SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, I encourage you to take it and make your way to the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: And I encourage our people, if you find somebody around you struggling and not knowing where to go, please help them out.
SPEAKER_00: They may not know their Bible, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: We want to help everybody together here.
SPEAKER_00: So make your way to the Gospel of Matthew and chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: We've been working our way through Matthew's Gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We find ourselves in Matthew 17 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is a passage of Scripture before us this morning that is all about Christ in us.
SPEAKER_00: May I be nothing and Christ be all.
SPEAKER_00: Our kids love cheesy grits.
SPEAKER_00: Emphasis on the cheesy part.
SPEAKER_00: And I've made that meal so often that I don't need to measure several key ingredients anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I sort of have have the recipe memorized, and I just know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so you start with some chicken broth and you add some half and half or some cream and you top that off with water to get enough liquid.
SPEAKER_00: Then you you put that on the stove and you bring it to a boil, and then you add the instant grits, and then once that's done, you add cheese and butter and all the good things, right?
SPEAKER_00: The grits aren't the good things.
SPEAKER_00: Now I don't look at the recipe that much anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I just know and I don't even measure, really.
SPEAKER_00: I just take one of those big measuring things, I don't know what they're called, big glass measuring things, and put all the liquid things in it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't really measure how much of each thing to put in there, I just know to put it in there, and so I put it in there and I just approximate and get it all in there.
SPEAKER_00: It all works out fine most of the time.
SPEAKER_00: That's how most of us approach our spiritual lives.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: That's how most of us approach our spiritual lives.
SPEAKER_00: We don't measure how much we attend church services or Bible studies.
SPEAKER_00: We don't keep track really of our Bible reading or or where we are in our spiritual life and our growth.
SPEAKER_00: We don't keep track of how many minutes we've spent in God's Word in a day versus how many hours we've spent on social media or television.
SPEAKER_00: We just do what seems to be right.
SPEAKER_00: We do what seems to be right and we go on about our lives, and we expect it all to turn out well.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe most of the time it does.
SPEAKER_00: And we even start to complain and gripe a little bit if if if there's too much measuring going on.
SPEAKER_00: If someone starts to ask us or challenge us, we start to get a little fidgety.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you can even get to the point where labels like legalistic get thrown out if you start measuring spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: A passage in the Gospel of Matthew this morning challenges that kind of mindset.
SPEAKER_00: It suggests that if we go about doing what feels like the right thing to do, all while expecting our faith to turn out well, we will end up as part of the powerless little faith society.
SPEAKER_00: Now there are two kinds of little faith societies.
SPEAKER_00: One has little faith, but prays much and trusts deeply for Christ to work through that little faith.
SPEAKER_00: The other little faith society has a powerless faith that thinks it's just fine to go through life without any kind of measuring.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Matthew chapter 17, beginning in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: This contains an embarrassing account, really, of disciples left to their own devices.
SPEAKER_00: While Jesus and three of his disciples are up on the mountaintop, the other nine disciples are waiting down at the base of the mountain for their return, thinking that they can manage just fine without Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because while the Lord is up on the mountaintop with three disciples, ministry still keeps going on for the other nine down at the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: And so they go about their business as though they know what needs to be done without any kind of measuring, without any kind of thinking, without any kind of processing about what life as a disciple of Jesus is all about.
SPEAKER_00: They don't even think about praying.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus and three disciples are coming down the mountain, and it says in verse 14, when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him, and kneeling before Jesus, said, Lord, have mercy on my son.
SPEAKER_00: For he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly.
SPEAKER_00: For often he falls into the fire and often into the water.
SPEAKER_00: And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered, Oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you?
SPEAKER_00: How long am I to bear with you?
SPEAKER_00: Bring him here to me.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.
SPEAKER_00: Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked, Why couldn't we cast it out?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Because of your little faith.
SPEAKER_00: For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move.
SPEAKER_00: And nothing will be impossible for you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we get into this text, I want to ask you to do something difficult.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to do some measuring.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to do it honestly.
SPEAKER_00: On a scale of one to ten, pick a number that identifies in your mind, in your conscience, the level of your faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So a one, for example, would be a faith that barely registers on the scale.
SPEAKER_00: It rarely prays, maybe, maybe, maybe opens up a Bible on Sunday morning to just follow along with what the pastor is reading.
SPEAKER_00: And a ten would would be virtually perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Apostle Paul like.
SPEAKER_00: Not much growth necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Think about how you handle trials.
SPEAKER_00: Think about hand how you handle obstacles in life and in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Think about life-impacting events.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the how you handle the little things in life.
SPEAKER_00: Think about speaking with someone about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Think about serving Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What is it that he's called you to do for him?
SPEAKER_00: Think about those kinds of things and identify in your own mind a number?
SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to think about that number.
SPEAKER_00: Is it higher or lower than where you might have put it six months ago?
SPEAKER_00: How about a year ago?
SPEAKER_00: Has your faith grown?
SPEAKER_00: Increased in the last year, or has it decreased?
SPEAKER_00: What about the last five years?
SPEAKER_00: For those that have you been been disciples for five years?
SPEAKER_00: Is that number higher or lower than where you would have placed it five years ago?
SPEAKER_00: What about ten years ago?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have followed Jesus for 30, 40, 50 years.
SPEAKER_00: Has your faith increased over that time?
SPEAKER_00: Has your faith changed?
SPEAKER_00: Do you trust Christ more deeply, more sincerely?
SPEAKER_00: Do you rely more on prayer today than you did last week?
SPEAKER_00: Do you love God's word so that you desire to think of it and to speak of it?
SPEAKER_00: And that you desire to spend time in it so that you might come to know your Lord more closely and more deeply.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to come back to this later.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's look at this account in Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: It has four sections.
SPEAKER_00: There's the father's trial, and then the disciples' test, and Jesus then comes to treat the boy, and then there's some disciples being trained in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let's consider first the father's trial.
SPEAKER_00: A crowd is gathered down at the base of the mountain where Jesus is up on the top with his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And the crowd has apparently grown to a considerable size, while Jesus, Peter, James, and John are up on the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And when they come down, a man, a desperate man, comes to kneel before Jesus almost instantly, as soon as they get to the bottom of the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Mark's gospel seems to indicate that they came, he came running to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He came to Jesus away from the crowd, and the crowd says, Hey, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: And they come after him.
SPEAKER_00: The other nine disciples are down at the bottom of the hill, mountain, waiting for their return, thinking all along, you know, we can we can manage just fine.
SPEAKER_00: But now this man is seen running to Jesus, kneeling before him and begging for mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And you feel for him.
SPEAKER_00: There's a plea for mercy, a plea for compassion, for pity.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a man who's a desperate parent because his son has some kind of epilepsy, and he's done everything in his power, everything in his financial ability to get help for his son.
SPEAKER_00: And he's at his wit's end.
SPEAKER_00: There's nowhere else he can go.
SPEAKER_00: This is a life or death situation because there are some times that apparently he has epileptic-like seizures that throw him into the cooking fire.
SPEAKER_00: Other times he falls into water where he nearly drowns.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in verse 18, we learn that the boy's problems really have nothing to do with an epileptic type of condition.
SPEAKER_00: He suffers terribly because of a demon.
SPEAKER_00: He uses a term here that is most often reserved for the sufferings of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So consider that.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just a seizure.
SPEAKER_00: This is suffering terribly, such that Matthew wants us to think that the trials that this boy goes through are compared in some kind of way to the trials of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So you can then sense the desperate plea for pity in the Father.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing he can do for his son, and he's come to Jesus' disciples and gotten no help.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that's where that's where Satan really delights to work, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's where the seeds of fear and distrust are most easily sown.
SPEAKER_00: When we are on the edge of desperation, when we are really struggling to trust God's work and God's power and God's faithfulness, that's where Satan loves to work.
SPEAKER_00: That's the fruitful soil, fruitful soil of distrust of God, of questioning God.
SPEAKER_00: The trial is so, so hard to bear when God doesn't seem to step in and help.
SPEAKER_00: And even at this point, when God's grace through medical wisdom doesn't help at all.
SPEAKER_00: So this father is likely frazzled by this point in his inability to help his son.
SPEAKER_00: He's desperate for help.
SPEAKER_00: Someone has told him, or somehow he learns of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He hears of his presence in the area and he's coming for help.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, though, when he gets there, is he's taking a day trip up on the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: So the next best thing is the nine other disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Brings his son to the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Now do you do you identify with the man and his son or with the disciples?
SPEAKER_00: Do you identify with the man and his son and their trial, or do you identify with the disciples?
SPEAKER_00: I think many of us can identify with the man and his son, at least at one point or another.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us have been through some kind of trial, some kind of hardship, some kind of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: At one point in life, we all have trials of many kinds, and we beg the Lord to intervene.
SPEAKER_00: We beg desperately for help.
SPEAKER_00: But what we often miss when we come to a passage like this is that Matthew doesn't intend for us to identify with the man and his boy.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew intends for us to identify with the nine disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to ask, what would you do?
SPEAKER_00: What would I do if someone brought you their son and said, Please heal him?
SPEAKER_00: You're a disciple of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You're a follower of Jesus, and I am desperate for help, and I know you know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Will you help me?
SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows that you identify with the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_00: But Matthew says, no, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: This is about disciples.
SPEAKER_00: This is about disciples who follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us now to the disciples' test.
SPEAKER_00: They were faced with a seemingly intimidating situation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't around, but this guy comes to them to heal his son.
SPEAKER_00: Now disciples are learners.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the word means.
SPEAKER_00: They're somebody who follows another person who's a teacher and they learn from their teacher.
SPEAKER_00: At some point, then, disciples should be capable of handling situations that the teacher himself would be able to take care of.
SPEAKER_00: So it makes sense on one level that the man thought the disciples could help his son.
SPEAKER_00: They're Jesus' disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is going about healing all the time, with no problem whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's almost like this guy thinks it's it's some sort of magic.
SPEAKER_00: And just at a whim, Jesus can heal.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus must have some sort of trick, some sort of way to manipulate power to help people.
SPEAKER_00: And so he comes to the disciples thinking they can do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples say, Yeah, we can.
SPEAKER_00: Who really?
SPEAKER_00: You think that's the way it works?
SPEAKER_00: But you know, there's some truth to this.
SPEAKER_00: Because people should expect that if you claim to be a Christian, if you claim to be a disciple of Jesus, you ought to be able to lead them to eternal healing through faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you know Jesus, you you should be able to help someone think biblically about problems and trials.
SPEAKER_00: You ought to be able to help them heal.
SPEAKER_00: Not because you have power, but because you follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, we have a little study that Anton takes people through called Living Victoriously that helps you exactly with that.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great little, great little six-week kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's a wonderful method to help you just take some passages of scripture to be able to handle them and know how to walk somebody from where they are in a trial and a problem to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples believed that they could help the man and his son.
SPEAKER_00: And they should believe that because back in chapter 10, Jesus sent these same disciples out into ministry in Israel without him on their own.
SPEAKER_00: And it says in chapter 10 that he gave them power and he gave them authority over demons to heal diseases and to do all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: Back then they were they had no experience in ministry.
SPEAKER_00: They were under Jesus' authority and they went out trusting in what Jesus had told them to do, and they had success in that ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And so they should have no problem now ministering to this man and to his sick, demon-possessed son.
SPEAKER_00: But in verse 16, it's not the disciples that are telling us we can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And I brought him my son to your disciples.
SPEAKER_00: They could not heal, they were unable to heal him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, help me.
SPEAKER_00: And you can sense the frustration, I think, in the Father.
SPEAKER_00: These are his words, and it's it's sort of sadly comical if you use your imagination, because the disciples had had healed people before, they'd cast out demons before.
SPEAKER_00: So surely they had tried to do what they did prior to this point.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they anointed the boy with oil, something that was common in that time period.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they told the demon to come out in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they tried to do whatever they knew to do, and nothing worked.
SPEAKER_00: That's embarrassing for a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: But it does tell us that the gifts and the authority and the power granted to the disciples were not something that they could control or exert at will.
SPEAKER_00: Because all spirit-given gifts function only as the Spirit of God fuels them.
SPEAKER_00: And that takes a little faith and much prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus was up on the mountaintop displaying his glory to Peter, James, and John, and the others were down at the mountain's base having their ministry abilities and their faith tested, and they failed the test.
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever feel as though you've failed in something you know the Lord wants you to do?
SPEAKER_00: I won't ask you to raise your hand because the answer should be yes.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever felt like a like a twit?
SPEAKER_00: So you you ought to know more of your Bible than than you do, and you ought to be able to share the gospel more clearly, but you just can't get the words out, and you just fail like it feel like an utter failure.
SPEAKER_00: Take courage.
SPEAKER_00: These disciples face the same feelings of inadequacy.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of the maturation process.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of growing up to feel frustrated that you can't do something.
SPEAKER_00: But do, beloved, do prepare yourself for testing.
SPEAKER_00: God tests his people to refine them, to grow them, to teach them.
SPEAKER_00: And now at this point, Jesus has returned.
SPEAKER_00: He's come down the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, James, and John too have returned from seeing the display of Jesus' glory to everyday earthly life.
SPEAKER_00: The three disciples with Jesus have learned a life-impacting lesson about the sovereign glory of their Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The other nine are failing at ministry in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_00: We will fail.
SPEAKER_00: And fail.
SPEAKER_00: That's part of learning and growing, but these disciples here, they were they were failing a very big test.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't help the desperate father.
SPEAKER_00: And the father's actions are quite interesting.
SPEAKER_00: He comes and he kneels before Jesus, and don't read anything into that word kneels, it just means to kneel, to get down on your knees.
SPEAKER_00: But what is interesting is that it's used only four times in the New Testament, and it and it's it's sort of an unusual word for getting down on your knees.
SPEAKER_00: And outside of the Bible, we find that this act of kneeling was never done between human beings of equal status.
SPEAKER_00: It was only done if there was an unequal status, and so that the lower-ranked person, if we can use that term, knelt before the higher-ranked person.
SPEAKER_00: It was something that an enslaved person did before his master or a worshiper did in paying homage to his God.
SPEAKER_00: And each time this word is used in the New Testament, it's always in recognition that Jesus is the greater one.
SPEAKER_00: And here is Jesus having come down from the mountain, having displayed his sovereign glory.
SPEAKER_00: And who's the one kneeling?
SPEAKER_00: Not the nine disciples.
SPEAKER_00: The desperate Father.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a sense of humility, of submission, of worship of Jesus in this man's attitude.
SPEAKER_00: There's a coming to Jesus with a desperate request for mercy.
SPEAKER_00: So the father's trial led to a severe test for the disciples, and that failure of that test led directly to Jesus' treatment of the boy.
SPEAKER_00: Just like that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus heals him.
SPEAKER_00: If that doesn't tell you something about the difference between Jesus and the disciples, I don't know what will.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows how long they've been struggling, how long they've been trying things, trying to figure out okay, what do we do now?
SPEAKER_00: Hey Thaddeus, can you come up with something?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember something?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how long they've been trying.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus comes and it's instantaneous.
SPEAKER_00: But we're not to walk away from this account impressed with the healing.
SPEAKER_00: We are to walk away from this with two emphases.
SPEAKER_00: One, the inability of the disciples, and two, the lack of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Three times Matthew indicates the inability of the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: One is verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: They were unable to heal him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19, the disciples asked, why were we unable to cast it out?
SPEAKER_00: In verse 20, Jesus says, if you just have a little faith, nothing will be an inability for you.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 17, there is a faithless generation of people that is no faith at all.
SPEAKER_00: Then in verse 20, there is a little faith group of disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' time is short.
SPEAKER_00: We've already seen at the end of chapter 16 that Jesus is headed to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He's three years into ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And he's frustrated that at three years of ministry, three years of miracles, three years of demonstrating his power, three years of revealing who he is, there is no faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's a twisted and faithless generation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is acting here like Moses did in Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Moses in chapter 32 of Deuteronomy is in full worship mode.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly he says of Israel, they've dealt corruptly with God.
SPEAKER_00: They're no longer his children because they are blemished.
SPEAKER_00: They're a crooked and twisted generation.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus quotes that.
SPEAKER_00: Thousands of years later, they're still the same.
SPEAKER_00: Time is short, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: Faith should be increasing, but it doesn't even seem to be present.
SPEAKER_00: And even faith in the disciples is questionable.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look next then at the disciples' training in faith.
SPEAKER_00: The training begins with a question.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 19, the disciples came to Jesus privately.
SPEAKER_00: If you're embarrassed, you're not going to seek help in public, right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: You have little faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because of your little faith.
SPEAKER_00: They expected to be able to.
SPEAKER_00: They believed that they could minister to this man and his son.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say rightly so.
SPEAKER_00: They've been given the authority back in chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Now, probably should pause here and cover something to avoid any kind of confusion.
SPEAKER_00: This is a situation in which a demon caused epileptic-like seizures.
SPEAKER_00: And the situation and the casting out of the demon are descriptive, not prescriptive.
SPEAKER_00: And that means nothing in the text tells us that demons cause epilepsy, nor is there anything that tells us that we are to treat all cases of epilepsy or seizure by seeking to cast out a demon.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, just don't take that to an extreme.
SPEAKER_00: This describes a situation.
SPEAKER_00: It does not provide a prescriptive way of handling similar problems.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, the point of the account is to provide a platform for training the disciples and challenging us.
SPEAKER_00: Because why could they not help the man?
SPEAKER_00: Why could they not help the boy?
SPEAKER_00: Because of your little faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the no faith of verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: This is the common little faith of the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: We've already seen this term in Matthew's gospel when they were out on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of a storm and they get all freaked out, and Jesus calms the storm and he says, Oh, you of little faith, why are you afraid?
SPEAKER_00: They belonged, the disciples did, to the little faith society.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Matthew, for Matthew, little faith is generally a negative thing.
SPEAKER_00: By now, the disciples ought to have had a greater faith.
SPEAKER_00: They ought to be in the greater faith society or the growing faith society at this point.
SPEAKER_00: But their failure in ministry without Jesus revealed that they were still in the little faith society.
SPEAKER_00: That's typically how Matthew uses the term little faith.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a twist on that here, because Jesus says in verse 20 that even a little bit of faith is enough to accomplish the impossible.
SPEAKER_00: So if they had a little faith, and a little faith can do the impossible, then why did they fail?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to the disciples, listen up.
SPEAKER_00: If you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, the mountain has just come down from move from here, and it will move.
SPEAKER_00: Hear this, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Little faith is enough faith through which God can do the impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Nine?
SPEAKER_00: None of you better be to ten yet.
SPEAKER_00: Little faith is enough faith through which God to work and in which he can do the impossible.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, though, had little faith but failed.
SPEAKER_00: So what's missing?
SPEAKER_00: What is there that went wrong?
SPEAKER_00: What more do the disciples need?
SPEAKER_00: They need one word.
SPEAKER_00: Humility.
SPEAKER_00: See the problem with little faith, the problem with little faith is that it's easy for little faith to get to the point that it feels strong.
SPEAKER_00: Little faith can feel confident in itself, not in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Little faith can can have some small baby step successes along the way, and before long you think you're ready to run.
SPEAKER_00: And you fall flat on your face.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Been there?
SPEAKER_00: Done that?
SPEAKER_00: The last time that I made cheesy grits, I did what I always did.
SPEAKER_00: I skimped on the measuring.
SPEAKER_00: As a result, I put all of the liquid ingredients together and got them boiling, and I added the grits and got them cooked, and the timer went off saying they should be done by now, and it was all soup.
SPEAKER_00: Because I had not measured rightly the amount of grits that should go in the liquid.
SPEAKER_00: So I added more grits, and that didn't turn out well.
SPEAKER_00: That's like our little faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: And God can do great things through your little faith.
SPEAKER_00: But if we get too confident, if we get too cocky, if we are too assured, we will leave out something important.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what the disciples did.
SPEAKER_00: What did they leave out?
SPEAKER_00: They failed to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Mark concludes this account with another sentence.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told the disciples, This kind of demon cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's so insightful for this account.
SPEAKER_00: See, in chapter 10, Jesus gave the disciples authority to go out and to do this very thing.
SPEAKER_00: But they were still at that point immature disciples.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first time they'd ever ventured out on their own.
SPEAKER_00: And in their maturity, they trusted Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They relied on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They rested in his promise and in his strength.
SPEAKER_00: And they went out in their in their ministry with success because of their faith in Jesus' promise.
SPEAKER_00: But now, perhaps a year or two later, they're more confident.
SPEAKER_00: They're assured that, yeah, we can help you.
SPEAKER_00: Come on over.
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with your son?
SPEAKER_00: Things didn't happen as expected when Jesus was gone.
SPEAKER_00: The demon didn't come out.
SPEAKER_00: And if that kind of demon only comes out by prayer, the conclusion we must reach about the disciples is they didn't pray.
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't they pray?
SPEAKER_00: Because they assumed that they knew what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't they pray?
SPEAKER_00: Because they were confident in their abilities to serve God.
SPEAKER_00: Because they were arrogant, and in their arrogance, they couldn't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: In their confidence, they didn't even think to pray.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the difficulties in our life of faith are there to cause our faith to grow, much like a mustard seed starts as a tiny little seed and grows up into a small tree in which birds come and make their nests.
SPEAKER_00: But so often we go about our spiritual lives with a spiritual kind of pride that looks like we have great faith.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it feels like our faith is strong and deep-rooted.
SPEAKER_00: But in reality, it doesn't matter what kind of faith you have if you're not humble.
SPEAKER_00: Because both small and great faith is rendered impotent by pride and arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the irony, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Three of the disciples were up on a mountaintop receiving a lesson on Jesus' glory, power, and authority.
SPEAKER_00: It was Jesus' power and authority that had given them success earlier in their ministry without Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But nine disciples are left behind to learn another lesson.
SPEAKER_00: It's too easy to become nonchalant about your spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, our faith should grow like a mustard seed.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Even a little faith is enough to display the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: But if you have a little faith and you're trying to do it on your own, forget it.
SPEAKER_00: If in our following of Jesus we become too careless or carefree, then we will think that we can fulfill his calling for us without him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't here, no problem.
SPEAKER_00: We'll take care of it.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, pride crushes prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Write that down and stick it on your refrigerator.
SPEAKER_00: Pride crushes prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The faith that Jesus looks for is not a faith to do whatever we want or to get whatever we want.
SPEAKER_00: It's a faith to do whatever the Lord's will is.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever Jesus has given the authority to do can be done even with a small faith.
SPEAKER_00: So don't replicate my cheesy grits failure in your spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: When God gives you opportunities to trust Him, don't try to do it on your own.
SPEAKER_00: Don't try to do it in your own wisdom and your own strength and your own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: When God gives you opportunities to trust Him, seek His strength for the test.
SPEAKER_00: Seek His strength and His power for the trial.
SPEAKER_00: Follow Him through the temptation in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: And how do we do all of that?
SPEAKER_00: You come like the Father and get on your knees and you talk to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Your faith may be small.
SPEAKER_00: You know what Mark's gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Mark's gospel is the one that includes the part about this father where Jesus says, you know, anything is possible through through through faith if you believe, and and the father says, Jesus, I I believe.
SPEAKER_00: Help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: We might all have little faith and feel like in the moment I can't do this, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here's somebody who needs to know about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here's somebody who needs help.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a suffering brother or sister in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to say.
SPEAKER_00: Well, tell him.
SPEAKER_00: And ask him to bring to your mind the things that he's taught you.
SPEAKER_00: Ask him to work and to use this frail vessel for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Use whatever measure of faith he has given you to feel your inability.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to following Jesus, it is good to feel unqualified.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to serving Jesus, it is good to feel as though you can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to just living your Christian life, it is good to feel unable.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you feel unable, it's much more likely that you're going to come like the Father in humility and say, Jesus, help me.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't feel the inability, it's much more likely that you're going to go to the other side of the spectrum, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I've done this before.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've been in this situation before.
SPEAKER_00: I got this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: You can stay up on the mountain a little longer.
SPEAKER_00: When you face the test, when you face the trial, when you face the temptation, feel your inability, but don't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: If you stop there, then you haven't gone far enough.
SPEAKER_00: Feel the inability and then use that feeling to motivate you to pray.
SPEAKER_00: For when you pray, you rest in Jesus, not in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray, you begin to use prayer to crush pride, not vice versa.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray, you rely on his authority and his power.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray, you make less of yourself and more of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if nothing else, that's the point of the transfiguration.
SPEAKER_00: Make more of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do this without him.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one with all the power, he's the one with all the glory, he's the one with all the authority, and he's commissioned you to go.
SPEAKER_00: He's commissioned you to go and to be his disciple and to bring healing to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus uses vessels that are unable.
SPEAKER_00: And it's through those weak vessels that he displays his power and his glory and his sovereignty over all things.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot do life with Christ on your own.
SPEAKER_00: But life with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Life with Christ in his strength.
SPEAKER_00: Life with Christ in his strength can do all.
SPEAKER_00: That he has called you to do, even if the level of your faith is one.
SPEAKER_00: But if at any point you feel as though you're confident and you're assured and you're cocky, be ready for him to humble you.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the great thing about the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: If there is a need for Jesus to humble you, he will do that.
SPEAKER_00: But he won't do that as though you're an enemy who needs to be crushed.
SPEAKER_00: He will do that as a son or a daughter who needs to be disciplined.
SPEAKER_00: And he will discipline you through that trial.
SPEAKER_00: And he will say to you, My son, my daughter, strengthen your weak knees.
SPEAKER_00: Stand up and trust me.
SPEAKER_00: Because I will walk with this through you.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't that what the Proverbs tells us?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what the Proverbs tell us?
SPEAKER_00: You know this verse, right?
SPEAKER_00: Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And what?
SPEAKER_00: Lean not on what?
SPEAKER_00: Your own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Whose understanding are we to lean on?
SPEAKER_00: His.
SPEAKER_00: And when we lean on his understanding, he goes before us and uses even a small faith.
SPEAKER_00: And over time, as he teaches us and trains us and we walk with him through the ups and downs of faith, slowly but surely our faith will be like that mustard seed.
SPEAKER_00: And it will grow.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it might need to get chopped down a little bit and we start growing again.
SPEAKER_00: But take confidence in this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, all that's needed is a little faith.
SPEAKER_00: Because a little faith with my power can do the impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, may we trust in you.
SPEAKER_00: We confess to you that we are a prideful people and we think and we feel that we can do it.
SPEAKER_00: May you do a work in us that enables us first to know and to believe and to rest in the fact that feeling inadequate is good.
SPEAKER_00: And use that inadequacy in us to train us to look to you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we are weak.
SPEAKER_00: We are frail.
SPEAKER_00: We are broken.
SPEAKER_00: We are sinful.
SPEAKER_00: And so we come to you as your people, resting entirely in your grace to forgive us and in your strength to lift us up, to give us endurance and perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: And we trust in your spirit to open our eyes, to have clarity about our pride and our arrogance and our cockiness.
SPEAKER_00: And may you work in us to take that away and to give us a strength of trust, of faith that rests in you.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's your kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: You are building it.
SPEAKER_00: And may you use us to accomplish your purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Not because of who we are, but because of you.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to make more of you.
SPEAKER_00: For your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.