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Watch 2022-2023 online sermons » Matt Hagee » Matt Hagee - Things That Are Hard To Believe

Matt Hagee - Things That Are Hard To Believe


Matt Hagee - Things That Are Hard To Believe
Matt Hagee - Things That Are Hard To Believe

If you brought your Bibles, turn them to the book of 2 Timothy 1:7, as this morning we begin a sermon series entitled "Say it ain't so". How many of you have ever heard or said those words? You use them whenever you're hearing things that are hard to believe. That's the title of this message this morning, "Things that are too hard to believe". The idea for this sermon series came to me when I was considering the way things were when I was growing up as a child. You see, this was before technology hijacked conversation, and people used to do something that was really the original form of social networking. It was called visiting.

How many of you are old enough to remember visiting? My parents would walk into the living room, and they would say, "Children, come on: we're going over to the Jones', we're going over to the Smith's". In San Antonio, most of the time it was more like Garcia, Gonzalez, Ramos. "We're going to your grandparents". And they would say, "We're going for a visit". Now if you were a child, you understood that during the visit, there were three rules that needed to be followed for every child. Rule number one, you are to be seen and not... Heard. See, y'all have been on a visit: haven't you? Rule number two, do not speak unless... Spoken to. Yep. And rule number three, always say, "Yes, sir," "No, sir," "Yes, ma'am," and "No, ma'am". "Huh," "What," and a head bop were not a part of our vocabulary.

The reason that I choose this title is because the world that we live in is starting to treat people of faith like children. They want the church to be seen but not heard. They want the church to not speak unless spoken to. They're doing everything they can to sensor our freedom of speech every way that they can. And they're wanting us to just accept these terms on any condition that they label them. Today, I want us to look at what the Bible has to say about who we are in the world and what we have the right to say. If you found 2 Timothy 1:7, say, amen. Let's read it together. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind".

Heavenly Father, today I pray that the Holy Spirit opens our hearts to hear and our minds to receive your truth: that we would recognize that in your divine wisdom, you placed us here for such a time as this: that we might be able to make your glory known in all the earth. These things we ask, in Jesus' name. And we receive them, in faith believing. And all of God's children said, praise the Lord.


You may be seated. Whenever we were children and going on visits, we often understood that at some point in the conversation, the topic was going to get too heavy or to intense for young ears to hear. And so we would be given the command to go outside. How many of you've ever been sent outside? It didn't even matter if you had a toy. If you had an imagination, that was good enough: just go. If we were over at the Castro's house, my mother's family, we weren't told to go outside. It was, "Vamonos por alla." (Let's go over there.) and then someone would chastise whoever brought up the heavy topic. "Papi, pobrecitos los niños. (daddy, the poor children.) "Ya basta." (Stop.)

Either way, we understood that we couldn't hear what was about to be said. This is where you learn the art of cupping. And it was in these moments where you have your hand cupped behind your ear and pressed against the door that someone would say something that was so hard to believe. And the response that would be given is, "Say it ain't so". I was thinking the other day: what would happen if I were to be able to sit down with my grandmother or my grandfather and share with them the things that are happening in the world around us today. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go get one of your beloved relatives from a generation ago and sit down and tell them about what's happening? Could you imagine what they would say if you could sit down and tell them about tens of thousands of people who rioted, and looted, and burned cities, and murdered people, being called "Peaceful protesters"?

Say it ain't so. And in those same cities where they were rioting, and looting, and burning down, there were elected officials in the city council who voted to defund the police. Say it ain't so. What do you think they would believe about the world we're living in where medical organizations are now saying and taking the position that 12-year-old children can engage in transgender therapy without parental consent? Say it ain't so. Believe it or not, we are now allowing men to compete in women's sports, and we're actually foolish enough to call it "Equality". Say it ain't so. We're indoctrinating our children in institutions called schools, filling their heads with lies. For years, we've told them a lie and called it science, declaring that they have evolved from animals. And we wonder why they act the way they do. We've lied to them about our history, teaching them how to hate this country instead of be proud of it.

Lawmakers, who manipulate the laws that they've sworn to uphold, in their favor. They've used the power of the pen to override the will of the people, and they're camouflaging tyranny, and calling it "An executive order". Say it ain't so. They've turned the land of the free into a socialist swamp. And if you think socialism works, just look at the nations around the world right now with people in the streets who are fed up with it. Say it ain't so. The reality of all of these things that I'm describing are very true. And not only are they true, but they're so overwhelming and they're so disappointing: that oftentimes, what we attempt to do is just simply escape and disconnect any way that we can. Because after all, what can you do about the world that we're living in?

Where can you turn in a generation where the truth has become a lie and the lie has become a truth? Who do you look to when all of the experts have an agenda, and everyone who is defending liberty is being canceled and ignored? How do you build a hope for the future when the challenges and the burdens of today are more than you can bear, and they're just too hard for you to believe? In moments like this, may I recommend to you, our help in all ages past, because the Bible declares that he is a refuge, and he is a strength, and he is an ever-present help in a time of trouble. He has promised us that if we would call upon him, he would answer us, and show us great and mighty things that we know not. He said, "If you believe in him, all things would be possible for you". He said, "If you'd repent, he would heal your land".

Church, my God is not a man that he should lie. He is the first, and he is the last. And beside him, there is no other! Every word that proceeds out of his mouth, it is alive, and it is powerful, and it will come to pass. He is mighty, and he sits upon the throne and rules as king above kings and Lord above Lords over all of the earth! He rules in truth and justice! When lawlessness abounds, and our world is shaking, my God remains unshakable! While we're groping in clouds of chaos and confusion, he sees the end from the beginning. And he has said, "I will make a way where there seems to be no way".

Church, heaven and earth may pass away, but he endures forever! His love endures forever! His mercy endures forever, because he is from everlasting to everlasting! So stop looking at the media and start looking to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Stop looking to a candidate and start looking to the King of kings! Stop worrying about the world we're living in, and start rejoicing that king Jesus is on his way! What are we left to do? Say it ain't so or be the redeemed of the Lord who say so? It's our responsibility to make him known in all the earth. But the challenge is we live in a world that is so filled with the artificial: we've forgotten the authentic. We've got artificial everything in this world. And we've become so accustom to the substitutes that we've lost our desire for the real thing. It's everywhere. It's in your food. We've got artificial sweeteners.

There's an aisle in the grocery store that sells meat that's not meat. There's artificial relationships. It's called social media. You think if you click "Like" or you follow, that suddenly you've got a relationship, and you're friends. We've got artificial families. Everywhere you turn, we, as a nation, are doing everything we can to normalize every type of relationship except the biblical relationship that defines marriage. In this artificial world, we've created a substitute for everything. And suddenly, we see ourselves in a world where we have an association with church, but we do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's artificial.

2 Corinthians 13:5, it says, "Examine yourselves as to whether you be of the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know that Christ is in you"? He's in you. This is why the Bible says, "Greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world". This is why we do not have a spirit of fear when it comes to sharing our faith, but we have the power to do so, we have the love of God, and we have a sound mind. People say, "Well pastor, how can you say that there's an artificial church"? Because if we were the living church of the living God, using his living word, there is no way that this nation would be in such moral chaos and corruption.

We have confused the artificial with the authentic. We've swallowed the substitute instead of living on the real thing. Rather than preach the word of the living God in our pulpits, we've heaped up for ourselves teachers, who will tell us what we want to hear instead of the truth that we need to hear. Rather than standing up and believing what the Bible says, we've given God 90 minutes of a service on Sunday, and then we live like we want the rest of the week. Instead of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, we've allowed our critics to silence us. We've let our scandals embarrass us. And we've let our unconfessed sins disqualify us from being who God created us to be.

Artificial religion is silent when the Bible says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so". That verse comes from Psalm 107:2. And throughout the entire Psalm, what is being done is the Psalmist is writing down everything that God had done. As a matter of fact, the full verse reads, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy". We often quote this verse, but we seldom put it to practice, because we're not looking at it closely enough when we read the words, "Whom he has redeemed". Say that with me. "Whom he has redeemed".

How many of you recognize that's in the past tense? That means that it's already been done. Oftentimes, when we talk about God, we are talking about what we want to see God do, when God moves, when God answers, when God gives, when God does this, when God does that. And what the Bible is telling us is the thing that we're supposed to do is not talk about what God's going to do, but we should say so about the things he's already done. We're supposed to be telling the world everything that he has already done in our lives. He's already done it: it's just our job to let them know it. So I want you to stop saying, "When will God," and start recognizing that he's already moving. The sun came up this morning. I'm telling you God is moving. For the Bible says that, "His mercies are renewed like the morning". He's moving.

Tonight when you go home, you're going to look up and see stars and the moon. Why? Because God is moving, because every star and the glow of the moon says he is faithful from generation to generation. He's moving. Consider what Jesus said to his disciples. Luke 12:8 and 9, write those down, because you're going to go home and check me on this. Matthew 10:32, write that one down, because the words of both of those sections of scripture are very similar: yet, they've got different targets. Here's what Luke 12 says: it says, "Whoever confesses me before men", that means tell somebody about Jesus, "Him, the Son of Man, will confess before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God". And then in Matthew 10, Jesus is speaking to his disciples, and he said, "Whoever confesses me before men, him I will confess before my father in heaven. And whoever denies me before men, him I will deny before my father in heaven".

Notice they're two different conversations. There's one happening here on earth that you choose to have. And there's another one happening in heaven that you decide what's going to be said. If you're down here on earth confessing Jesus, he's up in heaven talking about you. If you're down here on earth denying Jesus, he's just got the mute button pushed on your channel. You say, "Well how can you say that? I don't like that". The Bible didn't consult our feelings when it laid out the facts. Here's what Hebrews 4:14 and 16 says: it says, "We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God".

Now we don't have any question about who we're talking about. It says, "Jesus the Son of God. So let us hold fast to our confession". Who's got the confession? We do. We hold fast to it. It means we don't give up on our confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And when we hold fast to our confession, Hebrews says, "We can go boldly before the throne of grace: that we may find mercy and grace in our time of need". We have a great high priest. That's Jesus. He's now serving in heaven. When you read the Old Testament description of who the high priest was and what he did, he is the only one with authorization to go before God on behalf of his people. On the day of atonement when sin was forgiven, it was the high priest that presented the sacrifice.

During the feasts when the offerings were brought, it was the high priest who took the offering into the holy of holies, and God, only would talk with, meet with, and be with the high priest. If you didn't have a high priest, you couldn't be forgiven. If you didn't have a high priest, your offerings would be rejected. So the New Testament says we no longer need a man to be the high priest, because we've got the Son of God as our high priest.

Now there's a whole lot of doctrine and theology caught up in this one section of scripture. But here's the main point of what I want you to understand: if Jesus Christ is the high priest, there cannot be a substitute. There is no other option. There are no alternatives. No saint can go to God for you. No human being can go to God for you. No angel can go to God for you. The only person that can get you to the throne of God is Jesus Christ, because there is only one name given among men whereby, we might be saved, and that's Jesus! In Romans 8, Paul is talking about the relationship that we, as believers here on earth, have with God in heaven. And he talks about how the Holy Spirit groans for us with utterances that cannot be known. And in verse 27, he says, "Now him who searches the hearts and knows the mind of the spirit", that's Jesus, "Makes intercession for the saints, according to the will of God".

Here, you have another Bible confirmation that Jesus is up in heaven talking to God about you here on earth. But when you look at Matthew 10, go reread that verse, he's not talking about everybody. He's only talking about those who confess him. He said, "If you confess me before men, I'll confess you. If you deny me, I'll deny you". He says, when your friends come up to you and say, "Hey, are you one of those Christians"? And you say, "It ain't so. Well I don't want to make them uncomfortable with my faith," you have no idea what you've just done to yourself in heaven. Because all those requests that you laid out this morning, God goes, mute. He's denying me down there: I'm not going to say anything about him up here. And then in Luke 12, he says, "If you deny me before men, I'll deny you before the angels".

Now what role do the angels play? Go look at Hebrews 1:14. Angels are ministering spirits. Angel's jobs are to be sent in assignment over us. What Jesus is telling his disciples is if you don't have the courage to tell people about me, and who I am, and what I've done, when I get into heavenly places, and it's my responsibility to talk about you, and assign the angels to you, and go to God for you, I'm not going to say anything. You're lock jawed with me down here: it's going to be quiet about you up there. According to Matthew 10:32, when we do not confess him, Jesus is listening. And what we say here controls what he does up there. The point is this: confessing Christ on the earth might cost you for the moment, but denying him may cost you for eternity.

So here's my challenge to you: let's quit talking about what's going on in this world and start telling the world who Christ is and what he's done. What would happen if every person in this church, if every person in every church, if every individual who believed in Jesus Christ, stopped talking about what was going wrong in the world and took the same amount of effort and the same amount of energy and started telling people what Jesus Christ has done? Instead of, "Hey, did you hear what the government did" what if they said, "Let me tell you who Jesus is and what he's done"?

What if you went out today and said, "I want to tell you about a Savior, a Savior who forgave me when I didn't deserve it: a Savior who paid the price for my salvation and died in my place: a Savior who dropped all of the charges that were held against me, and he set me free"? "For whom the son sets free is free indeed. Not only am I free today, but I'm an heir and I'm a joint heir with Jesus. I'm a child of the king. The royal blood of heaven is flowing in my veins. Let me tell you: when the doctor diagnosed me, Jesus healed me. When I couldn't see the way, he made the way".

Child of God, don't waste your life worrying about the world! Give your life to Christ and overcome the world! When you're confessing him down here, he's confessing you up there. And he goes to the throne, and he says, "Dad, let's do something for them today. Let's open up the windows of heaven and pour out blessings upon them today. Let's make a way where there seems to be no way today. Let's do something miraculous in their life today. Because when we move down there in that group of people, they go out and tell everybody that they can who we are and what we've done. Angels, come over here. We're going to make them the head and not the tail. We're going to make them above only and not beneath. We're going to break chains of oppression. We're going to remove yokes and burdens. We're going to do great and mighty things, and tell every power and every principality to take their hands off of my children, because when they're talking about me down there, I'm doing something for them up here"!

Can we stand in the presence of the Lord? With every head bowed and every eye closed, you're here today, and you say, "Pastor, I have not professed Christ the way that I should. I've received him but I haven't told others about him". Others of you in this room can say, "Pastor, I've never professed Christ, because I've never received Christ. I've never received him as my Lord and I've never received him as my Savior, but today I wanted to do that, so that as I start talking about him here on this earth, he's talking about me in heavenly places". If that's you today, and you want to receive Christ before we leave this service, would you raise your hand right where you are? I want every person in this room to raise their hands and repeat this prayer with me:

Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for being my redeemer. Thank you for setting me free from the chains and the bondage of sin. Forgive me for not telling everyone, every chance that I get, who you are and what you have done. Today, father, I commit myself to telling the world who Jesus is and what he's done for me. Father, as I confess you on this earth, I'm asking you to confess me before the throne: that I may receive your will, your blessings, your goodness in my life, in Jesus' name. Amen.

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