, because "Thou shall have no other gods before me".
What is he asking you to consider? Think about this: the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your God. His ability to take care of you will determine your outcome. When God said, "Thou shall have no other gods before me," it was a pretty good deal. Because in verse 2, he says, "I am the Lord". Say that with me. "I am the Lord". That's a powerful phrase all by itself. He's not saying we're here to debate the issue. I've said it: that settles it. And then he said, let me show you what I've done. "I'm the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a place of slavery".
Now if you've listened to pastor for any length of time, you've heard him say that the Old Testament is God's will concealed. The New Testament is God's will revealed, meaning that if you see it in the Old Testament, you can find it in the New Testament. So the way that God used Moses to defeat the slave masters of the children of Israel in Egypt is the same way that God used our deliverer, Jesus Christ, to defeat the slave master of our soul, the world, the flesh, and the devil at a place called Calvary. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Malachi said, "I am the Lord. I do not change".
So the way he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, a place of slavery and bondage, is the same way he brought you and I out of a place of slavery and bondage when we were held ransom to sin. The same way he used his power and might in Egypt to decimate the gods of Egypt is the same way he used his power and might at Calvary to conquer every power and principality. Colossians actually tells us, "He made a public spectacle of them when he triumphed over them at the cross". What's the point? Anything that you try to exalt above God, he'll take it off the throne just so you'll know, "I am the one true God".
Go to a place called Calvary. Just the same way that Moses was used of God to defeat the enemies of Egypt, God used his spotless lamb, Jesus Christ, to defeat every enemy, and every shackle, and every chain that has ever held you and I captive so that we could stand here today and boldly declare that whom the son sets free is free indeed! The book of Romans says that we were slaves to sin. But he conquered sin, death, hell, and the grave at Calvary. The chains of shame held you. But he conquered the shame, because Hebrews tells us that Christ endured the cross and despised the shame.
Today, you have no reason to look into your yesterdays and be ashamed of what you've done. If you have professed Jesus, that's under the blood. And though your sins were scarlet, they're now white as snow. The enemy used rejection to conquer you. He used rejection of your family. He used the rejection of your father. He used the abuse of others to wound your soul. And in that offense, he held you captive. But you're not rejected anymore, because Jesus Christ held his arms wide open at a place called Calvary and he embraced you!
The Bible says, "Because you were afar off, he brought you near. And now you're an heir and a joint heir with Jesus Christ". That means that heaven has written you into the will, and everything that God promised his son, he's given to you! Bless his holy name! Fear is defeated, because he hasn't given us a spirit of fear. Doubt is defeated, because I can do all things through Christ. Overwhelmed and insecure is defeated, because greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world. Sickness is defeated, because by his stripes, I am healed! Powers and principalities are defeated, because the mighty name of Jesus is the name that is above every name. And at his name, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father! Death is defeated.
So many people have spent so many months afraid of death. But Jesus said, "He who believes in me shall never die". Shall never die. People in this room and some of you who are watching, you've said good-bye to your loved ones. It's just a temporary thing. It would be sad if it was forever. But the conqueror of death, hell and the grave, he said, "Believe on me and you'll never die". That's why we can shout for joy, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory"? For the grave has been swallowed up by king Jesus, who broke every shackle and chain. And because of what he did at Calvary, and because of what he did when he came out of the grave, soon and very soon, the trump of God shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise. And we who are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet him in the air. What a mighty God we serve! Give the Lord a handclap of praise!