SPEAKER_01: All right, I am going to uh make one more announcement and then uh pray for a second.
SPEAKER_01: And we have some extra seats along this side, front couple of rows.
SPEAKER_01: I promise I'm gonna pray long enough that if you're on the back row and you want to make it up here, you can do it.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody will ever see you.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be one of those every head bowed, every eye closed moments.
SPEAKER_01: So no pressure, but if you're having a hard time seeing or hearing in the back, uh here's the announcement is that there is a women's lunch after this in the house about discipleship, and my wife is speaking at it, and I think she's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: So, uh, women, if you if you're a visitor and you didn't know, you didn't sign up, come.
SPEAKER_01: I think there'll be enough lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the Lord will divide the bread supernaturally, but uh if you want to come to that right after this, if you have a Bible, let's open up to Mark chapter 9, and now I'm gonna pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, you are so good, you are so wise, you are so kind, you are so strong.
SPEAKER_01: We have come to hear from you today.
SPEAKER_01: We certainly have not come to hear from me.
SPEAKER_01: Use me as a vessel, or it is a broken vessel, but you are so strong, you are so mighty, you can oversee even my weaknesses.
SPEAKER_01: You can use the weakest, the lowest to accomplish your purposes.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray that you would be doing that this morning, Lord, that you would be pushing back the forces of darkness in our lives, in our world, in our culture.
SPEAKER_01: You would be advancing.
SPEAKER_01: Your kingdom would be coming in our lives, and we pray all this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Mark chapter 9, we're gonna start in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to think about as you turn there, where in life are you struggling the most right now?
SPEAKER_01: Or where would you maybe even go further and say, I'm not struggling, I have failed.
SPEAKER_01: I've already failed.
SPEAKER_01: Where are you facing a situation and it just feels impossible, it feels overwhelming?
SPEAKER_01: And as you're thinking about that, I want to ask you another question that ought to go hand in hand is how's your prayer life?
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean is, how rich, how deep, how devoted, how consistent, how fervent, how persistent is your prayer life, is your communion with your Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Does your practice of prayer line up with what you say you believe about the power of prayer?
SPEAKER_01: And have you had experiences, maybe with the church, maybe with other Christians, that in a sense have thrown cold water on your hope, on your prayer life?
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look at a passage this morning that I think can really help us.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me give a little bit of an overview and context of what we're looking at this morning.
SPEAKER_01: You can jot these verses down if you want to go back and look at them later.
SPEAKER_01: Don't have to flip there now, but in Mark chapter 3, verses 14 and 15 is when Jesus officially appointed the 12 to be disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, it's one of my favorite verses about discipleship in the whole Bible, it says, He appointed them that they might be with him.
SPEAKER_01: So there was his method.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, just hang out with me and watch what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: And that he might send them out to preach and have authority over the demons.
SPEAKER_01: So he said, Hang out with me for a while, watch what I'm doing, learn, maybe take some mental notes.
SPEAKER_01: Then at some point, I'm gonna send you out to do much of the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: And then in chapter 6, he does that.
SPEAKER_01: He sent them out two by two to preach, to heal, and to cast out demons.
SPEAKER_01: And we're told that their mission was very successful.
SPEAKER_01: They went out, they preached a message of repentance, people were penting, and they were casting out demons.
SPEAKER_01: It was working.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's Luke's gospel that tells us they later came back and they were rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: They were so excited, they're like, even the demons are submissive to us in your name.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, don't rejoice in that.
SPEAKER_01: Just rejoice, you guys are saved.
SPEAKER_01: You ought to be happy about that.
SPEAKER_01: But we're gonna pick up in Mark chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here last week, or even if you weren't, you probably know the story, where Jesus took the top three disciples that he was grooming for even a bigger leadership role.
SPEAKER_01: He took them up onto the mount of transfiguration.
SPEAKER_01: His glory was shown.
SPEAKER_01: They heard the audible voice of God.
SPEAKER_01: The other nine were left down in the valley.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't get to experience it.
SPEAKER_01: They're down there just trying to do normal ministry, and we're gonna find out.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't working out very well for them when Jesus was gone.
SPEAKER_01: And now Jesus is coming back down the mountain with the three.
SPEAKER_01: This is where we'll pick up Mark chapter 9, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: And when they came to the disciples, the other nine, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.
SPEAKER_01: And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, it's Jesus, were greatly amazed, and they ran up to him and they greeted him.
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, and whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams, and he grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.
SPEAKER_01: So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.
SPEAKER_01: And he answered them, O faithless generation, how long am I with you to be with you?
SPEAKER_01: How long am I to bear with you?
SPEAKER_01: Bring him to me.
SPEAKER_01: And they brought the boy to him, 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: And Jesus said to him, If you can, all things are possible for one who believes.
SPEAKER_01: Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: Help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus saw 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.
SPEAKER_01: So that Moses then said, He's dead.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
SPEAKER_01: And when he had entered the house, and his disciples asked him privately, Why could we not cast it out?
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus comes down, there's a big crowd around the nine, and there's an argument going on.
SPEAKER_01: And some of the scribes, remember, these are the religious elite, prided themselves on all their Old Testament knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: They're arguing, and we don't know for sure, but almost certainly the argument is the boy's father's looking for Jesus, can't find Jesus, but he's got the nine.
SPEAKER_01: They've kind of gotten a reputation now as exorcists as well.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, you guys are second best.
SPEAKER_01: Can you cast out the demon?
SPEAKER_01: They tried, it didn't work.
SPEAKER_01: And the scribes are probably loving this.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, man, we told you that your guy's not real.
SPEAKER_01: You guys are fake.
SPEAKER_01: And they're probably gloating and boasting the fact that Jesus' nine disciples have failed in a very public fashion.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus comes down the mountain with the three.
SPEAKER_01: The crowd sees him, it's very excited.
SPEAKER_01: They run to him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus asks, What were you arguing about?
SPEAKER_01: The scribes don't want to answer.
SPEAKER_01: By this point, the scribes have kind of learned.
SPEAKER_01: You get in an argument with Jesus, it almost always goes bad for you.
SPEAKER_01: Shut your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: The nine are pretty embarrassed too.
SPEAKER_01: They had come into this thing almost certainly confident, man, we've been casting out demons everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: And now, like all nine of us together, we can't do it.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have anything to say.
SPEAKER_01: But the boy's father has something to say.
SPEAKER_01: He forces his way to the front.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, hey, Jesus, I was looking for you.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't find you, but I've got a son that today he would have terrible epilepsy, is what we would say.
SPEAKER_01: And more than that, he was deaf and dumb.
SPEAKER_01: He couldn't speak, he couldn't hear, obviously has a demon.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to heal him.
SPEAKER_01: I begged the nine.
SPEAKER_01: They couldn't do it, they weren't able.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Bring the boy to me.
SPEAKER_01: And notice Jesus, look back at verse 19 with me for a second, guys.
SPEAKER_01: And he answered them, O 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: There's a sense of weariness.
SPEAKER_01: There's a sense of frustration.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Jesus, fully God, fully man.
SPEAKER_01: So to whatever degree you can be weary of a situation, to whatever degree you can be frustrated with a situation and not be sinfully frustrated or sinfully weary, Jesus was there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a little bit of, hey, are you guys serious?
SPEAKER_01: All I've been doing, and he, and listen, commentators debate, who is he talking to?
SPEAKER_01: But the best answer is probably, he was talking to all of them.
SPEAKER_01: Disciples, you're serious?
SPEAKER_01: You nine?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all didn't get this right?
SPEAKER_01: Scribes, are you serious?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are still so arrogant?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all want to boast?
SPEAKER_01: Because a demon didn't come out?
SPEAKER_01: That's what you want to pride yourself on?
SPEAKER_01: There's frustration.
SPEAKER_01: But here's part of what I love about this text.
SPEAKER_01: Even though Jesus seems frustrated and weary, he doesn't say, forget it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sick of this.
SPEAKER_01: This is how you know he's not sinful.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Bring the boy to me.
SPEAKER_01: His compassion is stronger than the weariness of his humanity.
SPEAKER_01: So they obey, they bring the boy, starts doing the very things that he'd been describing.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, How long has this been going on?
SPEAKER_01: Basically, his whole life since childhood.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on to say, sometimes it's like the demon inside of him is not just giving a random epileptic seizure, but it's like he is trying to throw him into water or fire to kill him.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty bad.
SPEAKER_01: The crowd starts following over to where Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: We've learned by this point, Jesus does not like big crowds just thinking of him as a miracle worker, like this is some kind of circus trick.
SPEAKER_01: So he goes ahead, he casts out the demon.
SPEAKER_01: He helps the man, speaks to the demon, demon comes out, he says, Don't ever come back in.
SPEAKER_01: Boy falls down like he's dead.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's worried.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus reached down, picks him up, he gets up, he's fine.
SPEAKER_01: And like typical, Jesus goes into a house, gets some privacy.
SPEAKER_01: The 12 get to go with him.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, the nine say, What?
SPEAKER_01: Why'd we fail?
SPEAKER_01: Like Jesus, we were doing this on our own.
SPEAKER_01: Two by two.
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, some kind of demons are stronger than other kinds of demons.
SPEAKER_01: And this kind of demon only comes out by prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And the implication was you guys didn't pray.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe if you did pray, it was like some kind of half-hearted prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Now, four main points.
SPEAKER_01: There's a real problem, there's real power, there's real prayer, there's real perseverance.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: What's the real problem?
SPEAKER_01: Ultimately, our real problem is people, and this is for Christians and non-Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Our ultimate problem is this it's a lack of belief in God's power and God's pity for his people.
SPEAKER_01: The heart of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We may have pristine theology in our brain, but when it comes down to the basement of our heart functionally, do you really believe Christ is for you?
SPEAKER_01: Christ is with you.
SPEAKER_01: He has the power, he has the will, and he has the desire to bless us.
SPEAKER_01: And guys, I hope you'll see this from this text, and it's been coming out all through the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_01: There is a real devil.
SPEAKER_01: There are real demons.
SPEAKER_01: There is real spiritual evil in this world, and it hates you.
SPEAKER_01: And it does not take vacations, and it doesn't play nice and fair.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming after you, and it's coming after your kids.
SPEAKER_01: We're not just playing church here.
SPEAKER_01: This is spiritual combat.
SPEAKER_01: And the stakes are high.
SPEAKER_01: And you've got to be all in.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody was struggling with doubt that day.
SPEAKER_01: The nine maybe had started confident, but after they tried it and it didn't work, think about what happened to their confidence.
SPEAKER_01: The scribes, they were, they were the hard-hearted kind of doubt.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: They boasted in their doubt.
SPEAKER_01: Even the boy's dad, think about, guys, think about how weary this daddy must have been.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, probably any of us that have been parents for longer than a day say, I've been weary being a parent.
SPEAKER_01: But think about this guy.
SPEAKER_01: For years, we don't have, for years, his son has had not just all the physical ailments, that would be bad enough.
SPEAKER_01: Epilepsy, deaf, dumb, but a real demon living inside of this boy that's so destructive that intentionally tries to throw him into the ancient swimming pool or the fireplace or whatever to kill him.
SPEAKER_01: Think about how hyperactive that dad would have to be to protect his son all the time, to be watching the weariness, the overwhelmness, the exhaust.
SPEAKER_01: I can't do this anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder how many different times he had sought healings from different people that supposedly this is gonna be the one, and they'd failed him.
SPEAKER_01: And now he's come to Jesus' disciples.
SPEAKER_01: The hope must have been so high and then crushed again.
SPEAKER_01: The real world has a way of just throwing lots of cold water on our passion and zeal, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you ever come to the church, God's people, and thought, I'm gonna finally get some help, and you didn't get help, you just got hurt again.
SPEAKER_01: That's a little bit of what happened to this boy and this dad coming to the nine.
SPEAKER_01: One commentator said this, talking about the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: They thought of themselves as now the natural experts in such a case, and they must learn that in spiritual conflict there is no such automatic power.
SPEAKER_01: Their public humiliation has been a necessary part of their re-education to the principles of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: God ever have to publicly humiliate you?
SPEAKER_01: It's not very fun, but it can be good.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, listen, God is an expert, guys, at bringing us to the end of ourselves, and that can be a very painful journey, but it's a glorious journey.
SPEAKER_01: It's glorious to get to the total end of ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Without you, God, I'm nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples were getting this in a whole new way.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing I want us to get that I don't want us to miss, and it's easy to miss, is this our lack of belief is sin, and it grieves God's heart.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, whatever sin you're struggling with, if you trace it down deep enough, I promise, you will find a lack of belief, a lack of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Because Romans chapter 14, verse 23 says, anything that is not from faith is sin.
SPEAKER_01: That's the deepest root of all of our sins.
SPEAKER_01: But guys, that is such a domesticated white-collar sin, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: If you're in like some kind of accountability group and you show up to the accountability group and you're just, I've just been struggling with a little bit of lack of faith this week, everybody's gonna be like, man, you're a spiritual hero.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: I got a laundry list of stuff a lot worse than that.
SPEAKER_01: But here's a danger, guys, for churches like ours that are very grace-centered, and it's a good thing to be grace-centered.
SPEAKER_01: We so want to emphasize the grace of God, the mercy of God, the love of God, the gentleness of God, the kind, which we should, what the Bible does.
SPEAKER_01: But we should never want to emphasize all of those kind-hearted tendencies of our God to the exclusion of the other truth that he hates sin.
SPEAKER_01: He hates it.
SPEAKER_01: And even in his children, although he's still compassionate and he's still gentle and he's still patient, it grieves his heart.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're like, well, that sounds contradictory.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: Just think about a good parent-child relationship.
SPEAKER_01: A good daddy loves his kids so much.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, his heart is so tough, that if he sees that child doing something self-destructive, he hates the sin in his child, partially because it dishonors the father, but partially because how much it hurts the child.
SPEAKER_01: Do you not?
SPEAKER_01: And that's where this weariness, this grief in Jesus' heart is.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, really?
SPEAKER_01: You don't trust me?
SPEAKER_01: Don't take your sin lightly.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing.
SPEAKER_01: All things are possible to those who believe in Christ's power and pity.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's just be honest.
SPEAKER_01: If I just showed up this Sunday morning and we didn't read from Mark, and I just said, here's my theme today.
SPEAKER_01: All things are possible to those that believe.
SPEAKER_01: I'm really tempted to do a show of hands on this one, what I want.
SPEAKER_01: I I wonder how many of you would be a little bit worried, like, uh-oh, Olin's gone crazy charismatic on us.
SPEAKER_01: Name it, claim it, extremism.
SPEAKER_01: And is there a danger over there?
SPEAKER_01: There absolutely is, but guys, I'm just reading the text, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ, the God man himself, said in verse 23, all things are possible for one who believes.
SPEAKER_01: Is there a danger over here of this name it and claim it mess that we all know is not true?
SPEAKER_01: There absolutely is, but guys, there's a ditch on the other side of the road.
SPEAKER_01: And what I would say to all of us is don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew Henry, a great reformed commentator, said this very much is ascribed to our believing and very much promised to it.
SPEAKER_01: It is possible that your hard heart may be softened, your spiritual diseases may be cured, and that weak as you are, you may be able to hold out to the end.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just quote John Calvin, right?
SPEAKER_01: The prince of all reformed guys.
SPEAKER_01: It is not the Lord that prevents his benefits from flowing to us in large abundance.
SPEAKER_01: But it must be attributed to the narrowness of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: That it comes to us only in drops, and that frequently we do not even feel even a drop because unbelief shuts up our heart.
SPEAKER_01: Only exercise a firm belief and you will obtain.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, how's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: If you say, I feel like I'm only experiencing like a few little tiny drops of God's grace, or you say, I don't feel like I've experienced any.
SPEAKER_01: John Calvin says, That's your fault.
SPEAKER_01: You're not trusting, you're not believing.
SPEAKER_01: If you're believing, you'd be obtaining.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth point.
SPEAKER_01: The real answer to our lack of belief is honest and persevering prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're like, I feel like that's me, what do I do?
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't it be nice if there was some way to reach inside your heart and there was like a light switch?
SPEAKER_01: And it said, believe or don't believe?
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, man, I'm really convicted this morning by sermon.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't been believing.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just reach in there and flip it on to belief.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, and the lights come on.
SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden everything's wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't work that way, does it?
SPEAKER_01: So, what can you and I do to practically strengthen our faith in the living God and his power and pity personally for me, so I can start experiencing more of his grace, not just reading about it, thinking about it, singing it, but drinking it in it every day.
SPEAKER_01: It's your prayer life.
SPEAKER_01: Another commentator named Brooks said this: Spiritual power is not something once possessed, which will always be available.
SPEAKER_01: It must be maintained and renewed.
SPEAKER_01: Disciples then and now must constantly learn and relearn the lesson.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an illustration.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine that your daddy is filthy rich, like billionaire rich, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and he's a good daddy.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I love you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to send you on like this worldwide vacation experience.
SPEAKER_01: Private jets, yachts, cruises, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Take some buddies if you want to.
SPEAKER_01: All the wine, all the food, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, take a rocket ship up to space if you want to.
SPEAKER_01: I'll pay for it all.
SPEAKER_01: I got it in the bank.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the only thing: because I love you, because you're my boy, I want you to check in with me once a day.
SPEAKER_01: Every day you gotta check in, and you just gotta let me know what's your travel experience is for the day.
SPEAKER_01: And then I'll make sure the money gets transferred to your account.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not just gonna give you a big thumb.
SPEAKER_01: You have to check in every day.
SPEAKER_01: That's a little bit like what Father God's heart is like towards us.
SPEAKER_01: I've got everything you need and more, and I'm happy to give it to you when it's best for you.
SPEAKER_01: I just want you to ask.
SPEAKER_01: I just want you to stay in contact with me.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, when we're struggling, when we have bare minimum faith, the temptation is just to give up.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not worthy, I'm not good enough.
SPEAKER_01: What's the point?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you two true stories.
SPEAKER_01: Two people that uh I worked with, okay, they were in ministry, and then these people were Christians, had been working for a ministry for 10 years.
SPEAKER_01: Two different stories.
SPEAKER_01: One of them was a woman who'd been single her whole life and she did not want to be single.
SPEAKER_01: Her dream was kind of be a wife and mom.
SPEAKER_01: And she is struggling with this, and we're talking about it, and she's talking about her sadness and maybe some anger.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, are you praying about this?
SPEAKER_01: And obviously, sometimes I ask that question because I'm just out of questions, and it just kind of seems like a good question for a pastor to ask, right?
SPEAKER_01: Are you praying?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm expecting the answer to be, well, of course I'm praying.
SPEAKER_01: But I appreciate her honestly.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Oh no, I'm not praying about it.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, what?
SPEAKER_01: That's weird.
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about that.
SPEAKER_01: Why aren't you praying about it?
SPEAKER_01: She said, Well, I feel like when I don't pray about it, I don't really think about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so then I don't feel angry at God, which I don't want to be angry at God, but every time I pray about it, I find myself just like angry at God.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I don't know, I'm not a psychologist, but I think maybe it might be that you're angry at God all the time, and it only surfaces when you're praying.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm pretty sure the answer is pray more, pray through it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't try to stuff it and hide it.
SPEAKER_01: Another friend of mine, a guy in ministry, and he was not getting the job opportunities he wanted.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm asking him, I'm like, hey, same kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I said, are you praying about it?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, no, I'm not praying about it.
SPEAKER_01: And this this guy, great friend, I said, What do you mean you're not praying about it?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Man, he said, I'm sick of crying.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm a grown man.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sick of feeling sad.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sick of crying.
SPEAKER_01: Every time I pray about it, I find myself just so sad and crying.
SPEAKER_01: It's better if I just go to work and quit thinking about it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: That's a lot of the way that middle class American Christians like to handle hardship, right?
SPEAKER_01: Tempted to negative emotions, whether it's anger or sadness, like, you know, not me, stuff it away.
SPEAKER_01: Keep working away, everything will be fine.
SPEAKER_01: And it won't.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we all know this.
SPEAKER_01: Stuff it away long enough, and the volcano will later explode.
SPEAKER_01: But the point is, what are we supposed to do?
SPEAKER_01: Persevere in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Go wrestle with God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what this daddy did.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, guys, this daddy's saving grace was this: that all the no's, all the hardship, all the pain, all the seizures, all the things that must have grated on his last nerve, it didn't make him arrogant, it didn't make him self-righteous, it didn't make him jaded and cynical and whatever I give up.
SPEAKER_01: It made him more soft, more broken, more desperate, more dependent.
SPEAKER_01: That when Jesus said, again, did you know Jesus' answer?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Jesus, if you can do anything.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, again, sounds a little bit frustrated, almost indignant, like, if you can.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's kind of like, you know, my lamb instruction, man, I'm God, I can do anything.
SPEAKER_01: You people trust in me.
SPEAKER_01: And don't you love the daddy's honesty?
SPEAKER_01: I do believe.
SPEAKER_01: I got a little bit of faith, but I got tons of unbelief too.
SPEAKER_01: What the extreme charismatic would say is that's not perfect faith, you don't get a healing.
SPEAKER_01: Another reason that I'm glad it's not true, and I know it's not true, because that's not what this passage says.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, Oh, you got bare minimum faith?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you got baby faith?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but you got little seed faith, but it's honest and it's raw and it's desperate.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, that's the kind of people I like to work with.
SPEAKER_01: I don't like to work with proud, arrogant, stuck up people.
SPEAKER_01: I like to work with humble people, broken people, desperate people.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, let me give you a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Let me heal your son like that.
SPEAKER_01: Let me run this demon off and let me go ahead and give you like prior prevention.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, demon, don't even come back with this boy.
SPEAKER_01: You better run away and stay away forever.
SPEAKER_00: Power.
SPEAKER_01: William Henderson, Jesus tells the nine, this is when they get in the house, they start talking about it.
SPEAKER_01: They failed because of your little, your slack prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Where there is little faith, there's little prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Where there is an abundance of genuine persevering faith, there is also fervent, unrelenting prayer.
SPEAKER_01: How's your prayer life?
SPEAKER_01: What's your faith like?
SPEAKER_01: John MacArthur, the disciples were overconfident from their earlier successes.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples became enamored of their gifts and neglected to draw on divine power.
SPEAKER_01: I know what's happened to me.
SPEAKER_01: Have some great success in ministry, everything's going well.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: Less time with the Lord, more time out there doing my thing.
SPEAKER_01: Nosedive.
SPEAKER_01: A prayerless life, guys, is like shaking a fist of self-sufficiency in God's face.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need you, I got this.
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't think any of us are stupid enough to say that out loud.
SPEAKER_01: When we practically are just going along without clinging to him in prayer, what we are practically saying to him is, I got this, I got this, man.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I got this.
SPEAKER_01: Look how good I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: Calvin again.
SPEAKER_01: It is our duty carefully to shake off the remains of infidelity.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: And in Calvin's mind, to not have strong faith in Christ, to not have a strong prayer life, he says it's like spiritual infidelity.
SPEAKER_01: It's like you're cheating on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Carefully to shake off the remains of infidelity which adhere to us, to strive against them, and to pray that God would correct them.
SPEAKER_01: And as often as we are engaged in this conflict, to fly to him or to run to him for aid, God will never forsake us if we keep the door open for receiving his grace.
SPEAKER_01: He does not say that God will give us everything that we may mention or that strikes our minds at random.
SPEAKER_01: For the weakness of faith, he prescribes prayer as remedy.
SPEAKER_01: Your faith must therefore be excited by prayer.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have ever known, or maybe some of us have been the guy or the girl that says, you know what, I need to get in better shape, I want to get stronger, I want to lose a few pounds.
SPEAKER_01: So they go to the gym for the first time in a long time and they work out really, but they get really sore.
SPEAKER_01: So like, that's no fun.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going back.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Well, I went to the gym, I got sore, nothing happened.
SPEAKER_01: You got to persevere through the soreness.
SPEAKER_01: You persevere in prayer, even though it seems like I'm praying, I'm praying, I'm praying, I'm praying, and nothing's happening.
SPEAKER_01: Never give up in prayer, guys.
SPEAKER_01: What if this daddy had given up after the night?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Man, I went to nine of Jesus' disciples, they couldn't do it, I'm done, I'm going home.
SPEAKER_01: He kept persevering and he got his answer.
SPEAKER_01: There's a parable in Luke 11 about prayer where Jesus says, you know, there's a man knocking on the door, and at first the man inside says, I'm not getting up, I'm not giving you anything.
SPEAKER_01: But the man knocking on the door, what he says is, I have a neighbor I'm trying to feed, and I have nothing to set before him.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, You keep knocking on the door, eventually, the man inside who is God the Father, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
SPEAKER_01: Keep knocking in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ is he will rise and give you whatever you need.
SPEAKER_01: Now, guys, I don't know about you, but I know about me.
SPEAKER_01: When I was reading this, when I was studying about that the thing that stood out to me the most, that's the most hope-giving and inspiring was this.
SPEAKER_01: We're seeing the heart of Jesus, and again, we're getting a real picture.
SPEAKER_01: We're not getting a domesticated picture.
SPEAKER_01: We're getting a picture of Jesus that's tired of sin, that's frustrated with sin, that doesn't like sin, that's weary with sin.
SPEAKER_01: But notice he didn't say, forget it, I'm done with y'all.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This lack of belief really wears me out, guys.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, go ahead, bring me your boy.
SPEAKER_01: He hates our sin, but guys, he loves us more.
SPEAKER_00: Our sins, though they are many, his mercy is more.
SPEAKER_00: He loves to do good things for his people.
SPEAKER_00: He loves to save, he loves to sanctify, he loves to heal, he loves to bless, he loves to help us.
SPEAKER_01: Part of what is so important, guys, about a good prayer life is it gets my eyes off of myself and off of my circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: It gets my eyes back onto the king sitting on a throne who left that throne to come to earth to die to me, and that's how my confidence gets built.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, he's already answered my biggest need.
SPEAKER_01: He got me out of hell.
SPEAKER_01: So the smaller things like a demon or disease, piece of cake, he's got that.
SPEAKER_00: I just keep praying, I just keep persevering because he hears me.
SPEAKER_00: He runs to me.
SPEAKER_00: That's his heart.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he ran all the way from heaven to earth to the cross to hell.
SPEAKER_01: And guys, think about this.
SPEAKER_01: Even think about Jesus in his humanity accomplishing the greatest work, how he did it.
SPEAKER_01: Part of the way he did it was through a fervent and faithful prayer life.
SPEAKER_01: In the Garden of Gethsemane, think about how honest he was in his prayer life with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Father, I don't even like this plan anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to do it any other way.
SPEAKER_01: Yet I'm not running away, I'm still here.
SPEAKER_01: And even hanging on the cross, he was like, I feel forsaken, I feel forgotten, I feel alone.
SPEAKER_01: He never quit praying.
SPEAKER_01: He lived in prayer, he died in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Into thy hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He did that as a model for us.
SPEAKER_01: But aren't you glad that he is not just our model and example?
SPEAKER_01: If he is just our moral example, we are all ruined.
SPEAKER_01: Because we can't keep up.
SPEAKER_01: He is our example, but he is so much more.
SPEAKER_01: He is our substitute, he is our savior, he is the wrath-bearing sacrifice in our place.
SPEAKER_01: We put our hope in him, all our sins are forgiven, past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_01: Let us go out and live in that hope.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we love you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we are thankful for you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that our sins, though they are many, your mercy is more.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that when we are weak, you are strong.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you don't demand perfection of us.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you invite us to be honest with you in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we love you, but we don't love you enough.
SPEAKER_01: Even as we sing, even as we commune with you now, would you be strengthening our faith, strengthening our love and affection for you?
SPEAKER_01: We pray all this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.