Pastor Kent Christmas | “The Greatest Enemy of Faith” | January 31, 2024

Pastor Kent Christmas Podcast www.regenerationnashville.org

We’re watching KCMI TV.
I’m glad you joined us today.
And, uh, if you’ve been watching our services online, the last couple of Sundays, we’ve talked about the spirit of Jezebel and the spirit of Leviathan and, uh, truly, to the strongest demon spirits that are in the earth.
Um, I think though that both of these spirits are more um, they’re not targeted so much to the individual as they are to to nations geographical areas.
Uh, to to stop the the intent and the purpose of god in the earth.
But I I also know this that there is another spirit And, um, if you had asked me, Pastor Kent, as a believer, as a Christian, a, you know, a pastor what is probably the number one thing that that you have to fight without question?
I would say the spirit of unbelief.
You know, the Bible says that, uh, the devil is an accuser of the brethren.
And, uh, one verse says there’s, therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
And so when the enemy comes in to accuse us, he’s trying to bring us under a spirit of condemnation because the moment that you feel condemned, you feel disenfranchised.
From being able to claim promises of god.
Uh, and so, obviously, you know, he he’s after our faith, but I can tell you this, The devil is also an accuser of Jesus Christ.
And that’s what unbelief is. Unbelief is not telling you you can’t do something.
Unbelief is telling you that god can’t do it. And the devil is a liar.
And, you know, he started that in the Garden of Eden and challenging the word of god.
And, uh, he he called the lord a liar.
He said, god, you know, they said, god says, we’ll die for it. He says, no, you won’t.
He said, god’s wrong. And so the enemy has always come to challenge, uh, the word of god.
And, um, you know, it’s because unbelief is the only weapon that the devil has that works on faith.
You know, I’ve seen people with center in their life that still had faith that god was gonna do things.
But I can tell you this, there is no weapon the devil has that’s more profound and more proficient at coming against faith.
Than the spirit of unbelief.
And so I I wanna take you just on a little journey today and talk about some of these things I I love, uh, Charles spurgeon, uh, one of the most prolific preachers, uh, of any any century.
And he said this. He said, unbelief is the 1st born son of Satan, and it’s the parent of every other inequity and sin.
In reality, the reason lots of people don’t serve god today It’s because they don’t believe the word of the lord.
And you say, well, pastor, you know, uh, can I go to heaven with unbelief?
Well, let me read you a a verse out of Romans or out of revelations chapter 21.
And First of all, I wouldn’t say I would let you go to heaven without faith, but I don’t make the laws.
God does. Verse 7, it says, he that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his god, and he shall be my son.
The very fact that he says, overcoming means that there are some things that you have to overcome.
You have to triumph over. That there are gonna be some things that are gonna try to overcome you.
But he said, if you will overcome, you’ll inherit all things.
And then he says, but the fearful and unbelieving shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with Fire and brimstone, which is the 2nd debt.
This is not hell. This is what hell is cast into the lake of fire.
It’s after everything has been settled in the courts of heaven God takes the devil, his angels, defaults, profit, the beast, the antichrist, every unbeliever, and he casts all of that into the lake of fire and it’s permanent.
After that, there is no remedy.
So the the lord is very plain here that, uh, if he’s telling us that the unbelieving can be cast into the lake of fire, he’s also telling us that it’s a sin and that where inequity death bound or sin death abound, the grace of god abounds more.
So the lord’s saying there is a remedy for the spirit of unbelief. No Christian has to live in unbelief.
You are powerful in god. I think it’s in Hebrews, the 3rd chapter.
He calls, um, a heart that has unbelief in it. He calls it a evil heart.
And you say, well, why is there such an attack, uh, on us in that realm?
Well, because Um, if you have faith, it opens up a whole new world that you can damage the kingdom of dark Nobody ever advances the kingdom of god without faith.
I’m gonna give you some verses that just talk about what happens when we have faith. Matthew 1926.
With god, all things are possible. Mark 1027, Nothing shall be impossible with god.
Mark 923. All things are possible to him that believe it. Matthew 17 20.
Without faith, nothing shall be or with faith, nothing shall be impossible to you. Luke 137.
For with god, nothing shall be impossible.
One of my favorite verses, Philipp, 413, I can do all things, Sue Christ, which strengthens me in Romans 123 to every man.
Is given the measure of faith.
In fact, one of the gifts of the spirit is the gift of faith.
And so you remember the story where, uh, the disciples had tried to cast the demons out of the boy and Jesus had not been there and he comes back.
And the father says, you know, I brought these my son to your disciples and they can’t do anything.
And then Jesus steps in and just cast that spirit out.
And the disciples, uh, told the lord, they said, you know, why can’t we do this?
And the lord said, because some things come out and buy prayer and fasting.
Excuse me. And, uh, the disciples looked at the Jesus, and they said this, um, lord help us to have more faith.
And the lord looked at him. He said, the issue is not having more faith.
He said you need to deal with your spirit of unbelief because he said you have enough faith.
Faith even the size of the grain of a mustard seed is enough.
So anytime we think that, well, I have faith, but it not enough.
We’re saying, then that god gives us a gift that’s inadequate.
Just a little bit of faith from god is enough to pull down the strongholds of the enemy.
Um belief will derail the purpose of god in your life.
No one ever walks into the fullness of who god has called them to be.
With the spirit of unbelief in their heart.
You go back to, um, you go back to the old testament and you think about the Israelites, Israel was not brought down by adultery, fornication, homosexuality, alcohol, For idolatry.
You know what brought them down? What kept them out of their inheritance?
The Bible said was a spirit of unbelief that when they went in and they saw the land, They were intimidated by the enemy in the size of the giants.
And even though god had already told them, I’m sending an angel before you to drive out your enemies.
When they saw it, they were intimidated to the place of that faith left and the spirit, um, of unbelief Godahold of them.
See, when you get saved, god has your heart.
He and in one place, he said I’m gonna take out the hardest stall and give you a heart of flesh that he gets inside in in that out of the heart, uh, proceeds the issues of life.
That’s where god resides. He resides in your heart.
But when unbelief comes against you, it can’t get in your heart.
You know where it starts? Right here.
It starts in your mind, and the enemy is a master at getting you to hear his line of reasoning.
Why what you’re believing for cannot happen.
And this is this is why Um, I think the number one, the demonic spirit that you and I fight is the spirit of unbelief because unbelief derails everything that god wants to do.
And This is why, uh, lots of people just are always, um, they live in anxiety.
They live in a in a realm of to some degree, torment, because the Bible says this that fear had torment.
And so, uh, fear and unbelief, um, I mean, they walk hand in hand because the moment that um, unbelief can convince you that its argument is correct.
What happens? Fear sets in. Now you’re you’re terrified that you’re gonna die. You’re gonna lose your business.
You’re terrified that The doctor’s report is gonna be the worst, and your mind just begins to go crazy.
And this is why in Corinthians, it says, that we have to cast down every imagination.
God would not tell us to cast down something that wasn’t evil.
You know, he whose mind is state on the lord shall have perfect peace.
So there are realms that god wants your imagination to embrace.
And when you begin to think on the things of the lord and you begin to imagine the greatness of god and how it begins to be greater.
But there are also the enemy uses the mind to begin.
It’s the courtroom of the devil to present his argument that god’s a liar.
And this is why you need the holy ghost to help you because sometimes the enemy will get in your mind and begin to go through the arguments of why god isn’t gonna do anything.
The name of unbelief gets there, and you don’t recognize it at first.
You just begin to go along with it.
And all of a sudden, it might be a half hour later, you realize, what am I doing?
I’m allowing the enemy in my mind to begin to me. Imagine that god cannot come through. No.
You this is why you have to cast them down.
If you’ll cast down the imaginations, which are fostered in the mind.
You’ll keep them out of your heart because I can tell you this.
Once the enemy gets a root in your heart, it’s so difficult to get it out.
First Corinthians 10.9 says, let neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of the serpents.
Uh, what he’s saying here is that the Israelites in not believing god.
They they tested him.
They tempted him And, um, not in the sense of temptation like you and I think that we’re drawn away of our own desires or less.
Remember the story of Joseph.
And, of course, we know Joseph was 17 when he was sold And he’s 30 when he’s promoted to 2nd under federal in Egypt, but he has 13 years that He lives in such dire circumstances, rejected away from home, in prison, accused the rape, Uh, looks like he’s gonna die.
And the Bible says this that the word of god tried Moses.
Sometimes, not the devil will put god on trial to make you think that he can’t do something.
And, you know, in reality, faith is believing for something to happen that in the natural with your abilities is impossible to happen and will never happen.
So then you step over into the realm of the supernatural, hallelujah, and you believe that god even though I know that’s why the Bible says for Abraham when there was nothing to hope for.
Romans chapter 4, there was nothing to hope for in the natural he still believed in hope.
Sometimes god loves us to challenge him. That’s not a temptation to god.
That’s not a testing of god. God loves us to believe.
I believe god’s saying, ask me for the biggest things that you can think of.
And then we step out by faith and declare it.
But then god will test your faith.
He sometimes will allow things maybe to arise that look like, okay.
I thought god was gonna do it when it looked this way, but now I don’t think god can come through.
God, the Bible said that until it came time for the word of the lord to be fulfilled in Joseph, the word of god tried him.
Sometimes and I know this because god under to me.
God will put your faith on trial, and he will challenge it.
And he will allow it to go through maybe some difficult revenue or avenues and and channels just to see if you really believe that gauck can come through.
And so I don’t think that there’s anything that hurts the heart of god more.
You know, I’ve always served the lord and I’ve always tried to be kind to people and do the right thing and have character and integrity.
And I think that most of you that listened to me today would say the same thing.
It’s very difficult to have somebody tell you that you’re a liar when you know you don’t want.
And yet you know what unbelief is in the mouth of the book, Christian.
It’s telling god you’re a liar. See, because god has made us some promises.
He has said some things. He’s told us this is what I will do.
And then unbelief comes in and if if we allow to get on our hearts, then we’re calling god a liar, and that must be so painful, uh, to the lord.
Men, the Bible says lives by every word of god that proceeded from the lord.
We are going to need, um, even more faith than what we’ve had.
I think that that believing over the last 3, 4 years that god was gonna turn things around our nation.
Uh, I still believe that You know, I’m I’m not hurt from the lord prophetically on who’s gonna be president, but I would not be surprised at all if if god does something great and fixes what happened last time.
But, uh, you know, and and in our church, we’re we’re in a realm where Uh, we know that god is gonna come through, but, boy, I tell you what, god loves to show off in the midnight hour.
And, see, that’s the longer god waits, the more your faith is tested.
I wanna challenge you today.
Go to prayer and tell the demon of unbelief I’m kicking you out today and tell god, okay, lord.
I’m gonna believe you for something awesome today because I’m holding you to your word because David said you daily loaded us with benefits, hallelujah.
And, uh, there’s nothing. Oh my goodness. There’s nothing that moves the heart of god.
Uh, I wanna just give you a list here as we’re beginning to wrap this up.
This is why unbelief is so strong in targeting you and me.
Because he’s unbelief is after one thing, one thing only kill faith.
All it’s after is to kill faith. Why would it wanna kill faith?
Because this is what the Bible says about me and you. We’re saved by faith.
We’re justified by faith. We’re sanctified by faith. We’re kept by faith.
We live by faith. We claim by faith.
We overcome by faith, and we fight the good fight of faith.
Do you see why the enemy wants to come in and challenge us when it comes to the word of the lord.
Soon as the the spirit comes against you, you’re telling not today. You’re leaving.
I’m casting you down. Because I believe the word of god will not return it to him, boy.
Well, god bless you. I pray this has put some strength in you. Stand strong. Keep the faith.
I’ll see you next week. For more information about Kent Christmas Ministries International or regeneration Nashville, Go to campchristmas.org or regeneration nashville.org.