SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: All right, good morning, church.
SPEAKER_01: You doing all right out there?
SPEAKER_01: All right, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: Better enthusiasm than I get sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Jared, as Pastor Greg mentioned to you, I am the young adults pastor here at church.
SPEAKER_01: My wife and daughter and I moved here in the summertime.
SPEAKER_01: So we are uh loving it so far, getting adjusted, and just appreciate the welcoming hospitality and attitudes here in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we felt so loved, so I appreciate you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to share this morning uh about a topic that I think God just dropped into my heart and mind uh for today and maybe for this time in our church.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think you'll see what I mean as we kind of move forward throughout this message and into our scripture today.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to tell you about a man that lived here in Fort Smith.
SPEAKER_01: We've got a historic church, a wonderful legacy that I'm really just starting to get to know and understand about.
SPEAKER_01: So there was a man who was a world champion rodeo steer wrestler.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now I'm from you know McKinney, Texas, okay, and uh there's a lot of concrete there.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a lot of trees or other types of animals besides maybe some indoor dogs.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't, you know, I don't know much about this, but I know that being a world champion at anything is pretty incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And so he was a rodeo steer wrestler, he was also a rodeo clown, and his name was Ken Bowen.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and some of you may know Ken, he was a part of our church, but he wasn't always a part of the church.
SPEAKER_01: And when I came across his story and heard about it, I thought, man, it was too incredible not to tell uh and to tie into our message today.
SPEAKER_01: And so he had a ranch here in town in Fort Smith, and a member of the church here at First Baptist was Ken Bowen's neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and so our pastor at the time at our church was Jay Harold Smith.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you may have heard of, know Jay Harold.
SPEAKER_01: He was what we had talked about a week ago on our podcast, so God's three deadlines.
SPEAKER_01: So he was the pastor at our church at the time, and so this neighbor of Ken Bowen, a member of our church, asked Jay Harold to say, Pastor, will you go and give Ken Bowen a visit?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you think about Ken Bowen, he was a man's man.
SPEAKER_01: A world champion, lived on a ranch, I mean, grizzly, gruff, I mean, anything you can imagine.
SPEAKER_01: Chuck Norris, before you even knew who Chuck Norris was, right?
SPEAKER_01: This was the guy.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can imagine his spiritual condition at the time.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Someone who didn't need God, probably didn't want anything to do with God, who was living and making his own way.
SPEAKER_01: And he was very successful in all aspects of life.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jay Harold said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: As an evangelist at the core, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna visit.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take this opportunity to go out to this ranch and visit this man, Ken Bowen, and see what can happen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Several men in our church before the visit, the night before, prayed all night for this visit.
SPEAKER_01: They knew the importance of the matter, the seriousness of what could happen in someone's life when God transforms it.
SPEAKER_01: And so, as these men were praying all night, and as Jay Harold went to visit the next morning, he was dressed in a new all-white suit.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, I didn't have one to put on this morning, or else I would have done it for you.
SPEAKER_01: But he was dressed in his all-white new suit.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes out to this ranch, and as he's approaching the ranch, there's a bunch of dogs at the ranch, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so they come and they bark, and Ken Bowen comes out and he puts his dogs in his pen, and he's face to face with this pastor from First Baptist Church of Fort Smith in an all-white suit.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Jay Harold says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Ken, I came and I wanted to talk to you about your relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: Can I pray for you?
SPEAKER_01: And Ken Bowen, the grisly, the rough man, this world champion, this rodeo clown, very well known, very famous in this area.
SPEAKER_01: He grinned.
SPEAKER_01: And he smirked and he said, Sure, Pastor, you can pray for me, but you've got to get down on your knees first.
SPEAKER_01: Ken, of course, had on an old pair of blue jeans.
SPEAKER_01: And so right away, Ken got down on his knees.
SPEAKER_01: And he was waiting there.
SPEAKER_01: And he closed his eyes and he was waiting to be prayed for.
SPEAKER_01: And you can imagine Jay Harold was standing there in his new white suit, thinking, pleading with God, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Is there somewhere in Scripture that I can come up with of a prayer offered?
SPEAKER_01: Standing up, maybe I can do this in some other way.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: In that moment, Jay Harold got down and dropped on his knees.
SPEAKER_01: And as he describes it, he could feel the old, muddy, oozy soil coming up into his new white suit.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: In that moment, what happened?
SPEAKER_01: Ken opened his eyes.
SPEAKER_01: He saw this man of God, J.
SPEAKER_01: Harold Smith, on his knees in his white suit, and God used that moment to transform Ken Bowen.
SPEAKER_01: He was radically changed.
SPEAKER_01: God saved him.
SPEAKER_01: Ken cried out to God, right?
SPEAKER_01: God used that moment from Jay Harold.
SPEAKER_01: A moment of humility, a moment of abandon, of care for someone's lost soul, to say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be transformed.
SPEAKER_01: An incredible story about the witness of Jay Harold, but the humility that it took to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Ken became a strong witness for Christ himself.
SPEAKER_01: He established a Christian cowboy camp, right?
SPEAKER_01: He had lots of opportunities over the years.
SPEAKER_01: He even had one opportunity to become the Marlborough man, right?
SPEAKER_01: Cigarettes, but he turned it down.
SPEAKER_01: That was actually, I mean, an incredibly lucrative offer.
SPEAKER_01: But because his life had been changed by Christ so much, he said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I can't lead people into sin if I'm following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So, man, an incredible story about life transformation.
SPEAKER_01: We actually have Ken Bowen's saddle that he used here in the church.
SPEAKER_01: I should have brought it down today, but it's up on the second floor if you ever want to take a look at it sometime.
SPEAKER_01: But man, this is the story of what I think the history of our church is built upon.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel message, and not just our church, but every church through the centuries and years and in every place in the world, the death-to-life story of Jesus breaking in and breaking through.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to ask us this question this morning today, church.
SPEAKER_01: Is this the type of work that we are hungry to be a part of as a church?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Is this what we long for, right?
SPEAKER_01: With so many other good things that we can do, with a lot of other activities and options that we can take part in, that out of everything we do, shouldn't it be pointed back towards helping people enter into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: I think most of us would probably agree with it intellectually, but it seems like such challenging work.
SPEAKER_01: And the question today that I hope to answer from our scripture passage is how can we do this?
SPEAKER_01: How can we be sure that we are a part of God's work of transforming and changing lives?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus wants to invite us in.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he's already done that.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn to Mark chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Mark chapter 9 is where we're going to be at today.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gives us an invitation and a reminder to us to say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: If you want to join in this life-transforming work that I'm doing all across the world and in people's lives, here's how to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Mark chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to start in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: I'll also have some of it on the screen, but I want to set the stage first because we are right in the passage where earlier, right at the beginning of Mark chapter 9, the transfiguration story takes place.
SPEAKER_01: This is the story where Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up to a mountain, and he is transfigured, which simply means that he transforms into something more elevated.
SPEAKER_01: So these three men get a small glimpse of Jesus in a glorified state.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses and Elijah are there meeting together, and so these disciples get this glimpse to affirm and confirm who Jesus is and about his mission.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, they actually hear from God on the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's an incredible experience for these three disciples.
SPEAKER_01: So get that picture in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: The story that we're about to read is where these disciples and Jesus are now coming off of this mountain, quite literally, this mountaintop experience.
SPEAKER_01: Of seeing Jesus, of being with him, of beholding some of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: And as they come down from the mountaintop, these stories are placed together on purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: These are contrasting stories that we're about to read.
SPEAKER_01: We see the glory of the mountaintop, but we're about to read about the chaos of the valley.
SPEAKER_01: And so as they come down into the valley, here's what God's word says in verses 14 and 15 in Mark chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: And when they came to the disciples again, down from the mountaintop experience into the valley, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.
SPEAKER_01: And immediately all the crowd when they saw him were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, let's pause right there again.
SPEAKER_01: They come down from the mountain, they approach this scene of chaos, and you can see why it's chaotic.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That there's a crowd gathered together, they're arguing with one another, the disciples and the scribes.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus must have surprised them as he came down from the mountain, because they're all gathered together in the commotion, and as they see Jesus, they immediately go and surround him.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we continue on, here's what the word says.
SPEAKER_01: And he asked them, What are you arguing about with them?
SPEAKER_01: And someone from the crowd answered him, Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.
SPEAKER_01: And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.
SPEAKER_01: So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.
SPEAKER_01: What's going on here?
SPEAKER_01: What's happening?
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus wants to bring clarity to the situation.
SPEAKER_01: He wants an explanation about what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: And someone pipes up from the crowd, and the person who speaks first and most clearly to Jesus is the man who was the source of the conflict, as we're about to find out.
SPEAKER_01: The person from the crowd that answers him was a father who brought his child to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: A father who brought his son out of desperation.
SPEAKER_01: We learn in the story that there was an evil spirit or a demon that would make him mute and unable to speak.
SPEAKER_01: It would throw him down, it would give him physical manifestation of the demon, what it was doing to him.
SPEAKER_01: He would foam, grind his teeth, and become rigid.
SPEAKER_01: So we see that, man, this father was in a hopeless situation.
SPEAKER_01: That I'm sure at the time, right, if you put yourself in the place of this father, there was no medically known solution for what was happening to his son.
SPEAKER_01: And so he brought him out of desperation to try to find some help.
SPEAKER_01: So you can see and feel some of what the father might have been doing.
SPEAKER_01: And so he brings him to what he thought would have been Jesus, but since Jesus was occupied on the mountain, the father interacted with the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And what we see here is a sad reality is that the disciples were not able to cast it out.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is a significant fact, right?
SPEAKER_01: A detail that we have to pay attention to, because the really interesting thing is that it wasn't always like this, and this is a significant fact because, again, they were arguing with the scribes and the Pharisees, right, at the time, and so we can actually see that this was probably the center of the argument.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Remember, this group of scribes were the ones that were opposed and critical and always judging what Jesus and his disciples were doing.
SPEAKER_01: So essentially they were probably, in my mind, mocking Jesus and mocking his disciples, saying, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is supposed to have all this power.
SPEAKER_01: He comes as the king, he comes as the Lord, but he can't even do, and his disciples can't even do a simple task and cast out a demon and heal a boy and give a father some relief.
SPEAKER_01: You can only imagine what the scribes were pouring out insults to the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: They were probably in an I told you so type of moment.
SPEAKER_01: You see what?
SPEAKER_01: We knew Jesus didn't have this power.
SPEAKER_01: We knew he didn't have what it takes, or his disciples would have what it takes to cast out this demon.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the disciples were embarrassed.
SPEAKER_01: They felt exposed.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the truth, and even the more baffling thing was the fact that happened earlier in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: So in Luke 10, 17, I've got it on the screen for us.
SPEAKER_01: You may remember that Jesus actually sent out 72 of his disciples, right?
SPEAKER_01: And had given them at that point in time authority over evil spirits to preach the gospel in his name.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what happened.
SPEAKER_01: They reported back in Luke 10.17, the 72 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's where the question should come into our minds.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what happened?
SPEAKER_01: Just earlier in the Gospels, we see the disciples with the power and the ability to do this act that the Father wanted done.
SPEAKER_01: But just a few chapters later in the book of Mark, we see that they're void of power.
SPEAKER_01: And so something happened.
SPEAKER_01: Hang on to that question because Jesus is about to tell us.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 19, as we continue on, Jesus, after assessing the situation, after seeing what has happened, after gathering the information, he answered them, Oh faithless generation, how long am I to be with you?
SPEAKER_01: How long am I to bear with you?
SPEAKER_01: Bring him to me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered them, and in this passage, I think this answer goes to all three groups of people.
SPEAKER_01: The three types that he's interacting with here, right?
SPEAKER_01: The first one, of course, a response that Jesus gives to the scribes in the story, saying, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: You have all this learning and understanding, right?
SPEAKER_01: Baked into this question, faithless generation.
SPEAKER_01: You have all the Old Testament, right?
SPEAKER_01: You are my chosen people, and yet you still can't see the Messiah who's standing right in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: To the Father, possibly because his lack of faith that we're about to explore here in a moment, indefinitely to his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: You faithless generation, you've been with me all this time.
SPEAKER_01: I've actually given you the ability and the power to do this, but for some reason, whatever reason it may be, that Jesus will explain to us, in this moment, in this situation, the disciples could not produce the effort that it took would save the boy.
SPEAKER_01: And so all of this frustration that Jesus sees after coming off of this mountaintop experience, descending into the chaos of the valley, this frustration boils over.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, in a sense, has had enough.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, bring the boy to me.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what he says in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: And they brought the boy to him.
SPEAKER_01: And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus asked his father, How long has this been happening to him?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, From childhood.
SPEAKER_01: And it has often cast him into fire and into water to destroy him.
SPEAKER_01: But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pause here for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: As they brought the boy over to Jesus, he started to react immediately.
SPEAKER_01: In that essence, that was the demon reacting.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: The demon knew his time was short, right?
SPEAKER_01: Coming into the presence of the King of Kings with power in abundance, the demon knew, right?
SPEAKER_01: But he was trying to take out all the stops, in a sense, to keep this boy under the snare of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: And for us, we need to realize that any positive progress sometimes that we make in our faith, Satan is doing everything he can to oppose that.
SPEAKER_01: Any positive steps that we or others try to make towards Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_01: His goal, his ultimate aim as Satan is to keep us distracted and away from who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wanted to find out more about his condition as he sees him, so he asked the Father for a few more details.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see even more in the mind of the Father that we can see he was totally at the end of his rope.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We find out not just that this boy was mute and deaf and had some physical conditions, but actually it was worse than that.
SPEAKER_01: That it has often tried to fully destroy the boy, to end his life, to kill him.
SPEAKER_01: It would often cast him into fire or the water.
SPEAKER_01: So imagine the father living in constant fear, not understanding, not knowing when might be the last time he would see his child.
SPEAKER_01: And you can hear the desperation and the defeat in this situation.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if you can do anything, please help us.
SPEAKER_01: The father was out of gas.
SPEAKER_01: He had run out of the energy and the strength to do this on his own.
SPEAKER_01: The father did not have anything left to give to the situation.
SPEAKER_01: He had exhausted all of his own resources, time, money, doctors, you name it.
SPEAKER_01: The father was coming empty-handed and desperate for help.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that Jesus does help.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 23, Jesus said to him, If you can, all things are possible for one who believes.
SPEAKER_01: And immediately the father of the child cried out and said, I believe, help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus saw that a 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: The problem that we see in this passage is never in the power of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He has unlimited resources at his disposal.
SPEAKER_01: Any promise that Jesus makes is as good as done.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus identifies faith as the thing that the man needed more of.
SPEAKER_01: And let me explain this.
SPEAKER_01: Not faith that God wants to give us exactly what we want health, wealth, and prosperity, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is not the type of faith that Jesus was saying to us, but the kind of faith that believes in the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: And in the context of this passage, what we know is that Jesus and God promised us that He wants to deliver people from their sin, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is why Jesus came.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We talk about it every week here.
SPEAKER_01: We preach about it.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a Christian, you live your life.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, to the glory of this truth is that Jesus came to save people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: To rescue people from the kingdom of darkness and to deliver them into the kingdom of light.
SPEAKER_01: This is a promise that we can stand on.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That God wants to accomplish in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That we can do this no other way besides surrendering our life fully to Jesus, to break the chains of people that are suffering under spiritual destruction.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: These are the type of promises that we can count on, know, and believe that are true.
SPEAKER_01: And the Father cried out in this moment when he heard from Jesus, help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: What a statement.
SPEAKER_01: And what an honest admission here.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice this, church, that only a man of faith can say this type of statement, no matter how little faith he may have.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And in that moment we see a paradox.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I believe, but right alongside belief, there is unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: And there needs to be help with his unbelief, even though he has a level of faith and belief.
SPEAKER_01: It is not that he didn't have any level of faith, that he must have had some level of faith in the story anyway, because he brought the boy to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what Charles Spurgeon says: a quote that I found helpful in my reading.
SPEAKER_01: It says, While men have no faith, they are unconscious of their belief.
SPEAKER_01: But as soon as they get a little faith, they begin to be conscious of the greatness of their unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: What a moment here for us to reflect on is that every one of us should be able to resonate with this truth that there are times and moments in our life, if you're honest, that we have doubt.
SPEAKER_01: Doubts and unbeliefs that can surface.
SPEAKER_01: It's human nature and tendency.
SPEAKER_01: If you have doubts, take heart.
SPEAKER_01: You're normal.
SPEAKER_01: And you're in good company.
SPEAKER_01: Look to your right and to your left in front of you and behind you.
SPEAKER_01: Every single person in this room has had moments and will probably have moments in the future of some levels of doubt and unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: But God, thank God, He doesn't cast us away.
SPEAKER_01: You're actually in the company of great men and women of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, to name a few.
SPEAKER_01: Each of these great people of God have had doubts along the way.
SPEAKER_01: And what God says is that in these seasons and in these moments, they can lead to greater faith if we simply cry out in honesty to God, like the Father in the story.
SPEAKER_01: I believe, but help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus, with a demonstration of his power, helps this man's unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus saw the crowd running, but not wanting to deal with the crowd anymore, he delivers the boy.
SPEAKER_01: And then we see in verses 28 and 29, this is how the story ends, and this is where I want to spend the majority of the rest of our time here, because I think God really, you know, put this on my heart today and this week.
SPEAKER_01: It says, and when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out?
SPEAKER_01: The question we've been asking, the question that should be running through your mind, well, what is the difference between earlier in the Gospels and this story where the disciples seemed to have no power?
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Jesus said to them This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So we see in this time of debriefing that the disciples were embarrassed because there was chaos happening as Jesus comes down from the mountain, that they couldn't cast out this demon and were getting embarrassed by the scribes, that Jesus himself calls them out.
SPEAKER_01: And so they wanted answers.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted to learn from their mistake, and so Jesus gives them the answer.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You want to know why?
SPEAKER_01: He says, The reason you could not do it, because this kind only happens by prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Essentially, what Jesus is saying, that certain things can only happen when we pray.
SPEAKER_01: With this statement, Jesus was pointing his disciples back to full dependence on God.
SPEAKER_01: This is essentially what prayer is.
SPEAKER_01: When we pray, we are admitting to God that we do not have this under control.
SPEAKER_01: Within this answer, Jesus is answering the question again, why the disciples couldn't cast out the demon earlier in the story when they could just chapters before?
SPEAKER_01: Apparently, this is the answer.
SPEAKER_01: Apparently, in these moments, the disciples were not fully relying on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They were not engaged in prayer, or as how I'm defining it within this story, full dependence on God.
SPEAKER_01: At some point along the way, listen to this, they had started to rely on themselves.
SPEAKER_01: They had started to rely on their own skills, their own experience, and their own expertise to get them the results they wanted.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure they felt a sense of pride and accomplishment on what had been done before.
SPEAKER_01: They may have rested in the fact that they had done this, that they have it down, that Jesus gave us this power.
SPEAKER_01: So, man, now we just go out on our own and do what we think we should do.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus was reminding them that self-reliance was not the answer.
SPEAKER_01: And so as I was praying, studying, thinking about this passage for our church, and really, I just got to be honest with you, I was preaching this to myself the entire week, and even this morning, here's the question that was resonating within my mind from the truth of this scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And here it is are we satisfied with our effort?
SPEAKER_01: Or are we seeking the work that only God can do?
SPEAKER_01: And if you leave that question on the screen, I want to talk about it a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: When we think back on the passage, this is what happened to the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: There was a point where the disciples received the commission and power from God, right, to go out and do life-transforming work in the name of Jesus to, at the core of all of it, to free people from their sin because of Jesus and because of his sacrifice on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: But not long after they did this with success, they started to operate in their own strength, dependent on their own efforts.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus pinpointed the problem that this prayer or complete dependence, total dependence on God was lacking.
SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned before, prayer is the realization that I, that you, that we as a church do not have the skills, the ability, the expertise, or the resources to do the transformative work of God on our own.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is a state of dependence on God.
SPEAKER_01: When we come to God in prayer, it necessitates humility, right?
SPEAKER_01: It necessitates an attitude of saying, you know what, God, here I am.
SPEAKER_01: In my weakness, in my frailty, in my own flawed thinking, I do not have it together.
SPEAKER_01: We do not have the answers.
SPEAKER_01: We do not have exactly what we need to do this.
SPEAKER_01: And anything that we seek to do in partnership with God needs to have a foundation of persistent prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Now, don't mistake this to think that this glosses over our effort.
SPEAKER_01: All right, these things go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_01: God has a plan to reach the world for Christ, and it's through the church.
SPEAKER_01: And the church is made up of you and you and you and me and us.
SPEAKER_01: Individual people.
SPEAKER_01: But take two people and from the outside looking in, they may look the same, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is what happened to the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We have two instances where it seems as if the disciples are both doing the same type of work.
SPEAKER_01: And they were to a certain extent, but from the outside they looked the same.
SPEAKER_01: They were putting forth the same types of efforts, but here's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: In one of the stories, the one that we read in Mark chapter 9, the disciples' lack of prayer and dependence on God couldn't be visibly seen, but was noticed immediately in the spiritual realm.
SPEAKER_01: And so if we want to test to determine how dependent we are to God and to God, then we have to look no further than our prayer life.
SPEAKER_01: This is a valid spiritual marker to determine our level of dependence.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus identified it himself in the story.
SPEAKER_01: He said that the work that God wants to do that transforms people's lives only happens through prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the scary fact, church, that we're all in danger of, that I'm in danger of every day, is that we can drift into self-dependence very quickly and very silently.
SPEAKER_01: There are many things that can appear to be spiritually successful, but do not have a foundation of dependence on God through the avenue of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We have enough cultural Christianity left in our country, in our state, and in our area for this to be true.
SPEAKER_01: Without realizing it, we can begin to believe that with enough money or enough people or enough strategy or enough hard work, we can handle the work that God wants us to do.
SPEAKER_01: While none of those things are bad in themselves, and I'm a champion of strategy and hard work and money and people, we should be doing those things.
SPEAKER_01: Those things apart or divorced from enduring prayer as a foundation that highlights our dependence on God will not see lasting fruit.
SPEAKER_01: In the end, the Bible says this in 1 Corinthians 3 that the quality of each person's work will be tested.
SPEAKER_01: And it says that the fire will burn up some of this work.
SPEAKER_01: And we, as a church, building on the foundation of Jesus, we want our work to be left.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We want the work that we do in partnership with God not to burn up, not to escape, not to go down in flames.
SPEAKER_01: And the foundation that we do that on is out of full dependence on God.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in light of our scripture and the truth that we talked about today, church, I want to point us towards application.
SPEAKER_01: As I've mentioned before, this was something that God's been convicting me of lately.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope this message is a challenge to us, an encouragement to us to continue in a state of dependence as we move forward with what God is doing within our church.
SPEAKER_01: Man, we see baptisms happening almost every week.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I hear so many good things happening within our church and within our Sunday school classes, within our groups.
SPEAKER_01: I am so happy.
SPEAKER_01: I am so thankful to be a part of a church that is supportive and behind the idea of reaching people for the gospel no matter what it takes.
SPEAKER_01: Let's continue to press into and lay the foundation of total surrender and dependence on God through prayer by advancing the kingdom and seeing God transforms lives.
SPEAKER_01: So, in full transparency, church, God has reminded me of this fact, right?
SPEAKER_01: As we've moved, as we come to a new area, as we've tried to start a new ministry, God is reminding me daily, hourly to enter into times and moments of prayer and dependence on God where I'm crying out in surrender and dependence.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's where I want to land for us today.
SPEAKER_01: There's lots of ways that we could apply this truth, and I'm hoping that as I preach this message for you, God has revealed moments, areas, times, seasons in your life where he's pointing you back to full dependence and surrender.
SPEAKER_01: But a direct application for us to partner together is, man, I would like to invite us as a church into a time of fasting.
SPEAKER_01: Fasting, here's what it does, and it ties right into our message.
SPEAKER_01: It actually intensifies our dependence on God.
SPEAKER_01: This is not required.
SPEAKER_01: No one will be checking on you.
SPEAKER_01: I won't be standing outside of Brahms or La Huerta waiting and seeing, you know, who's going in today, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like, it's not anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: This is a simple invitation for what I think is a pretty direct application to the passage.
SPEAKER_01: If we're serious as a church about God's work in the world and we want to partner with Him to reach this city and beyond for the kingdom, not for our own glory, for God's glory, then man, we have to come back daily, monthly, weekly, whatever it is, to fully depend on God.
SPEAKER_01: And so just know that if you choose to fast, then it will be voluntary, and at least one person will be fasting with you, and that will be me.
SPEAKER_01: But here's just a quick reminder of what we would say.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never had an experience of what a fast is or know what it's about, I've got a quick way on the screen that you can jot down or just focus on.
SPEAKER_01: A fast is this, it's a time where we set aside to focus on God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and in that time of focusing on God, what we're doing and what the Bible prescribes for us is to abstain from food.
SPEAKER_01: And during that time that we're abstaining from food, so let's say it's breakfast that you choose to fast, and I'll give you a date here in a moment where you might choose to fast together with others in our church, is that during that time, we would set that aside to where we normally would have been eating.
SPEAKER_01: We're substituting that time with prayer and study to focus on who God is.
SPEAKER_01: And then during that time, we would see, instead of tasting food, right, God describes this throughout the Bible that we would taste and see that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've never had any experience with fasting, or if you're a seasoned veteran, this can be for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'd encourage you, if you've never done this before, if it's not something for you, start with one meal.
SPEAKER_01: Whether that's breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or some of you may want to take the whole day.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever you're at, on whatever level you're at, I would encourage you to take up this challenge.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the challenge, right?
SPEAKER_01: A set of date.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing special about this date.
SPEAKER_01: On the next screen, I've got it for you.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be this upcoming Friday, April 12th.
SPEAKER_01: So again, optional, completely optional.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to join with us together, some of us in fasting and praying, I would encourage you to do it.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the two things that I've put on this list for us to wrap our minds around, to take to the Lord in prayer if you choose to fast.
SPEAKER_01: The first one would be that, man, direct application from this passage that Jesus says that we would take this time to admit our full dependence on God.
SPEAKER_01: And the second thing that we would do during this time of fasting is that we would ask God to use you and our church body to transform our city for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: So, church family, I would encourage you to let this question resonate within our minds to remind us of God's invitation to complete dependency on Him.
SPEAKER_01: Are we satisfied with our effort or are we seeking the work that only God can do?
SPEAKER_01: Would you bow your heads and pray with me, please?
SPEAKER_01: I want to mention in our church as well, every Sunday morning we give an opportunity for an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: There's some of you in this room that may not know what a relationship with Jesus looks like.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard in this message about the life-transforming work that Jesus does, but you've said, you know what, Jared, I've never experienced Jesus transforming or changing my life.
SPEAKER_01: Today, this Sunday, could be your opportunity to enter into a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: To do that, we'll have ministers at the front of our aisles that would love to talk with you.
SPEAKER_01: So here in just a moment, as our worship team comes, as we stand and sing, you have an opportunity to come and talk to someone about what it means to be transformed by the power of Jesus through repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so I would give you that opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: For the rest of you in our church body, I just ask, man, that you would let God deal with you as He's been dealing with me, to make sure to refocus our minds and our hearts on full, complete surrender and dependence on God.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I thank you for this time together to open your word, to hear the gospel preached, for a reminder and a challenge to us.
SPEAKER_01: As I'm often so challenged, God, that it's so easy to rely on myself in all areas and all avenues of life.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, I just pray for moments for us to be fully and completely dependent on you.
SPEAKER_01: God, that you would help us do that through any means necessary.
SPEAKER_01: God, that as we partner with you for gospel work in our city, you would begin to change lives as you're already doing now, that we see through our baptisms, God.
SPEAKER_01: You would accelerate that.
SPEAKER_01: God, you would expand those efforts, Father.
SPEAKER_01: And that we would do it all through dependency on you through the avenue of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So we just pray all this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.