King for the Uncertain

Mark 9:14-29

Transcript

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Well, good morning, church family. It's good to see you again. It's a pleasure and honor just to be with you and to stand before you as always. And thank you for this opportunity to just speak the word to you. It's truly an honor. Thank you for your patience with me. And so if you'll turn with me to Mark chapter 9, be continuing our Mark series this morning. And we'll be looking at verses 14 through 29 this morning. And if you recall the past few weeks, Jesus' focus in his ministry has been shifting from the masses to the large crowds. And it shifted more towards building up and preparing his disciples. Specifically that they begin to clearly understand who Jesus is, what his mission is, and how Jesus is forming them and helping them to become disciples of himself, of Christ. So in chapter 8, we saw a clear proclamation of Jesus' identity from Peter, where Jesus asks him, Who am I? And he responds, You are the Christ. So they've begun to understand his identity. Now what they're having trouble with is his mission, as we saw from the following passages, where Jesus is explaining his death and resurrection, and they aren't exactly understanding the mission of Jesus. And what how did Jesus respond? Get behind me, Satan. Right? Inferring that the notion of Jesus not going to the cross was satanic. Not dying, not rising from the dead. And last week, as Jesus brought Peter, James, and John to the top of the mountain, where he was gloriously transfigured, as Drew walked us through, you know, Elijah and Moses appeared, God speaking from the clouds, unmistakenly confirming that this is the Son, this is his son. Even in that glorious moment, they're trying to manage the moment, as Drew talked about. They're trying to bring to reality their understanding. Like, you know, let's set up camp here. You know, I'll make a tent for each of you, and we, you know, we don't even have to go back down to the valley. We can just stay up here. Um, but that wasn't Jesus' plan, right? And as they're coming down the mountain, they're still kind of pondering, what does he mean, rise from the dead? Um, what why must Elijah come? So this brings us to our passage this morning where Jesus and Peter, James, and John, they're descending down the mountain back to the valley where the other disciples are, where Jesus has an important lesson for them about faith, especially in the midst of uncertainty. As such, it's also a lesson for us. So if you'll stand with me, we're gonna read Mark chapter 9, verses 14 through 29. So starting in verse 14, he says, And when they came to the disciples, that is, they're coming down the mountain, two of the other disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, What are you arguing about with them? And someone from the crowd answered him, Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute, and whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able. And he answered them, O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me. And they brought the boy to him, and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked the father, How long has this been happening to him? And he said, From childhood, and it has often cast him into fire and into water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, If you can, all things are possible for one who believes. Immediately the father of child cried out and said, I believe, help my unbelief. And when Jesus saw that the crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out. And the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. Let's pray. We come before you as the fellowship of the body of Christ and the fellowship of your word, Lord, and your truth. That we see ourselves in it, that we see how you're speaking to us, Lord, that you are bringing conviction, that you are bringing wisdom and discernment, Lord, and that you are speaking through me as a vessel now, Lord. So Lord, as we just dwell in this moment and this time of communion with each other and with your word, and as we partake in communion later, Lord, Lord, help us to have our mind on you. And Lord, help us to perceive clearly your presence and the working of your spirit in us as we are walking through this passage, Lord, and what you are teaching us about faith and about dependence and uncertainty and disciplines, Lord. Um that you be shaping our life and our mind and our priorities and our desires, Lord. Um that you are bringing transformation to us this morning through this word. And it's in the name of your Son, Jesus, that we pray. Amen. So there are two parallel passages for this event. Uh one found in Matthew 17, verses 14 through 20, and Luke 9, 37 through 43, some additional details, and I'll be referencing those a little bit. But Mark's account of this event is actually the most detailed. We get the most details of this event from Mark's account. Now, what may stick out to you as the main point of interest in this passage is the exorcism of the demon and the healing of the boy. We've seen that casting out demons and performing healings have become kind of a recurring work uh during Jesus' ministry. But this is actually the last exorcism that we'll see in the book of Mark. And while demonstration of the divine power and authority of Jesus is clearly portrayed here and worthy of that recognition, I don't think that that's the primary purpose or lesson that this event is communicating to the disciples and now to us. Jesus uses this event to address the dreadful reality of unfaithfulness or self-dependence that we're all susceptible to. And also, let's just note the contrast between the setting of this passage and the one prior on the mountain. They were just on the mountain of glories, and now they are moving into this the valley of agonies, it seems. Failed healing, um, demonic possession, where there was a father celebrating his son on the mountain. Here we see a father mourning and broken for his son. And where where God was dominating in glory on the mountain, Satan is dominating in the valley here, with control over this boy and the failed exorcism from the disciples who who didn't go up, and you know, they're arguing. There's disunity, there's shame, there's embarrassment. Um we're really moving from glory to suffering here. Now, if you're Peter, James, or John who are coming down the mountain with Jesus, you're probably tempted to think, oh, back to reality. You know, um, man, I really wish Jesus would have let Peter make those tents. Well, he would still be up there. Um, but what we see here is a picture of Jesus' mission, and they're missing it. Jesus' plan wasn't to create as much glory and comfort for him and the disciples, um, because the truth is, Jesus has already left something a lot more glorious than what was happening on that mountain. He left it for them and he left it for us, as Philippians 2 talks about. He left the glories of heaven for us. Heading back down into the valley, heading back down to the people, heading back to his mission and to people in need, and ultimately toward the cross. That is why Jesus descended. So stepping into this scene, we come to our first point this morning, which will be the collapse of self-reliance. So at the foot of the mountain, they they find a large crowd of people mixed in, are the scribes and the disciples, and they're they're arguing. There's this disunity, there's this clamoring. And the crowds were there to receive from Jesus, and the scribes were no doubt there to scrutinize Jesus, to challenge his identity and his authority, and to the likely disappointment of both the crowd and the scribes, they only find some of his disciples. You know, Jesus isn't there right now. But as they come down the mountain, when they screw the crowd finally sees Jesus, Mark says that they were amazed and that they ran to him. Now, it's unlikely that this amazement was attributed to some kind of divine glow emanating from Jesus, similar to Moses' shining face when he was coming down the mountain in Exodus. And that's because it would seem quite contradictory to his request for them to not tell anybody about what had happened on the mountain until his resurrection. It would be contradictory if he brought down with him some kind of external public display of divinity. Although it's not impossible, but I don't think we we can discern that from the text. But more than likely, they were excited to see Jesus because what the other disciples had been doing was frankly unexciting. As we read on, Jesus steps in and asks, What are you guys arguing about? What is going on here? Most likely directed to the disciples who were arguing with the scribes, but maybe also the crowd. But notice who answers Jesus. It wasn't the disciples, it wasn't the scribes. I mean, the scribes likely preferred to just keep arguing with the disciples because they have a better chance at twisting them and besting them and getting the gotcha moment, right? And the disciples are probably discouraged. As someone from the crowd answers Jesus and says, Teacher, in Matthew's account says, Lord, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able. Secondly, we are helpless on our own to fight the supernatural powers of the demonic. And this was the dreadful reality that the disciples found themselves in. This father had brought his son to Jesus only to find some of his disciples, and he thought, maybe they can help. Will you help me, please? Can you do something? And what did the disciples say? What do they do? I'm sorry, we can't do it. They couldn't help this father. They couldn't help the boy. They had failed. That's just that's discouraging. But if you recall in chapter 6, when Jesus sent them out two by two for their first missionary journeys, apart from Christ, we're told that they cast out many demons. So what happened? What's going on here? Let's continue reading. The Father says to Jesus that he asked the disciples to cast them out, the demon out, but they were not able to. And Jesus says, Oh, faithless generation, Luke adds, twisted generation. How long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? We kind of read that and think, well, that's not very Jesus of you, Jesus, uh, to say that. Um this oh faithless, this oh is it's an emotional expression. It's not just a greeting. You know, Jesus is expressing his anguish at the unfaithfulness on display here. So who is this faithless generation? Is it the disciples? Is it the scribes? Everyone? Uh and I commentators are split on this for this passage, but in Matthew's account, um, Jesus explicitly tells them that they failed because of their little faith, which we'll touch upon later. But the disciples, especially here, to have walked with Jesus as closely as they had, to have seen and heard and learned what they had, their lack of faith was inexcusable at this point. After everything Jesus has shown them and taught them, he's dealing with their spiritual short-sightedness on the mountain, and now the lack of faith in the valley here. And certainly Jesus' heart was filled with compassion for sinners and the needy and the faithless, and of course the disciples. But that doesn't mean he's always pleased with them and their actions and their heart and their faith. So Jesus here, he's rebuking this up and down faith of the disciples. It's like one moment you're up, the next moment you're down, like this is unacceptable. Now, perhaps the abilities they had when they went out two by two had maybe gone to their head a little bit. Maybe they've been puffed up and they were, they were operating from this ability in themselves. Oh, yeah, I've done this before. I'm a disciple of Christ. Stand back while I do this. Me. I can do it, I've done this, it's it's it's me. You know, that that's kind of where the text is kind of naturally leading us to suspect that they're full of faith when they're with him and when they feel motivated and dependent on Jesus, but when they're absent from him, lapsing in trust, lapsing in dependence on God, you know, they fail. See, Jesus is trying to form them to live as his disciples apart from him. They need to be prepared for that because that is imminent, that Jesus will not be with them. To get them to walk by faith and not by sight, as Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5 7. That is how a disciple lives and walks. You know, Jesus won't be with them forever. Um, since Jesus was absent, they were presented this opportunity to walk by faith. And this was a lesson that they needed to learn as much as we do. Because when we try to live as disciples of Christ without renewing our minds or our faith or our dependence on Christ, all those fade. Their dependence on Christ fades, and the truth of Christ is dimmed in our life. And we begin to fall into patterns of living and thinking that one who dishonors Christ, because to neglect Christ and our spiritual renewal is to determine Christ as unworthy of our time and priority. It also hurts your testimony and image of Jesus for others. Because of this disciples' self-reliance here, that we'll continue to unpack, they damage the reputation of Christ. And it's it wouldn't be surprising if people in the crowd say, oh, they failed to heal that boy. Maybe the disciples in Christ aren't really who people say they are. It also brings discouragement. Think about this from the disciples' perspective. You know, they're feeling pressure from the crowd, having failed to heal the boy, they're embarrassed, they're being harassed by the scribes, pointing out their lack of authority, facing disappointment from the people, especially the father. It seems natural for them to start thinking, maybe I'm not capable for this, after all. Maybe life as a disciple really isn't for me. Maybe Jesus has the wrong guy. Maybe I'm a failure. This kind of thinking does not result from a faithful dependence on God. This discouragement, this damaged testimony, and dishonor to God comes from the Eventual collapse of self-reliance that the disciples were now facing. You see, our faith must be continually renewed. Not to say that your salvation needs to be renewed, rather, your faithful dependence on God. Because faithful dependence is not a one-time fill-up that sustains your spiritual well-being and dependence on God for your entire life, right? The disciples couldn't live off of their past accomplishments and spiritual high of past events. They need a daily renewal, daily dependence. Isaiah 26, 3 says, You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts you. Or do you show up on Sunday and then and then go into the week, not giving any intentionality towards your renewal and your dependence on God? We are a people who strive for continual renewal in Christ. So that whether we're on the mountaintop or in the valley, facing sorrow, we can stand firm in our faith. So moving on in the narrative, we come to our second point, which is the paradox of belief. Now, in Jesus' disappointment, he says, bring the boy to me. And there's something about that phrase. I feel like I could preach a sermon on that phrase. Bring the boy to me. Bring him to me. I am capable. I am the source of life and renewal. As they're bringing the boy to Jesus, the demon immediately throws the boy to the ground, convulsing, rolling around, foaming at the mouth. The demon simply cannot deny or withstand the power and authority of Jesus. But prior to healing the boy, Mark adds the detail that Jesus asks the father, How long has this been happening to him? The father says, this has been going on since childhood. The demon throws him into fire and water, trying to burn him, drown him, destroy him. I mean, this child is literally trapped in his own body, unable to speak of the horrors he's facing, and unable to hear the comforting love of his father. Now Jesus didn't, Jesus didn't need to know any details or history about the boy to heal the boy. So why is he asking this question? And I think that there's a takeaway here, especially for solution-oriented people such as myself, as my wife can attest to. Jesus doesn't treat the boy and his father as just another problem to solve, but a people to love. He doesn't even have to know anything about the boy. He didn't even have to be there, as we have seen before. He can heal from anywhere in the world, for anywhere, for anyone. But he had compassion on the child. And he desired to hear the heart of the father for his child. I think we would benefit from this example in our relationships, in our marriages, because ask yourself the question. When others are sharing with you, whether it's a friend or your spouse or a family member or a loved one, whoever it is, are you a person who primarily listens for problems and offers solutions? Or do you listen for emotion and respond with acknowledgement and sympathy? I think we would do very well to adopt this compassion and sympathy of Jesus and not simply listen for problems so that we can offer solutions. That is a lesson I need. The Father continues in his response to Jesus saying, but if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Now, before we get to Jesus' response, we can already perceive that this is a pretty weak statement of faith. I mean, if you can do something, I'd really appreciate it. This stands in a stark contrast to the leper back in chapter 1, in verse 40 through 41, who says, And the leper came to him, imploring him and kneeling to him. He said, If you will, you can make me clean. Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said, I will be clean. Now for the Father in our passage this morning, Jesus' response is a bit different. He doesn't say, I can be clean, be exercised, be free. He says, if you can. Now this isn't a question that Jesus is expecting an answer to. This is a rhetorical question. He's expressing astonishment. If you can, all things are possible for the one who believes. So what is Jesus saying here? If you that you believe in Jesus, you can just do anything that you set your mind to? Well, the question that we should be asking is all things possible in your will and ability if you believe? Or all things possible in God's will and ability if you believe? I think it's the latter. Because many, many Christians are ready to wield this verse to make possible their own will and their own accomplishments and their own ability. But the true meaning is this do you have faith that the Lord can do it? That the Lord's will can be done despite your circumstances. If you believe that the Lord can do it, then anything is possible. Jesus' words here cause honest reflection and confession in the Father who cries out, I believe, help my unbelief. Can we just? I just want to amen that passage. I mean, um, how relieving it is to read that. That's me. Is that you? I believe. Help my unbelief. I can just give that a sigh of relief. How refreshing. It's difficult for me to think of a verse more relatable than this. And what this is assuring us of is that faith is not always free of doubt. Belief doesn't entail the total elimination of unbelief. That's the paradox of belief. Faith in obedience to Jesus does not require certainty or even full comprehension. That's a gradual part of sanctification and learning about God. But if we take a step back and see the big picture of where we are in Mark, Jesus' mission now is discipleship. Forming these 12 men into disciples, and now us into a people who believe Jesus, follow Jesus, and join him on his mission. You know, this will require faith and obedience, especially in the face of uncertainty or unbelief. Uncertainty about the next step, uncertainty about the best way to share the gospel with these people or that person, uncertainty about the best words to use. I mean, these are we we all resonate with this kind of uncertainty. And I'm sure the first century did too. The apostles. However, we love certainty. I need to be certain of my plans. I need to be certain of what people think of me. I need to be certain that this is going to happen. I need to be certain I'm saying the right thing. I need to be certain I'm taking the right step for me. I need to know that I know that I know. And if I don't, what happens? Well, in some cases, nothing happens. Because we become paralyzed in uncertainty. And in most cases, the the weight of anxiety often follows this uncertainty, which has the power to cripple us mentally and physically and spiritually. If you really think about it, I mean, we we make an idol out of certainty, knowing that I know that I know. Now, we must be responsible of our time and schedule, right? Men, it's a good thing to have a calendar. Coming from someone who didn't have a calendar before I was married, calendars are good. But, Christian, if you administer your life such that you can be certain of everything, you will find yourself living a life where circumstances where trust is required become very infrequent. And you therefore find that trusting in God happens infrequently. And when we aren't trusting in God, who are we trusting in? Are we walking by faith or by sight, then? Or we could say by faith or by certainty. Are we living as disciples of Jesus or kings and queens sitting on the throne of our hearts? We love certainty. But we haven't been called to certainty. For unbelievers, those who say, I can't believe in Jesus unless I can be absolutely certain he was who he said he was, that he rose from the dead. It needs to be proven with absolute certainty beyond any doubt. Nor can I believe the triune God because I can't comprehend the Trinity. That doesn't make sense. I can't comprehend it. Well, the truth is we all arrange our lives around decisions made without certainty or full comprehension. You don't need to fully comprehend brain surgery to get on the table and trust that it's going to work. You can't be certain that that person isn't going to run the red light when you're going through the green light. You can't be certain that your spouse loves you. That's not a tangible thing you can hold in your hands. But it is reasonable to believe that someone won't run that red light. It is reasonable to believe that your spouse loves you because of what they say and what they do and how they commit themselves to you. The same is true for faith in Christ. We have a plethora of reasonable evidence to believe in Jesus. We have a reasonable faith. For if it was certain beyond all doubt, then faith wouldn't be necessary. Faith is also not believing without evidence. Hebrews 11:1 gives us a definition of faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. We worship Jesus who we have not seen. We submit to a spirit we have not seen. We hold to a resurrection that we have not seen. My faith is a conviction, an assurance of things unseen, but that are reasonable. Although unseen, there is good reason to believe in Jesus, good reason to hope in him. He is our only hope in life and death. The words of this father are somewhat a theology of Christian living. That we are called to faith in obedience in the face of uncertainty, in the face of unanswered questions. You see, your growth in Christ will require obedience even when you don't feel it, even when you don't understand it, you don't have it all figured out, you aren't confident when you're burnt out, when you cry out. Help my unbelief. Help my lack of trust in you. Lord, I love you, help my apathy towards you. Lord, I will obey you, help my idleness. Lord, I want you, help my indifference towards you. This is the Christian life. And how does Jesus respond to this kind of faith? A faith that says, I believe, help my unbelief. Does he turn the father and this child away and say, Come back when you've got a little bit more faith? Reading in verse 25 of Mark 9. And when Jesus saw the crowd come, came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out. And the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and arose. Yes. Was the father's faith perfect? No, far from it. Jesus equally healed the leper who said, You can, will you? Equally healed the father's child who says, Can you? I believe, but help my unbelief. Jesus heals them both. And by just his word, this demon is expelled from the boy immediately and permanently. And appearing lifeless on the ground, Jesus makes the boy whole again and gives him to his father. See, the lesson here is it's not about the potency of your faith, it's that you have it at all. Jesus calls us to a sufficient faith, not a perfect faith. We don't need certainty, perfection, or even full comprehension to come to Jesus today and to continue to come to Him as His disciples. May each of us cry out to God with a broken and contrite heart, like this Father, seeking how we can grow, that our unbelief can be helped. So the crowd is pressing, the boy has been healed, and Jesus and the disciples now retreat to a house, which brings us to our closing point. The necessity of disciplines. So Jesus and the disciples they convene privately in this house, and there's a pressing matter on the disciples' hearts. Why couldn't we do it? Why did we fail? I think there's a lesson here in just their response. You know, failure and inability should always cause us to ask questions about ourselves, not pointing the finger or second-guessing God, right? This introspection is found in the disciples, but what they're blind to is their sense of independent strength and ability. He says in verse 28, and when he had entered the house, the disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. This kind is likely referring to categorically to demonic possession and influence, although some would say that this was just an especially tough demon. And depending on your Bible translation, yours may say prayer and fasting. Now, the reliability of this passage is certainly not in jeopardy. The majority of ancient manuscripts of this passage include and fasting. But the two earliest and generally considered best manuscripts that we have, manuscripts again is a the handwritten passage that we cut that comes to us from early centuries. The two earliest and deemed best manuscripts on this passage don't include it. So some scholars deem that it's not part of the original text. But so yours may include it or exclude it, depending on if your translation draws from what they would call the critical Greek text, which prioritizes early manuscripts, or the majority Greek text, which is what does the majority say? But regardless of translation, Jesus' point is consistent. You will never have authority apart from me to command and subdue the spiritual enemy. You will always have to depend on me. Perhaps Jesus is inferring that prayer was absent from the disciples' effort to expel the demon from the boy. This can only be done with prayer. And if you failed, what does that say about your prayer? Whether we step into ministry or we step into the spiritual battlefield of our day, if we go in the power and confidence of ourselves, we have already lost the battle. Our faith and dependence on Christ is brought to action through spiritual disciplines such as prayer and scripture meditation and memorization and fasting or other spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines such as these, they're the means God has given us to bring the supernatural into the natural. And they must be a priority in your life and in my life. The discipline of prayer is 1 Thessalonians 5 says, rejoice always and pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. There is a, the enemy is like a lion seeking whom he may devour. How can we stand a chance without prayer? The discipline of scripture meditation and memorizations, Colossians 3, 16 says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Make its home in you, make its home in your mind. Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Fasting, we don't have as a direct command in scripture for fasting, but as we discussed back in Mark chapter 2, fasting is about giving the Lord your full attention and devotion, just like any of the other spiritual disciplines. Being a disciple and waging war on the flesh and the spiritual enemy requires us to arrange our lives around Christ with spiritual disciplines being ingrained deeply in our habits and our thinking and our relationships and our lifestyle. This is the life we must live. If we hope to overcome temptation, self-dependence, and our spiritual enemy, we must live a life by spiritual disciplines. They are the means that God has given us, again, to bring the supernatural into the natural. When we pray, when we allow the word to refresh our minds, renew our minds, the knowledge of Christ, to permeate our conversations. That is bringing supernatural into those conversations. I'll invite the band back up as we close here. As previously mentioned, Matthew's account in chapter 17, verse 20, gives more details on Jesus' answer to the disciples' inquiry. Why could we not do it? In Matthew's account it says, why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move. And nothing will be impossible for you. What Jesus does not say is, well, you couldn't do it because of your little experience. You couldn't do it because your little talent. You couldn't do it because your little reputation. He says, because of their little faith. Not that they had no faith at all, but because they had drifted into this self-reliance. Oh, I can do that. I can do this. I've done this before. I can do it again. They drifted into self-reliance rather than trusting in God. Jesus was not looking for a great faith or a perfect faith or a complete certainty. He was looking for mustard seed size faith, which is a very small seed. Do you trust in him with the faith the size of a mustard seed, or are you leaning on your own ability, your own understanding? Now, neither is he speaking literally about rearranging geography by faith. The point he is making is that there are things in life that you cannot and will not be able to change or accomplish simply by natural means. But faith, the size of the smallest seed, is sufficient for the working of God to be present in your life and to do anything. So I ask you to close your eyes and bow your heads as we step into a time of invitation and Christian, the call of discipleship is not be strong enough, be certain enough, be impressive enough, figure it all out. The call is depend on Christ. Trust in Christ, abide in Christ, walk in Christ. Because there are things in your life that cannot be overcome by natural strength, your own ability. You cannot defeat sin in your own power. You cannot sustain your spiritual life in your own power. You cannot overcome temptation in your own power. You cannot faithfully discipline your children, love your spouse, serve your church, endure suffering, battle anxiety, resist the enemy, or remain faithful to Christ in your own strength. It comes from a broken and contrite heart. Lord, I can't. But you can, God. So like the disciples, eventually self-reliance collapses, and maybe some of you are there right now. You're exhausted, you're anxious, you're discouraged, you're spiritually dry. You're trying to carry things in your own strength. Maybe your prayer this morning simply needs to be, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Lord, I trust. Help my desire to control. Some of you maybe need to repent of self-reliance. Maybe need to stop waiting for certainty before obeying God. Some of you simply need to honestly come before the Lord and say, Lord, I trust you, help me trust you more, because faith the size of a mustard seed is sufficient. Because the power never belonged to you in the first place. For the unbeliever who may be listening, you don't have to have it all figured out either. You don't have to have all the answers. You don't have to be certain. You will never be absolutely certain of much anything. All it takes is the faith of a mustard seed. For you to say, maybe, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. I don't have it all figured out. But what I do know is that I have sinned. And that Jesus died on the cross for that sin, for my sin, and truly rose from the grave. You did that for me, God. Lord, will you forgive me? I place my faith in Jesus, trusting in Him alone to save me from my sin. Jesus, you are the Savior of the world and I believe in you. Help my unbelief. So the invitation this morning is simple. Stop trying to live the Christian life independent of Christ. Come to Him. Depend on Him. Be renewing your mind, renewing your faith, taking steps, even in uncertainty or unknown, for the sake of being an obedient disciple. Return to prayer, return to the Word, return to communion with Christ. So you take as much time as you need to pray, to commune with God. We'll be partaking in communion. So whenever you're ready, those who are believers and place their faith in Christ, I ask that you, when you're finished praying, go and take the elements, and then we'll come back and we'll take communion together. But you take as much time as you need. Come to the altar. If you came to Christ today or want to, don't leave without talking to me or talking to anyone. But this time is yours.