“IF”…is a tiny word that can either inspire or destroy hope.  What does “if” mean”?  It is a word that denotes a condition being met before something else will transpire. “If” you do this, then I will do that. For example, a man might say to a woman, If you marry me, I will take good care of you. That statement will inspire hope of a good future in the woman “if” she trusts his word. Another scenario might be, If you rob a bank, you will go to jail. Now, a person operating in unbelief will go ahead and rob the bank because they don’t believe they will go to jail.  But they always end up going to jail anyway, don’t they?  Why? Because some things work that way whether you choose to believe or not.  Take gravity for example, you may not believe in gravity at this particular moment, but let me hold a bowling ball above your foot, and “if” I drop it, in about one second you will become a believer in gravity. Well, think of God like that.
Atheists don’t believe in God, so they don’t think God exists.  Well, God doesn’t believe in Atheists, so does that mean they don’t exist?  You see, what you believe doesn’t change the truth, because truth never changes.  God does exist, and so do Atheists.  No matter how hard Atheists may wish God into non-existence, they cannot wish Him away.  The only thing they accomplish is they miss out on the blessings God has for mankind.  And their belief probably started with “IF”. If God exists, why doesn’t He end all the suffering? They see the suffering all around them and conclude God must not exist, for if He is real, and if He is good, then why would He not stop everyone from suffering?  But the other side of the “IF” is being ignored.
Does everyone here know what a “teeter-totter” is?  They are still sometimes found on children’s playgrounds, and typically one child gets on one end, and another on the other end, and they take turns going up and down.  Now, if you put a real heavy child on one end, and a real light child on the other, the light child will go up, and the heavy child will go down, once, and stay there, because the lighter child has not the weight to bring their end down, thus pushing the other end up.  That’s another way of looking at the word “IF”, maybe a bit odd, but stay with me.
God says MANY times in the Bible, IF you do this, I will do that.  Now, going back to the teeter-totter, I’m going to bring faith into the picture here and put faith on one end of the teeter-totter.  And on the other end, I’m going to put whatever it is that you have need of; you fill in the blank.  That can be healing, finances, a home, a job, salvation of a loved one, just use your imagination.  So, here we have your need on one side of the teeter-totter, and your faith on the other end.  Which side is sitting on the ground, that is, on the heavy end?  probably your need, right?  What’s going to make your need move?  Your faith, if it’s heavy enough, that is.  Oh, there’s that “IF” word that I managed to wiggle in there.
Now, the ideal situation is that when you’ve put the need, meaning the problem, on one end, the moment you apply the faith on the other end, the problem should move, and it WILL, “IF” the faith is bigger than the problem.  If it isn’t, the problem will just stay planted right where it is.  And that’s where most people live, they have the problem, and they’re TRYING to get faith to move the problem.  I’ve often said, you can’t move a thousand dollar problem with fifty cent faith.  How do you get faith that will move the problem, no matter how big the problem is?  Guess what?  You already have it.  Learning to use it is another matter altogether.  But it’s as simple as 123, Romans 12:3, that is.
Rom 12:3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
God has already GIVEN you the faith to move any mountain in your life.  Note that it does not say “according as God hath dealt to every man “A” measure of faith”, because if it did, then it would be possible that I have more faith than you do, or that you might have more faith than I do.  But rather, it is written that every man has been dealt “THE” measure of faith, meaning there is only ONE measure, and YOU have it.  It is the same measure that God dealt unto Christ Jesus when He came to earth in the form of a man.  One rule applies to all, even to Jesus, because He came to earth in the flesh as a man.  Now….how come Jesus got such results with HIS faith, and as a rule we DON’T?  That’s a fair question, wouldn’t you say?
It’s because Jesus had something we lack: He had (and has) absolute trust in His heavenly Father, and truthfully, we struggle with that, don’t we?  Those things that were written in the Word of God, Jesus accepted as true, immoveable, irrevocable facts, and that was just that, period.  But with us?  Well, it’s a little squishy there, kind of subject to what the particular circumstances look like, or what kind of mood we’re in, or how we feel, or what someone ELSE says it is, or should be.  Admit it, we’ve ALL been there, done that.  When Jesus and sickness met on the old teeter-totter, Jesus always planted himself and was immoveable, and sickness?  Well, it had to go, because Jesus and His faith wasn’t going anywhere.
That’s the very faith God gave YOU and ME, so that when we are confronted with the junk the devil tries to destroy us with, we are SETTLED, UNMOVEABLE, AND STEADFAST.  We THINK we are, we HOPE we are, but are we?  Well, we aren’t the only ones suffering that problem.  Let’s read about it in Mark chapter nine:
Mar 9:17  And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
Mar 9:18 And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.
Mar 9:19 He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.
Mar 9:20 And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.
Mar 9:21 And he asked his father,How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
Mar 9:22 And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
Mar 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Mar 9:24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
Mar 9:25  When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.
Mar 9:26  And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.
Mar 9:27 But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.
Mar 9:28  And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?
Mar 9:29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
Here we have a situation where a man was seeking the disciples to cast a devil out of his son, and they could not get the job done.  So the man came to Jesus and after telling Jesus all about the problem, and how bad it was and how it had been there since his son was a young child, and that the disciples couldn’t help, he said to Jesus, IF you can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.  So Jesus took the man to the teeter-totter, and the man set his big old “IF” on one end, and Jesus said to him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Well, the man’s “believe” wasn’t big enough to move the “IF” on the other end, so he had a problem.  What happened next? The man humbled himself before God.   And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. He confessed he realized his “believe” was really “unbelief”.  That’s where to start when you’ve prayed and not gotten any result.  You see, the problem is never on God’s end, it’s always on OUR end.  It’s always God’s will to heal, regardless of what you’ve heard in church or from someone who wasn’t healed.  Jesus CLEARLY demonstrated it’s God’s will to heal, because He never refused to heal anyone who came to Him..EVER!!!!
So, what happened? When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.  And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.
The conclusion? “IF” always has two sides, IF you believe and take God at His Word and act according to the condition God put forth with the promise, you will always receive.  And “IF” you don’t, you won’t receive, plain and simple. Deuteronomy 28 is the best example of “IF” in the Bible. If you do what God says, you will be blessed for it, and verses 1-14 describe those blessings.  And if you don’t, verses 15-68 will be the result. It’s all about “IF…” isn’t it?