SPEAKER_00: So turn in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles with you, we are in the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: We've been going through the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: We're calling it the messy gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Mark is at a transition point.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you haven't been with us, but this is a big transition.
SPEAKER_00: This is the second half of the book starting really last week and this week, in that Jesus knows that his time is short.
SPEAKER_00: And he's changing his message here in Mark.
SPEAKER_00: And just so you know a little bit of the background of Mark, Mark is a disciple of Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And it's going to be important tonight because there's some really interesting stuff here in our passage about Peter.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter is probably dictating information to Mark that he's using in the gospel, which is interesting because Peter, in our chapter we're going to look at, has this one part where he really says some dumb stuff, which is very typical of Peter.
SPEAKER_00: But the fact that it's in there tells you something about the humility of Peter because Mark is getting his information from Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, there's this change.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the change.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been doing miracles.
SPEAKER_00: He's a miracle worker.
SPEAKER_00: He's a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: And he's starting to ask the question: who do people say that I am?
SPEAKER_00: And he asks his apostles, and they give some information.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter's the only one who says, You are the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then he compliments him, you know, only flesh and blood.
SPEAKER_00: Your flesh and blood could not have revealed this to you, but only the Holy Spirit could have revealed this to you.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes and he says, Well, I'm getting ready to go to Jerusalem and die.
SPEAKER_00: And then Peter, the one who gave the confession, turns him to the side and says, Lord, that can't happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's out of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: But then you remember what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at it last week.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Get behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is preparing his disciples for his identity and his suffering, his identity and his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And we come to chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: So we're in chapter 9 of the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Not Luke, Paul.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for last week helping me know where I was supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Assuredly I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's about, he's talking about his transfiguration, which is about to happen in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: But I love this because he says, you are not going to die until you see the coming of the kingdom of God with power.
SPEAKER_00: When we've had all these indications of the kingdom of God coming in power.
SPEAKER_00: This is a huge bridge into the second half of Mark's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, after six days, and I always wonder when I read something like that, what did they do for six days?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, did they go fishing?
SPEAKER_00: That's what I would have done.
SPEAKER_00: Did they go fly fishing?
SPEAKER_00: Um bait fishing?
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what they did during that time.
SPEAKER_00: It says after six days.
SPEAKER_00: I think they rested because Jesus, as you know, has been really on the move up to this point.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus took not everybody, but he took Peter, James, and John.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stop there.
SPEAKER_00: Men.
SPEAKER_00: Let me talk to you.
SPEAKER_00: You need a Peter, James, and John in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to grow as a believer without other men in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't need a lot, but you need a few.
SPEAKER_00: And I think three good friends outside of your family, outside of your wife is huge.
SPEAKER_00: You need three good men.
SPEAKER_00: And here at The Road, we believe in discipling men.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to tell you, I think it's here for more than just the fact that Jesus had three good friends, but that you need three good friends.
SPEAKER_00: And I would challenge you in 2015 to ask God to give you three good men in your life that you can unload with, that you can share with, that you can hang out with, that are that are believers, that are spirit-filled, that are spirit-empowered men, because you know you're up to no good without them.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody go like this if you have a clue what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: You know it's true.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are up to no good if you don't have some men in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that this is typical because we're the road.
SPEAKER_00: I think we're atypical in this regard because we've talked so much about it.
SPEAKER_00: But I would say nine out of ten Christian men can't tell you three men like I just described in their life.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're saying, well, that's me, and you go, then welcome to the party.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's where most men are at.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, man, you need three good men.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus had three good men, Peter, James, and John, and he led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured, metamorphoo, before them.
SPEAKER_00: We believe it was Mount Hermon.
SPEAKER_00: Right in that area is Mount Hermon, the highest peak, 9,230 feet.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't seem very high to us here in Colorado, but that's starting at sea level.
SPEAKER_00: And so starting at sea level, that's huge.
SPEAKER_00: That's massive.
SPEAKER_00: I've been there.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't been on Mount Herman, but we've looked at it when we were in the Goline Heights.
SPEAKER_00: And it's right on the edge of Lebanon, Syria, and the Golan Heights.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, the UN actually has a force up there, the highest uh force in the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's the highest level force uh in the world, the UN up there.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very, very disputed territory, but the southern the southern uh ridges of uh Mount Hermon is in Israel, in the Golan Heights, in that area.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually a ski resort, and 80% of the year it's covered in snow.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a good chance that as they went up there, it's getting chilly.
SPEAKER_00: And they're going up there, and um and and Jesus is transfigured.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting, the word in Greek is metamorphu, where we get the word metamorphosis, and the idea the idea behind uh metamorphu is a transfiguration or a translation from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what's the opposite word?
SPEAKER_00: The opposite word is where we get the word hypocrite or masquerade, hypocrito, which is the idea of outside in.
SPEAKER_00: So everything about Jesus in his character is revealed here.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: It's the opposite of a hypocrite, which is all about face, posing, and masked.
SPEAKER_00: The word hypocrite is where we get the word mask in the Greek drama.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is revealing himself from the inside out, and it's shining, it's shining.
SPEAKER_00: His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launder on earth can whiten them.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to imagine this for a moment with me, church.
SPEAKER_00: There's probably snow on the ground where this occurred.
SPEAKER_00: So he's saying it's whiter than snow.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the contrast to snow is how how streaming out with shining white this is.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine that?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know about you, but I went, like, you know, when you go snow skiing, I wear sunglasses, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you, it's so bright.
SPEAKER_00: Today, Liz and I were alpine skiing on our property, and I needed, I didn't, I wore them, I wore sunglasses because it was bright in the sunny parts and everything.
SPEAKER_00: But imagine such a shining coming from Christ that it even it even outshines the snow.
SPEAKER_00: And this is during the day, it appears.
SPEAKER_00: Appears that it's during the day.
SPEAKER_00: So sun shining on snow, it's that much more bright.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how do they know these guys?
SPEAKER_00: There's no movie clips back then, there's no picture books.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this is what Moses looked like.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Elijah looked like.
SPEAKER_00: I believe what happened is there was a touch, listen, there was a touch of heaven coming down because he said it's gonna be the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna see the kingdom of God with power coming down.
SPEAKER_00: They're seeing a glimpse of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Elijah, who you remember, was translated through a chariot of fire, so he never lost his physical body.
SPEAKER_00: Moses, we know from Jude that Satan disputed over the body of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how Moses died.
SPEAKER_00: It just said he died.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how he died.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he also did not have a decomposed body.
SPEAKER_00: So he has a physical body, Elijah has a physical body, Moses a physical body in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, they have a physical body.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom comes down and they just know.
SPEAKER_00: They just know it's Elijah and Moses.
SPEAKER_00: I think it answers a big question that kids ask all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, what's it gonna be like in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Will we know each other?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, or because it seems like you'll be, you know, Jesus says at one point, it'll be like the angels of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So what is that?
SPEAKER_00: I believe you know.
SPEAKER_00: I think you're just gonna know, gang.
SPEAKER_00: I think you're gonna know everybody.
SPEAKER_00: If you have trouble with names on the earth, you won't have trouble with names up there.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that good good news?
SPEAKER_00: You won't have to have a daytime or anything where you're trying to remember, oh, it's it's the girl with glasses with dimples.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's Susan.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna know.
SPEAKER_00: And so they knew.
SPEAKER_00: And then, and then why Elijah and Moses?
SPEAKER_00: Why them?
SPEAKER_00: I believe because of my study of Revelation, some of you have been a part of that when we did the study of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 11, it mentions two witnesses who will come to the earth and do signs and wonders for a period of three and a half years, and then they'll be martyred.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't tell you who they are.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe it will be Elijah and Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because, first of all, they never lost their bodies, so they're gonna come down in physical form because they still have the same bodies in heaven that they had on earth, and they'll be transported into Jerusalem to preach for three and a half years during the reign of the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_00: So this will be during the reign of the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_00: The temple will be rebuilt, and out there will be the two witnesses preaching, and it'll be Elijah and Moses, and the signs and wonders that both of them did read exactly like the signs and wonders in Revelation chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: Check it out.
SPEAKER_00: CNN will be there.
SPEAKER_00: No, CNN probably won't be there because its ratings are dropping so quickly that it may not be on the air much longer.
SPEAKER_00: But Fox News will be there.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, it says the whole world will see them.
SPEAKER_00: The whole world will see.
SPEAKER_00: And is that hard to believe today?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when we look at what's happening with any kind of a natural disaster, we see it.
SPEAKER_00: It's right there, it's live.
SPEAKER_00: And so and so in those latter days, in the rise of the Antichrist, it's not hard to believe that everybody in the earth will see these two preachers, these guys.
SPEAKER_00: So I believe it's Elijah and Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, and this is what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is Peter, Peter, it says, then Peter answered.
SPEAKER_00: Does some of your Bibles say that?
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't been asked a question yet.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you feel like an idiot sometimes, you've really got a counterpart right here in Scripture with Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't even been asked a question and he answers.
SPEAKER_00: This guy hates silence.
SPEAKER_00: He really does.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, if you have a young man or young woman in your home that hates silence and they're always talking, there just might be leadership potential on them.
SPEAKER_00: Give them a lot of grace.
SPEAKER_00: The school teachers may not, but you need to give them a little grace at home.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's we we are your men.
SPEAKER_00: We are so glad you brought us along.
SPEAKER_00: We're here to comfort you.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, one of the accounts says they fell asleep.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that was left out by Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Rabbi, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three, and you might add this in, equal tabernacles.
SPEAKER_00: One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: What an idiot.
SPEAKER_00: He's putting Jesus on the same level as Moses and Elijah in just six days ago.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You are the Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He already forgot, and he's answering a question that he hasn't even been asked.
SPEAKER_00: So I believe Mark, when when Peter's telling him the story, Mark goes, You said what?
SPEAKER_00: And so I think Mark added verse six out of compassion for Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Mark.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of that's one of your three friends you need to have.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of covers for your idiocy.
SPEAKER_00: Because I can really relate to this.
SPEAKER_00: Can't you?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Peter's so, so human.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: And a cloud came and overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my beloved son.
SPEAKER_00: Hear him.
SPEAKER_00: Second time that Jesus has been encouraged by his father, that he is his beloved son, first at his baptism, and now at another baptism.
SPEAKER_00: The first baptism was a baptism into life.
SPEAKER_00: His public ministry was just beginning.
SPEAKER_00: But now he's about to go through another baptism in the next six months, and it's a baptism of fire, and a baptism of crucifixion, and a baptism of death.
SPEAKER_00: And men and women, you're gonna go through baptisms in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna go through baptisms of fire.
SPEAKER_00: And the Father says to you, You're my beloved son.
SPEAKER_00: You're my beloved daughter, in whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: Just like Luke and choosing the song we sang, he holds on to you as you go through baptisms of fire.
SPEAKER_00: And so even Jesus, the Son of God, needed that kind of encouragement from his father.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe tonight you need that kind of encouragement in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You're his beloved son, you're his beloved daughter.
SPEAKER_00: You are beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Not by anything that you've done or that you will do, but because he so loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Creating his image a part of his family.
SPEAKER_00: That he's there with you, he stands with you, and he loves you, and he's beside you.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But only Jesus with himself.
SPEAKER_00: And as they came down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one the things that they had seen.
SPEAKER_00: Any guess why he needed to tell them, tell no one?
SPEAKER_00: Big mouth Peter in the group.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it wasn't the right time, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a right time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been asked over the last few months why, I mean, we can't find you anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you change your phone number, you change your website, you change your email, and I love it.
SPEAKER_00: There was a period of months there where I didn't want to be found.
SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of really cool to sort of feel like you're just like only your friends know where you are.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a timing to things, guys.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a timing for revealing stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a timing for God's work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is saying, look, it's not the right time.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want the nation of Israel to know that I'm the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: So he commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen till the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: That was going to be the right time.
SPEAKER_00: So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me explain something.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews at that time, this is pre-New Testament, okay, gang?
SPEAKER_00: This is, if you look at the Old Testament, there's some cryptic passages that would indicate this.
SPEAKER_00: In the Psalms, there's some cryptic passages that indicate that the Jews believed at that time in one general resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is about to do something that's going to defy the theology that the scribes have been teaching actually for thousands of years.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to rise from the grave and only him.
SPEAKER_00: Because there was no understanding of a first resurrection or second resurrection like you read about in Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Revelation hasn't been written yet.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament hasn't been written yet.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're like trying to get their heads around oh, is there going to be a general resurrection of everybody that's died up to now?
SPEAKER_00: They don't know what Jesus means.
SPEAKER_00: And he and he and he feels like there's no need for them to understand yet.
SPEAKER_00: Because he will show them in the next six months what he means.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: And they asked him, saying, Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?
SPEAKER_00: Now this is interesting because he's talking about Elijah, the prophet, coming first, which, if you go back to the last book, the last book of authoritative scripture to a Jew was Malachi.
SPEAKER_00: And in Malachi, in the last part of Malachi, before the silence of 400 years called the intertestamental period, Malachi says, in the great and final days of the Lord, in the coming of the Lord, Elijah will come back.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're quoting.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they remember.
SPEAKER_00: So when they think latter days, they think Elijah's gonna lead out.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus answered and told them, indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things.
SPEAKER_00: Another reason why men and women we believe that in the latter days, in that first three and a half years of the tribulation period with the rise of the Antichrist, Elijah will come forth and bring signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: But we're talking about the first coming now.
SPEAKER_00: And how is it written concerning the Son of Man that he must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?
SPEAKER_00: Now he's quoting prophecies they don't understand yet.
SPEAKER_00: They don't understand Isaiah 53.
SPEAKER_00: He's almost quoting Isaiah 53 about the suffering Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Their idea is a political leader that's going to come forth.
SPEAKER_00: So they're super confused theologically right now.
SPEAKER_00: But I say to you that Elijah has also come.
SPEAKER_00: So he hasn't come, but he has come.
SPEAKER_00: And they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's speaking now of John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: So John the Baptist came in the power of Elijah, but not literally in the physical form of Elijah because he's John.
SPEAKER_00: Born from Zachariah.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I could wax on for an hour on prophecy about why this is significant, but let me just briefly explain one thing.
SPEAKER_00: Prophecy has a present tense nature and a future tense nature to it.
SPEAKER_00: So when we read a prophetic word, let's take something like Isaiah 53, written hundreds of years before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There is a purpose for that at the time by Isaiah, but it's Isaiah 53 that's also prophetically drawing our hearts toward a fulfillment that we're not going to understand until the fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: And it's going to be that way in the latter days, folks, with the rise of the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_00: Now we we have aspects of that that I'm sure we don't completely understand from Matthew 24, Book of Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel, places like that.
SPEAKER_00: But we have an idea, we have intelligence from the Lord about what is going to happen so that we're not completely surprised in those days.
SPEAKER_00: And we're getting a glimpse of that here with Elijah and Moses being a part of the transfiguration.
SPEAKER_00: When he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude around them and scribes disputing with them.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately when they saw him, this is really interesting, all the people were greatly amazed.
SPEAKER_00: One translation says they were dazzled and running to him and greeting him.
SPEAKER_00: What is going on here?
SPEAKER_00: They've been with Jesus, they've seen Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But it says they're amazed, and one translation says they were dazzled, they're shocked.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll give you my theory, and it's only a theory.
SPEAKER_00: My theory is that the transfiguration of Jesus is still on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That the dazzling transfiguro, the transfiguration where even his clothes are shining, there's still vestiges of that on him, just like with Moses when he came down from Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: Remember in Mount when he came down from Mount Sinai, he had to put a netting, he had to put a shield over his face because the shine was so bright over the people.
SPEAKER_00: And so I wonder if the shine of Jesus' face, his skin, is dazzling to people.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: And he asked the scribes, What are you discussing with them?
SPEAKER_00: Then one of the crowd answered and said, Teacher, I brought you my son, who has a mute spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down.
SPEAKER_00: He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.
SPEAKER_00: So this guy's having seizures.
SPEAKER_00: So I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out, but they could not.
SPEAKER_00: Years ago, the first time I encountered a demon-possessed, demonized young man who was a Japanese, a student of ours, this was how the demons manifested themselves was with seizures.
SPEAKER_00: So he considered it epileptic seizures.
SPEAKER_00: So ever since I'd known him, for about two years, when he had come to know the Lord, he would have these epileptic seizures.
SPEAKER_00: So we'd be talking sometimes, and he would just start gritting his teeth, hold on to a desk or wherever we were sitting, coffee table or whatever, and it would just have shimmers, and then it would pass, and he would take something for the seizures.
SPEAKER_00: And so and so what happened was he began to have these suicidal thoughts when I was on furlough.
SPEAKER_00: So I was in Georgia on sabbatical furlough with my family, and I was getting these letters from him, and back then you wrote letters.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And you and you actually you actually you actually folded them.
SPEAKER_00: You folded the paper, and it fit into a thing called an envelope.
SPEAKER_00: E-N-V-E-L-O-P-E.
SPEAKER_00: Envelope.
SPEAKER_00: And you and you wrote the address and put a stamp on it and you mailed it to people, and that's how you communicated back then.
SPEAKER_00: I'm from Old Testament times.
SPEAKER_00: One time one of my kids asked Mama, asked Liz, said, Are you from New Testament times or Old Testament times?
SPEAKER_00: But um, so I started getting this, and I, so when we got back to Tokyo, we had him over for dinner, and this demon manifested.
SPEAKER_00: And it took us about three hours because we didn't know what we were doing, but we cast that demon out and cast three demons out of him.
SPEAKER_00: And all the seizures ended that night, he never had him again.
SPEAKER_00: So, so something like that is happening here.
SPEAKER_00: It's been since his birth, verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: He answered him and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
SPEAKER_00: How long shall I bear with you?
SPEAKER_00: Bring him to me.
SPEAKER_00: So this is this is like Jesus, I think Jesus is actually exasperated here.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's taught it.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we a few weeks ago we looked at Jesus taught his disciples to cast out demons.
SPEAKER_00: And they could do it.
SPEAKER_00: And they did it.
SPEAKER_00: And they came back, whoa! Even the demons are subject to us.
SPEAKER_00: And so that we this we've been through this.
SPEAKER_00: We went through demonization 101, and you guys passed the test.
SPEAKER_00: Why can't you handle this one?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, faithless generation.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but in 2015, I want to have more faith than I had in 2014.
SPEAKER_00: Because there are things that can't be done in your life if you don't have more faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you learn to trust God with your finances by faith, then you're gonna always struggle with your finances.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't learn how to trust your dating life to the Lord, you're always gonna struggle in your dating life.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's kind of exasperated.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, this isn't new stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Why can't you guys do this?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna find out in a second why.
SPEAKER_00: Then they brought him to him, and when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of hymns in here.
SPEAKER_00: And he fell on the ground, wallowed, foaming at the mouth.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a very vile, stubborn, violent, powerful spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Demons are that way.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have got addictions in your life tonight and it's caused by a demon.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have sex issues in your life and it's caused by a demon.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have anger problems that you can't control and it's caused by a demon, even though you're a Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_00: Because when Jesus comes into our life, when his spirit comes in, it comes into our spirit, man, he doesn't reform your flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where the spirits of the enemy work.
SPEAKER_00: They work in our flesh.
SPEAKER_00: So just because you have the Holy Spirit doesn't mean you might not be packing a growler.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: So that's why there's more about spiritual warfare in the New Testament written to believers than to non-believers.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a teaching out there, and I think it's from the devil.
SPEAKER_00: In some churches, well, you know, if you know, if you've got God, you you can't have a demon.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, dude, what planet are you coming from?
SPEAKER_00: Because we all still struggle, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We all struggle.
SPEAKER_00: And if you give yourself over to the enemy in an area, I'm telling you, be careful because there's a point where you can become demonized if you let it go on for too long.
SPEAKER_00: So that's a whole nother discussion.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is this guy has had a demon, and this is a vile demon.
SPEAKER_00: So he asked his father, how long has this been happening to him?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, from chalet.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I love about this he doesn't ask him how he got the demon, he asks him when he got the demon.
SPEAKER_00: I think Jesus is not gonna cast any blame here.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm telling you, I believe when we look at scripture, that there's nothing more difficult for a father or a mother than a child who's struggling with something.
SPEAKER_00: And we tend to blame ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll bet your bottom dollar that this father blames himself because his son's cast got carrying a demon.
SPEAKER_00: And think about the think about the emotional trauma, it's from childhood, and probably it could be that something happened in childhood that brought on this demon, and it could have been through the dad.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus doesn't care.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus just wants to set this little guy free.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great?
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, let's quit blaming.
SPEAKER_00: Let's quit blaming our parents about everything, let's quit blaming each other over stuff, and let's just go to Jesus and start letting Jesus do a healing in our life.
SPEAKER_00: He can do that.
SPEAKER_00: And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.
SPEAKER_00: But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
SPEAKER_00: So he's just saying, help us, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.
SPEAKER_00: If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.
SPEAKER_00: Now, church, there's a lot here.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about the power of the faith that we have in what God's power can do that can start setting us free.
SPEAKER_00: Not an intellectual belief.
SPEAKER_00: That's not faith.
SPEAKER_00: Even demons have an intellectual belief.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about a heart faith.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about a heart belief.
SPEAKER_00: Young people.
SPEAKER_00: You may not be getting this from any teacher or from any coach or people in authority around you, but I'll tell you, you can get it from us here at the road and from your pastor, and that is you've got to believe in the power of God working in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And don't let your parents or anybody limit what God can do through you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have greater faith than your parents.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're young and you're energetic and you're visionary, and that is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you to keep stoking that by doing PB and J.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer, Bible, and journal every day.
SPEAKER_00: It will build up your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so as you spend time in God's Word, He's building you up, and you're going to go to school and your teachers are going to be dumbfounded because you're so smart.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're smarter than them.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're growing in faith.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: When you grow in heart, faith, it actually renews your mind.
SPEAKER_00: You'll start to believe stuff you could never believe before.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're building up your heart.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, you'll just become a sheep following the herd.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to use you as leaders, leaders and disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, This is a really compassionate father.
SPEAKER_00: He really loves his son.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: It's the right answer.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that our cry?
SPEAKER_00: God, I want to believe, help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: That's the right cry, that's the right heart.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, deaf and dumb spirit, I command you come out of him and enter him no more.
SPEAKER_00: So he was told that he's a dumb spirit, and Jesus recognizes in the spirit that it's a deaf and dumb spirit, and he calls it out.
SPEAKER_00: So the spirit is causing the disease.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit is causing the cancer.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit is causing the epilepsy.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit is causing the physical ailments.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss that part.
SPEAKER_00: Now, is every sickness from demons?
SPEAKER_00: No, not saying that.
SPEAKER_00: But some are.
SPEAKER_00: Some are.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know the difference?
SPEAKER_00: Get prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Seriously, get prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Anything you're struggling with, get prayer.
SPEAKER_00: When we have at the end of every service at the road, we call you up for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You got something, even if it's the littlest thing, come for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Because, because you never know what might be behind it.
SPEAKER_00: And let's get set free, right?
SPEAKER_00: Life's too short to be messing around because, well, I don't believe in demons.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we don't care.
SPEAKER_00: Get free.
SPEAKER_00: Cast out what you don't believe in.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: Then the spirit cried out and convulsed him greatly and came out of him, and he became as one dead, so that many said, He is dead.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's how powerful the spirit is.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had come into the house, the disciples asked him privately, Why could we not cast it out?
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa.
SPEAKER_00: So what they just saw actually was not demonization 101, it was demonization 201, and it was the first time that they had encountered a spirit so powerful they couldn't cast it out.
SPEAKER_00: Church, there are levels of spirits, and there are some spirits that will not come out except through fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way I know to describe this, and it's the only way I've been able to get my kind of my head around it, is that it's like an entrenched position of an enemy.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you saw the movie Gettysburg?
SPEAKER_00: Gettysburg came out about 20 years ago, and it's and it shows, especially in one particular part, the battle of Gettysburg on Little Roundtop.
SPEAKER_00: And on Little Roundtop, there was a Colonel, Chamberlain, who held that ground.
SPEAKER_00: What he had to do to hold that ground was different than what Lee's army was facing down in other aspects of Gettysburg.
SPEAKER_00: Gettysburg, if you've ever been there, is very flat.
SPEAKER_00: The battlefield is very flat.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a couple rounded tops in little mountainous areas, and the northern forces were able to entrench themselves there, and that's really why they won Gettysburg.
SPEAKER_00: Because they would have, if they hadn't held that ground, they would have been flanked by Lee's army and they would have lost.
SPEAKER_00: And there can be entrenchments in someone's life.
SPEAKER_00: There can be entrenchments in someone's life that go back to your childhood that if you're not getting counsel and wisdom and power from someone anointed who knows how to deal with that, you're not going to get them out.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to get them out.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says here, for a high-level entrenched spirit, you need a high-level power encounter.
SPEAKER_00: And that happens through prayer and fasting.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we're doing windstorm in a week.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're coming together for one week every night, except Wednesday night, we're coming together and we are going to talk about the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are going to fast and pray that week, and you are going to get set free from stuff you've never been set free from before.
SPEAKER_00: Because you paid the price of fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God sees that, he notices that, and he's going to come in a special, anointed, powerful way.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, that sounds like works righteousness to me.
SPEAKER_00: It is.
SPEAKER_00: Do I understand it?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But it's true.
SPEAKER_00: He said it right here.
SPEAKER_00: Some spirits don't come out except through fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you this year that you grow in a regular lifestyle of fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe once a week, once a week, fast that day.
SPEAKER_00: For your parents, for your kids, for your job.
SPEAKER_00: Take that time and make that a regular part of your life.
SPEAKER_00: What you're doing is you're you're actually blasting out entrenched spirits you don't even know about because it has so much power on it.
SPEAKER_00: And so tonight, as we go into worship, I want to encourage you to take your eyes off your issues.
SPEAKER_00: Put your eyes on Jesus and over the next week say, Lord, is there anything in my life that's entrenched that you want to set me free from?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you that.
SPEAKER_00: And then you give him that area every day.
SPEAKER_00: And watch what the Holy Spirit will do.