The Way Faith Grows
- Q: WHERE does my faith grow?
A: Off the MOUNTAIN TOP (Mk 9:14-15) - Q: WHEN does my faith grow?
A: In a difficult TRIAL (Mk 9:16-18) - Q: HOW does my faith grow?
A: By ASKING Jesus for HELP (Mk 9:19-27) - Q: WHY does my faith need to grow?
A: So I learn who to TRUST (Mk 9:28-29)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:06
You know, sometimes I don't believe.
00:08-00:10
And I'm not talking about apostasy.
00:12-00:14
But sometimes I doubt.
00:15-00:22
I'm not talking about doubting the Bible, or doubting who Jesus Christ is, or what He's accomplished.
00:23-00:35
What I mean is, sometimes I have a struggle believing, and sometimes I struggle with doubt when it comes to the "me" stuff.
00:35-00:37
You know what I'm talking about?
00:38-00:40
Is God going to come through for me?
00:43-00:44
What's God doing in my life?
00:45-00:47
Why is God allowing these things in my life?
00:48-00:50
It's at those times that I struggle.
00:53-00:53
Anyone else?
00:56-01:04
I'd like to remind you that 2 Corinthians 5:7 says that we walk by faith, not by sight.
01:08-01:09
Faith is what we do.
01:10-01:16
We have not seen, yet by God's Word we believe.
01:18-01:51
Church, I want to challenge you to get your minds in a place of understanding that faith isn't just part of what we do. Faith is everything that we do. Think about it. Christians, in your marriage, those of you who are married, does faith play a part in that? It absolutely There's the world's way of saying how your marriage should work.
01:52-01:55
And there's God's way of saying how your marriage should work.
01:56-02:00
And if your marriage is going to happen God's way, you have to exercise what?
02:01-02:01
Faith.
02:02-02:07
You have to believe about marriage what God has said about marriage.
02:08-02:09
Same with parenting.
02:09-02:14
The world has a way of telling you to parent.
02:15-02:25
God's Word has a way of telling you how to parent, and if you're going to parent your children according to God's Word, that's faith.
02:26-02:32
In your workplace, the Bible tells you what kind of employee you should be.
02:35-02:40
And you're either going to embrace that by faith, or you're not.
02:43-02:44
What about money?
02:44-02:50
You know the Bible says more about money than it does about prayer.
02:51-02:51
Did you know that?
02:52-02:55
The Bible says more about money than it does about faith itself.
02:55-02:58
But it's not that money is a different issue.
03:01-03:04
You exercise faith the way you handle money.
03:05-03:09
The way you handle the stuff that God allows to pass through your hands.
03:11-03:15
You're either going to believe what God said about that, or you're not.
03:18-03:19
And it's true in your ministry.
03:22-03:30
Whatever God has called you to, you're either going to believe that doing things God's way, according to God's word, gets God's results.
03:32-03:34
It takes faith to believe that.
03:36-03:44
And sometimes as we boil it down to the "me" stuff, and you boil it down to the "you" stuff, is God going to come through for you?
03:44-03:50
And why is God allowing things to happen in your life, and in your relationships, and in your house, and in your workplace?
03:51-03:53
Why is God allowing these things to take place?
03:55-03:59
Sometimes we just desperately want more faith.
04:00-04:02
Sometimes we just desperately want deeper faith.
04:05-04:06
The question is, well, how does that happen?
04:09-04:11
I made my confession this morning.
04:11-04:17
Is there anyone here that could say, honestly, show of hands, now let's be honest, this is a free place to do this, okay?
04:18-04:28
Nobody's going to condemn you, but is there anyone here that says, "You know what, honestly, Pastor Jeff, there are times deep down that I wish I had a stronger faith." Anybody else besides me?
04:30-04:30
Okay.
04:31-04:32
We are in good company this morning.
04:33-04:37
And I'm going to show you from God's Word today exactly how that happens.
04:38-04:40
Because we're going back on tour with Jesus.
04:41-04:44
And I want you to open up your Bibles to the Gospel according to Mark.
04:46-04:52
And we're going to be in chapter 9, verses 14 through 29.
04:54-04:55
I encourage you to follow along in your outline.
04:56-04:59
This is a pretty big chunk that we're biting off.
05:01-05:12
It's a story, it's an account of Jesus and some of the surrounding cast, but we're going to let the story unfold.
05:14-05:18
On your outline, I have "The Way Faith Grows." This is a Q&A, okay?
05:19-05:24
So "The Way Faith Grows." You know, "Pastor Jeff, I want more faith, I want deeper faith, I want stronger faith.
05:25-05:27
How does that happen?" We're going to see how it happens.
05:28-05:32
First of all, the first question is this, where does my faith grow?
05:33-05:35
Where does my faith grow?
05:35-05:38
The answer to that is off of the mountaintop.
05:39-05:41
What do you mean by that?
05:41-05:49
Well, if you remember way back the last time we were in the Gospel of Mark, I believe that was the last week of June, we talked about the transfiguration.
05:49-05:50
Do you remember that story?
05:50-06:01
Jesus took three of his disciples up to the mountain and he said, "I'm going to show you who I really am." You know, there are all these rumors about who Jesus was.
06:01-06:02
He's one of the prophets.
06:02-06:04
John the Baptist put his head back on.
06:04-06:05
Maybe Elijah.
06:06-06:08
There's a lot of rumors here, Jesus.
06:08-06:21
And Peter said, "I believe you're the Christ." Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to the mountain, and he said, "I'm going to show you who I am." You remember Moses and Elijah showed up, and Jesus was transfigured before them.
06:21-06:23
They saw His glory.
06:26-06:28
If you remember, you remember what Peter said?
06:29-06:30
Who remembers what Peter said?
06:31-06:35
Okay, so there's like glorified Jesus, and there's Moses, and there's Elijah.
06:35-06:37
Do you remember what Peter said?
06:38-06:39
He said the goofiest thing.
06:40-06:42
The Bible says he really didn't know what he was saying.
06:44-06:46
Peter's like, "I got an idea.
06:47-06:54
Let's make tents." You're like, "Peter was really into camping, right?" Well, why did he say that?
06:55-06:57
It's really not so goofy when you think about it.
06:57-07:02
What Peter was saying was, "Let's not leave here.
07:02-07:05
We just, can we just stay here?
07:07-07:14
I'll tell you what, let's put up, we'll make a tent for Moses and Elijah too, since they made the trip, and let's just stay here.
07:15-07:19
Let's just stay here." And look at verses 14 and 15 here.
07:20-07:25
It says, "And when they came to the disciples," who's they?
07:25-07:26
That's Jesus, Peter, James, and John.
07:28-07:39
"When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and the scribes arguing with them." Okay, so the disciples had a great crowd around them, and the scribes were arguing with the disciples.
07:41-07:48
It says, "And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran to him and greeted him.
07:50-08:02
If you'll pardon the illustration, what's happening here, they were sort of looking at Jesus like a rock star or a famous athlete.
08:05-08:10
You know, they saw Jesus coming down the mountain, "Oh, there he is, there he is!" And they go rushing to him.
08:10-08:12
They were so excited to see him, and they went rushing.
08:15-08:19
Jesus came right down from the mountain and right into a circus.
08:19-08:23
And we're going to see how the circus unfolds.
08:23-08:24
We get a glimpse of it here.
08:26-08:30
The first thing Jesus runs into when he comes down from the mountain is what?
08:31-08:35
This argument breaks out, or has been breaking out.
08:37-08:43
And just quickly, I'd like to mention that mountaintop experiences are great, but they They don't last long.
08:44-08:47
You know what I mean by mountaintop experiences, right?
08:49-08:50
How many people have been to church camp?
08:53-08:54
Mountaintop experience, right?
08:54-09:11
You remember church camp, you put your stick in the fire, you nailed your little note card of sin to the cross, and you're singing kumbaya and everybody's crying and hugging, and "We never want to leave and we're going to be best friends forever!" Then you get home from church camp and you're like, "Oh yeah, these people." Right?
09:11-09:13
else have that church camp experience?
09:14-09:24
I shared with you before, Harvest University is coming up, and I feel like that at Harvest U. You have people from all over the world worshipping Jesus Christ.
09:26-09:28
And every year I say it, like I just, I don't want to go home.
09:28-09:30
The only reason I come back is for you.
09:30-09:30
I love you.
09:31-09:34
But I'll tell you what, if I didn't love you so much, I would not come back.
09:35-09:37
I would be like Peter, like, "Hey, let's set up a tent.
09:38-09:44
One for me and one for James MacDonald and one for Jane Auer and we're just never going to leave here.
09:46-09:47
It's a mountaintop experience.
09:50-09:55
Because at church camp or at Harvest Jew, you're really focused on one thing, right?
09:55-09:57
You're focused on the Lord and His word, the relationship.
09:57-10:06
You're focused on all aspects God and you really don't have any responsibilities and then you come back to the routine.
10:08-10:43
a bit of a let down. And I believe that happens every week. It happens in church. Because you come to church and honestly it's easy to love Jesus here. And it's easy to hate sin here. And then we go back home, back to reality, back to routine, back to everyday life. We sort of come off the mountain top. You're in church for about 80 minutes of the That's 166 hours and 40 minutes you're out there.
10:46-10:49
And true, your faith is stirred here.
10:50-10:53
The Bible says the faith comes by hearing, Romans 10.17.
10:53-10:59
But your faith is going to be proven, and your faith is going to be lived out when you're out there.
11:01-11:05
Or we could say, out there is the place that you especially need it.
11:08-11:10
Out there is the place where what you really believe is going to show up.
11:11-11:20
You're like, "Well, what happens out there?" You know, I come down off the mountaintop, and what's going to happen out there that's going to contribute to growing faith?
11:21-11:22
Well, look at number two in your outline.
11:23-11:24
When does my faith grow?
11:27-11:29
The answer is, in a difficult trial.
11:31-11:34
Okay, so you're off the mountaintop, you're in normal routine life.
11:34-11:37
Jesus and his disciples came down, argument.
11:39-11:43
And I just know Peter was thinking, this is exactly why I didn't want to come back down.
11:44-11:45
All these people do is bicker.
11:47-12:03
Verse 16 says, "He," Jesus, "asked them, what are you arguing about with them?" And verse 17 says, "And someone from the crowd answered him, Teacher, I brought my son to you, For He has a spirit that makes Him mute.
12:06-12:11
And whenever it seizes Him, it throws Him down and He foams and grinds His teeth and becomes rigid.
12:13-12:16
So ask your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.
12:20-12:27
So Jesus comes down and He goes, "What are you arguing about?" Notice the disciples didn't speak up.
12:27-12:29
Why do you think the disciples didn't say anything?
12:30-12:31
I think they were embarrassed, right?
12:31-12:36
Because this dad, he speaks up, we'll get to him in a second, but he's like, "Yeah, they failed.
12:37-12:45
Came to them for an exorcism and they, you know, no-showed." So the disciples, I think they were just a little embarrassed.
12:46-12:48
And Jesus is like, "What are you arguing about?
12:48-12:56
Why do you think the scribes didn't speak up?" They didn't exactly have a good track record in arguing with Jesus, did they?
12:57-13:07
So I think they were just kind of like, "Yeah, we know as soon as we open our mouths, things don't usually go well for us when it comes to confronting Jesus." It didn't always stop them though.
13:09-13:11
So we see this dad speaks up.
13:12-13:13
Notice what his dad said.
13:13-13:34
He said, "Teacher, I brought my son, and he has this spirit that makes him mute." And the dad says, "The Spirit's constantly putting my son in danger." Obviously there would have been a lot of fires around.
13:34-13:39
That was how they would cook and warm themselves.
13:40-13:45
And the Spirit had a way of constantly putting His Son in harm's way.
13:47-13:56
And I'll be honest with you, this passage for me kind of hit me in a really hard place.
13:57-14:04
As many of you know, we have two children with some serious developmental delays and our nine year old doesn't talk.
14:06-14:07
Very very little.
14:08-14:08
Very little.
14:09-14:13
And I'm reading this passage and this dad has a son who doesn't talk.
14:15-14:17
The other thing about our son is he doesn't sleep either.
14:18-14:25
And when he's up all night, it's not like, well, you know, just watch TV and go to bed when you want.
14:25-14:32
One of us, usually Aaron, has to be up with him because he doesn't know any better.
14:33-14:35
He will put himself in harm's way.
14:36-14:38
He will do something that will hurt himself.
14:39-14:41
So we have to constantly be watching him.
14:44-14:46
It's been like superhero training for us.
14:46-14:48
My wife and I are like superheroes.
14:48-14:55
We're constantly watching over him, keeping him out of harm's way, yanking him away from this and taking this away from him.
14:56-14:58
My wife looks really great in a cape, by the way.
15:00-15:08
I read this story and I'm like, "I don't believe my son has a demon." We have prayed and prayed and prayed.
15:08-15:10
I don't believe that he has a demon.
15:11-15:18
And I think you can understand there's a part of me that really relates to this story when it comes to the desperation of this dad.
15:18-15:20
This dad's like my son.
15:20-15:22
He doesn't talk and he's constantly putting himself in harm's way.
15:23-15:25
And I brought him to your disciples.
15:25-15:26
Can you help me?
15:26-15:27
Can you help me?
15:30-15:31
And they could not.
15:32-15:34
I'm like, I so get what's going on here.
15:36-15:38
The question is, when does my faith grow?
15:40-15:42
The answer is not in the easy times.
15:45-15:55
God is going to allow hard circumstances in your life that is going to draw you to Him in desperation like this dad.
15:56-16:01
This dad was drawn to Jesus and to the disciples out of desperation.
16:04-16:06
God's going to do the same thing in your life.
16:07-16:10
He is going to allow some circumstance in your life.
16:11-16:12
He's going to allow it.
16:13-16:15
And you're going to wonder why He's going to allow it.
16:15-16:21
But He's going to allow it because it's going to bring you to Him in desperation.
16:24-16:26
Why is my marriage suffering?
16:27-16:34
Maybe God's allowing that so that you're desperately going after Him for your marriage.
16:36-16:40
God, I have this prodigal child that just can't seem to get it together.
16:43-16:47
Like in this account, maybe God's allowing that so that you're desperately chasing after Him.
16:48-16:50
Maybe you have an unfair boss.
16:50-16:52
"God, why are you allowing this?
16:52-16:53
Why are you allowing this?
16:53-16:56
I try to do the right thing at work and my boss is a jerk.
16:58-17:08
Why are you allowing this?" And maybe in God's sovereignty, He's allowing that to stir up a desperation in your heart to get you to run to Him.
17:10-17:14
Maybe for someone here, it's like, "God, you know, I've had this financial situation.
17:14-17:20
This financial thing has been looming over me, and I can't seem to get ahead.
17:20-17:31
And I've been trying, and I can't seem to..." Maybe God's allowing that, that that desperation is going to get your feet moving.
17:34-17:36
The issue is when you are desperate, who do you run to?
17:38-18:08
I imagine if we had this dad here this morning, and we asked him, "You know, looking back on your life and the situation with your son, can you say now that you were thankful the affliction that your son had, and I guarantee you that father would say, as painful as it was to go through that, I am thankful that this is something that brought me to Jesus.
18:11-18:13
Church, that's how it goes with you.
18:14-18:19
When you run to Jesus, when you see Him at work, you're going to be thankful for the trial.
18:22-18:26
Where does my faith grow well off the mountaintop and when does it grow well in a difficult trial?
18:28-18:29
Here's the real question.
18:29-18:30
You're like, "Okay, I get that.
18:30-18:34
Okay, you've given me the setting, but I want to know, how does my faith grow?
18:34-18:35
How?
18:35-18:38
How?" Well, the answer is this.
18:39-18:40
Write this down.
18:40-18:42
By asking Jesus for help.
18:43-18:45
By asking Jesus for help.
18:46-18:48
Look at verse 19.
18:50-18:57
He answered them, "Oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you?
18:57-18:59
How long am I to bear with you?
19:02-19:06
Bring him to me." Jesus knew what was going on here.
19:08-19:12
And verse 20, it says, "And they brought the boy to him.
19:12-19:20
And when the Spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
19:23-19:24
What a horrifying scene.
19:26-19:27
I mean, can you put yourself in this scene?
19:27-19:57
There's arguments and bickering, and here's a desperate dad, and he's crowds looking to catch a glimpse of Jesus, and here's this kid's having a demonically induced seizure, In verse 21, Jesus asked His Father, "How long has this been happening to Him?" And He said, "From childhood." Why did Jesus ask that?
19:57-19:59
How many people think Jesus knew?
19:59-20:01
How many people think Jesus knew?
20:02-20:03
So why did He ask?
20:06-20:08
It's compassion, right?
20:10-20:11
It's compassion.
20:13-20:16
Jesus could have just said, "It looks like you have a problem.
20:16-20:17
I'm God.
20:17-20:17
Whoop!
20:17-20:24
He's fixed." But you see the heart of God here, don't you?
20:25-20:40
As this dad brings this boy to Jesus, and Jesus looks at the father and he says, "How long has this been happening?" Dad just from childhood.
20:40-20:41
Like forever.
20:42-20:44
That's how long it's been happening.
20:48-20:56
Verse 22, "And it has often cast him into fire and into water to destroy him." As we mentioned, constant danger.
20:56-20:58
Look at what the dad says next.
20:58-21:06
But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
21:08-21:16
He says, "Jesus, if you can do anything, have compassion." You see the desperation?
21:19-21:23
How it manifested with this man's life was, "Can you?" Jesus, can you?
21:25-21:34
But honestly church, when we struggle with our faith, we're going to fall on usually one of two sides.
21:37-21:42
And they are this, we're either going to wonder if Jesus can, or we're going to wonder if Jesus will.
21:44-21:54
And sometimes when we're struggling in our faith, maybe there's a part of us that says, "I believe that God loves me, but I'm not sure He can do anything about this." That's where this dad was.
21:57-21:57
You know I've been there.
21:57-22:11
When you're dealing with a problem over a period of days and weeks and months and months roll into years and I can tell you stories about how, you know, ever since we realized Owen had some issues going on.
22:12-22:15
You know what, by the time he's two a lot of this will clear up.
22:15-22:17
By the time he's three a lot of this will clear up.
22:17-22:21
By the time we've gone to the doctors, by the time he's five he's going to be talking.
22:21-22:23
By the time he's seven, he's going to be talking.
22:25-22:35
Sometimes you just start to wonder, when your faith is struggling, you're like, can God?
22:35-22:36
Will God?
22:38-22:39
That's certainly where this dad was.
22:40-22:42
I'm sure he heard the reports of Jesus.
22:45-22:47
He's like, man, this thing's been happening a long time, Jesus.
22:47-22:49
This isn't like a headache that came up this morning.
22:50-22:52
This is something that's been going on for a long time.
22:55-23:21
So he says, "But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." And Jesus said to him, "If you can, all things are possible for one who believes." Jesus was saying, "I can." He's repeating his words back to him.
23:21-23:22
Can you help him?
23:22-23:22
Can you help him?
23:24-23:25
Can you do anything for him?
23:25-23:26
Can I do anything for you?
23:29-23:30
All things are possible.
23:31-23:32
All.
23:33-23:35
He's like had this from childhood.
23:36-23:36
All.
23:36-23:39
Pastor Jeff, we've been dealing with this issue for like 20 some years.
23:39-23:40
All.
23:41-23:44
Pastor Jeff, it's really bad at our house.
23:44-23:44
All.
23:47-23:48
So how much is possible?
23:50-24:02
Just turn to your neighbor and say, "All things are possible." Or the one who believes, "All things are possible." So what do we do when we get stuck?
24:03-24:04
That's the issue, right?
24:04-24:05
So we're stuck.
24:05-24:06
I've been there.
24:08-24:12
God I have really good theology.
24:12-24:24
I've read the Bible, and I've gone to school to learn more about the Bible, and my job requires me to study the Bible, and you're there too.
24:26-24:35
There's people in this room that know the Bible frontwards and backwards, Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and yet you're like, "There are times, man, there are times that I get stuck.
24:36-24:46
What do I do?" I've been so excited all week to share this with you, because the next verse is the best prayer in the Bible.
24:47-24:49
And you're like, "Pastor Jeff, that's debatable." No, it is not.
24:51-24:52
This is the best prayer in the Bible.
24:54-24:55
Look at verse 24.
24:57-24:58
Okay, again, context.
24:58-25:10
Jesus says, "If you can, all things are possible "for one who believes." Verse 24, "Immediately the father of the child cried out "and said, 'I believe.'" Help my unbelief.
25:12-25:14
That is the best prayer in the Bible.
25:16-25:18
Because anyone can pray this.
25:21-25:21
Do you believe?
25:23-25:24
Do you believe?
25:25-25:32
When you're stuck in those places that you're like, God, I know who You are and I know what Your Word says and I'm just really struggling right now.
25:32-25:33
What do You do? What do You do?
25:33-25:34
Here's Your prayer.
25:35-25:39
I do believe, God, but I need You I help my unbelief.
25:41-25:43
You have to ask for it.
25:43-25:50
James 4:2 says, "You do not have because you do not ask." And this is also true of your faith.
25:51-25:53
You don't have it because you don't ask for it.
25:53-25:56
And church, let's be honest, there's times that we will try harder.
25:56-25:57
We'll read about it.
25:58-25:59
You'll hope that it happens.
26:01-26:03
But it only comes from God Himself.
26:05-26:07
Faith only comes from God Himself.
26:08-26:31
You can't go home and lock yourself in your bedroom and say, "I'm going to muster up enough faith that I'm going to try really hard and I'm going to concentrate and when I come out, it's not going to come that way." I'm just going to go to the Christian bookstore after church and I'm going to read a bunch of books about faith.
26:31-26:35
That might be helpful in understanding some things in here, but that's not going to do it in here.
26:37-26:52
The only way that your faith is going to grow, get stronger, go deeper, is if you go to the source of faith like this man, and say, "God, I do believe.
26:53-26:55
But I need You to help my unbelief.
26:57-27:00
God, You know there are some areas in my life right now where I'm struggling in my faith.
27:01-27:02
You know that God.
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And I need You to help my unbelief.
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Verse 25 says, "And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying, 'You mute and deaf spirit!'" It's not only mute, but also deaf.
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"'You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again!'" And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, "He is dead." Eyes that are ready to believe will see God do some awesome things.
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I'd like to remind you that sometimes, sometimes things look worse before they get better.
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Sometimes things look worse before they get better.
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I'm praying for my marriage.
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I just got off my knees praying for my marriage and my wife and I had the biggest fight we've ever had.
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Why is that?
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Because sometimes things look worse before they get better.
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Had this health scare and I've been praying about it.
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My health seems like it's getting worse.
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Sometimes things look worse before they get better.
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Did you see that in this passage?
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Did you see it?
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Like Jesus commands the Spirit to come out and the boy's convulsing and it says he was laying there like a corpse.
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Now listen, this story has a really happy ending.
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I'm sorry, spoiler alert.
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This story has a really happy ending.
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So when you look at it in retrospect, this part of the story is actually, I got a little bit of a chuckle out of it.
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You have this scene where everybody's fighting and I brought my son, your disciples couldn't cast it out.
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I'm sure that's what they were arguing about.
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The scribes are like, "I knew that your master did it by the power of the devil." There's this big argument happening and Jesus shows up and the boy's like convulsing and seizing.
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And the Bible says most of the people in the crowd were like he's dead.
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Like way to go Jesus.
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Like we were like crowding around excited to see you and this dad brought his boy to you and you finally come down off the mountain And this is how you perform for us?
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Really?
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This is the Jesus that we hear?
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He's dead.
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Well done.
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Wow.
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What's the point?
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The point is sometimes things look worse before they get better.
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But faith says, "Hold on.
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God's not done yet." You see, next verse, "But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and He arose.
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What do you think they were saying then?
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My guess was nothing.
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Jesus reaching down, taking the boy up.
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Perfect health.
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But you have to see this prayer.
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In your Bible, it's five words.
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But your faith isn't going to grow until this prayer becomes your own.
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I want you to say it.
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Five words.
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I believe.
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Help my unbelief.
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I want you to say that.
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I want you to say it again.
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You need to take that prayer before God.
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And get real with God about that.
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Put it in your own words.
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There is something so beautiful about the honesty of that prayer.
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I do believe.
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But I'm struggling here.
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And I realize the only way that my faith is going to get to a better place, God, is if you do it.
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I realize, God, that You are the only One that can increase my faith.
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The preacher can't do it.
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The church can't do it.
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I can't do it.
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Only God can grow your faith.
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How does my faith grow?
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By asking Jesus for help.
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And finally, why does my faith need to grow?
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The answer is so I learn who to trust.
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So I learn who to trust.
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Postlude, look at verse 28.
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It says, "And when He had entered the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" Imagine there was a little bit of tail between the legs here.
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I imagine there was probably also "you ask Him, no you ask Him" kind of thing happening here.
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They get Jesus privately.
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"Why couldn't we do it?" Pop quiz.
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disciples ever done it before? The answer is yes. Chapter 6 verse 13, Jesus sent them out and they had a whole ministry of doing that. They did it over and over. How many times do you think they saw that? Over and over and over. They were seeing demons cast out, demons cast out. And then here, this time, they're like, "Jesus, what happened?
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We've done this like so many times.
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Why couldn't we do it this time?
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And I would say, welcome to the biggest danger of doing ministry.
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You love Jesus.
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You trust Jesus.
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You serve Jesus.
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And you see Jesus at work.
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And after a while, you start to think that it's about you.
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And you start attempting it in your own power.
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survey a hundred pastors, and if they are honest, every one of them will confess that to you. That there has been a time or sometimes of temptation in my ministry, that I've started to think it was about me. I preached a pretty good sermon last week. I didn't really pray much this week, but, oh come on, I got this. I went to school for this. I trained for this.
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I've been doing this a while. I got this." You start doing it in your own power.
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Huge mistake.
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Small group leaders.
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"Oh yeah, I've been praying for my small group and studying and preparing myself, and then after several weeks, things are going fine.
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I start trusting myself to do it." Children's workers.
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Same thing.
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You get a few miles on the car and you start to think that it's about you.
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It's about your power.
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And you put yourself in a position like these disciples.
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In v. 29, look at what Jesus said.
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He said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." Jesus was reminding them, You can't do this.
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Only God can do this.
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Your best option is to - no, no, no.
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Not your best option is to pray.
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Your only option.
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Your only option is to pray.
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Because there is no substitute for prayer.
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There's not.
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There's not.
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There is nothing that even comes close.
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There's nothing like it.
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It's about trusting Jesus, not myself.
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Not my past success.
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Not my connections.
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Not my money.
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Not my intellect.
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Not my personality.
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But you see, I think the disciples started thinking they had it, when the truth was they never did.
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We can fall into the same trap.
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Start to think it's about us.
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This passage is about faith, and interestingly, when asked about it, Jesus brings up prayer.
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Why? Because faith and prayer are linked.
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If you have faith, you will pray.
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And your praying demonstrates that you have faith.
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If there's anyone here this morning that's like Pastor Jeff, I've been in a dry place in my faith lately.
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I'm going to dry.
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I've got a great prayer for you.
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I believe.
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Help my unbelief.
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I believe.
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Help my unbelief.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 9:14-29
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!