Where is Your Faith - 6/20/26

Greeneville Seventh-day Adventist Church: Today we are back in our Matthew series. The last time we were just getting into Matthew chapter seventeen. We talked about the transfiguration, and so we're beginning in Matthew seventeen, fourteen. Before we begin, I'm going to have a brief word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I just ask once more that you would speak, that your presence would be deeply felt in this place. And that as your word goes forth it would not return void, that in each one of our hearts would be written there as with stone something that we need to take home and apply in our lives. Father, and that your spirit would impress it upon us to the changing and converting of our souls for your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen. So, for context, last week or two weeks ago, we talked about the transfiguration. You see, Jesus takes Peter and James and John up into this mountain, and there he's changed before them. He he becomes bright and radiant with glory, and Moses and Elijah come out of heaven to talk to Jesus, to to strengthen him and prepare him for the road he's about to have to travel. It says, When then Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you're willing, let us make three tabernacles: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And yet while he spake, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice out of the cloud said, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face. And we're sore afraid. Talk about a mountaintop experience, right? Imagine being able to see Jesus transfigured before you in his glory. And so we take up the story, coming down from this mountaintop experience, where they see the glory of God and and have communion with Elijah and Moses. And yet, what we see starting in verse 14, and they come down the mountain and they come to the multitude. Mark says it very well as well and gives some extra insights in Mark chapter 9. But there's a commotion. They come down from this peaceful, radiant mountain to a commotion. He said the scribes were questioning the disciples, and all of the people. When they beheld Jesus, they were greatly amazed, and running to him, saluted him. I like to think of this moment when Moses was up in the mountain with God for forty days in Mount Sinai, and he had come down, what was his face like? Shining. He had to put a veil over his face. And I imagine the disciples just saw the same type of thing. I imagine there was probably some sort of difference in their countenance. And the people can see this the the the the residue of this glory on Jesus and these three disciples. And they came to the Jesus to see what was going on. And Jesus had come to them to see what was going on. You see, there was a demon in this child, and this man brought a demon possessed boy to the disciples, and the scribes had gathered, and the people had gathered around, and there was a commotion. And the father came to the disciples and said, Can you cast this demon out of my son? And what I mean, you know, the disciples should have been able to do that. They had already been given authority by Jesus to be able to go and cast out demons. They had already gone on that their little mission trip And yet they couldn't do it. They tried to cast the demon out of this boy, and the demon just flaunts his power before them, throws the boy on the ground, thrashing in agony. And the Pharisees and the scribes take every opportunity they can to, you know, lambass Jesus and his disciples. And so they start questioning him, ⁓ well, why can't you do this? you know, I thought you guys were were following the Messiah. And so Jesus comes down. from the glory of God to a scene of tumult and disappointment and failure. Have you ever had that kind of an experience? Living in the mountaintop for a little while, spending that time with God, and it seems like nothing can get you down. And then you come back to earth. And you see trials and failures, disappointments, pain and suffering. Life wasn't meant to be lived permanently on the mountaintop. There's work waiting for us in the valley. And yet, the mountaintop is crucial to the valley. I'm going say that one more time. You need a mountaintop experience if you're going to minister in the valley. You see, the reason the disciples couldn't deal with this demon is deeper than on the surface. You know, the demon was not. More powerful than any other demon. It's not like the demon was just too strong for the disciples. But if we look back at the context, imagine, you know, there's there's 12 disciples. How would you feel, you know, if if three of your your comrades got to go up with Jesus into the mountain and you didn't get to go? You know, and then compound that with the whole, you know. Not too long ago, Jesus said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan, you know? And and on top of that, you know, there's there's a lot of things that are going on. You look back on the things we've been preaching about before this, the disciples arguing about each other, who's going to be the greatest, and Jesus telling them that soon he's going to die and be, you know, crucified by the very people that he's trying to win to him. The disciples couldn't cast out the demon, not because of some great power on beha on the demon, but because of their lack of power. After this, we're going to come back to the to the miracle itself, but afterwards Jesus casts out the demon, and the disciples come to Jesus and they said, Jesus, why couldn't we cast out this demon? And Jesus said to them, in verse twenty of Matthew seventeen, because of your unbelief. It wasn't because the demon was strong. It was because of their unbelief. And now you might say, Well well, Pastor Dawson, what do you mean unbelief? Didn't the disciples believe in Jesus? I mean they were following him, they gave up everything to go after him, right? What do you mean they didn't believe You see, I think something really interesting in this chapter is that it develops a theology of belief. And it's not always how we use belief in a modern context. You see, the disciples did believe in Jesus, did they not? They believed that they had power to cast out demons. Did they not? They had done it before. They believed that Jesus was someone special. I don't know if you could say at this point they believed that he was the Son of God. I think To an extent, some of them did. They followed him like he was the Messiah. So then why could Jesus say that they had unbelief? You see, I think the unbelief here is not unbelief in the sense of not believing who Jesus is, or not not even having an assent to to what can happen, but the unbelief here is a lack of harmony internally with what and who God is to you externally. Does that make sense? Let me let me reword it. If I say I believe in Jesus, and yet I allow Jesus' actions to cause me to murmur and to doubt and to get disappointed and upset. Why? It's because I don't fully trust Jesus in that moment and what he is doing, that he has my best interest in mind, that that his ways are best. You see, the reason the disciples were murmuring is. Is because they started looking at the negatives. They started saying, well, why did they get to go up in the mountain? Why is this happening? What do you mean? Why is Jesus saying he's gonna be crucified? Or there's no way this is gonna happen. You know, we we've we've heard all of our lives that the Messiah is gonna conquer. He's gonna overcome the Romans, He's gonna take us into ⁓ an earthly reign. And yet this Jesus doesn't seem to want any honor for himself. He says he's gonna be. Persecuted and and crucified and you know, we wanna be great. We wanna we wanna be sitting on the throne beside him and now he you know, he took those three guys up on the mountain but not us. And so they started looking at their discouragements. They started dwelling on jealousy, personal grievances. Instead of strengthening their faith, their belief through prayer and communion with God, instead of taking these things to God and wrestling with them and overcoming them by faith, they dwelt on them until these things had disconnected them from God. And so when they came. to the moment of trial, the moment where God needed to use them to witness for these people, they weren't able. Not because the demon was strong, but because they were weak. They were disconnected. Self-reliance took the place of faith in that moment. And so that's why Jesus calls it unbelief. It's not that they didn't believe in Jesus, but they believed in themselves in that moment. Their faith was placed in the authority that Jesus had given them before. They said, Well, I've cast out demons before, I can do it again. Well, I'm a disciple of Jesus, I can do it. They had shifted from reliance and dependence upon Jesus through connection with him. To self dependence and self reliance based on a past experience. Do we do the same thing today? I'd like to say we could. We could definitely do the same thing. They did not have unbelief because they consciously rejected Jesus, but they allowed their attention to shift from who he is and what he's doing to what's going on in my life and what's not happening, where things are not going where they should be. And this led them to unbelief. So a person can know the doctrines, right? You can know all the doctrines and still have unbelief. You can serve in ministry, the disciples were definitely serving here, and still have unbelief. And then, as I say unbelief, everything that goes with it a lack of power, a lack of fruitfulness, a lack of connection with God. You can have leadership positions and still have unbelief. This is the ancient problem of the human race, since the beginning of our race. Self dependence, self reliance. Right? There's a quote I think is very profound from one of my favorite authors, I'm sure you guys know her. She says, Angelic perfection I'm gonna say that one more time Angelic perfection. Perfect angels failed in heaven. Do you believe that? That's what the Bible says. Human perfection, perfect humans, sinless humans failed in Eden, the garden of bliss. Isn't that deep? You see perfect angels fell. The sinless angels fell. The sinless humans fell. She says, all who wish for security in earth or in heaven must look to the Lamb of God. Self-reliance is deadly, whether or not you're perfect. Much less if you're not perfect. And you see, it's a quick side note. This is why the argument about the whole nature of Christ is irrelevant. Whether Jesus had a prefall or a post-fall nature, it doesn't matter. If Jesus had relied on his pre-fall nature, he could have fallen. If Jesus relied on his postfall nature, he could have fallen. The entire beauty of Jesus' ministry and why it's an example to us is because whether or not he had a sinless nature, he didn't depend on his nature. He depended on God. Jesus is our example, not in a human overcoming the world, but in a human overcoming the world through the power of God. And so the problem that was theirs is the problem that is ours. Do we depend upon ourselves? Do we manifest unbelief? What hope does fallen humanity have if it trusts in itself? Nada. Zilch. None. The whole essence of sin, the whole reason that we got into this mess is depending on ourselves. Putting our wisdom, our ability, our strength, our you name it, above God and above his power, above his wisdom, above his love. And yet You turn that around. The whole essence of belief here, the whole essence of faith is depending on God, trusting God, putting it all on God instead of on ourselves. Regardless of what the circumstances look like, regardless of how you feel, regardless of how much tumult is going on in the world around you. So this what I want to talk about today here, we see the secret here of victorious faith, the secret here of of the difference between why the disciples couldn't do it and why Jesus could. So going back to the story, they came to the multitude, and a certain man came to him kneeling down, saying, Lord, have mercy on my son. He is a lunatic and sore vexed. Oftentimes he falls into the fire and falls into the water. I brought him to your disciples and they couldn't cure him. That that I pray that that is not the testimony of others when they come to our church. Lord, I brought him to your church but they turned they turned him away. I brought him to your church but they nothing changed. Let's not be a faithless and perverse generation. Like Jesus says in the next verse, Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Mark chapter nine gives deeper insight into this this interaction. I think it's very valuable. So if you want to turn with me there, go to Mark chapter nine. Digging deeper into this interaction. He says, Bring him to me and then in verse twenty, they brought him, the demon possessed boy, to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, immediately the spirit tear him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming. You see, I think Jesus here gave gave the demon a little bit of time to show its power, to show what what what a demon can do to someone when they're in control. And also to show the the value and the power of the deliverance that was about to happen. And so Jesus asked the Father, How long ago since this came to him? And he said, Since a child. Imagine that. Since a child. You know, there's multiple stories in the gospels like this. People dealing with things for years and years. And sometimes I think we don't you don't take the time to to to sit in that. Like imagine you have a child, and your child gets possessed by a demon and starts thrashing and cutting himself and and jumping into a fire when you're trying to cook breakfast and dunking his head underwater trying to drown himself when you're doing laundry. Isn't that horrible? And imagine how many years this father has spent trying to figure out some sort of a solution for his child. Taking him to the Pharisees, they can't do anything. Take him to the to the Levites, they don't do anything. To the doctors there's no telling how far he went, trying to find a solution for his child. since a child. Oftentimes it's cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. You can hear the this is almost hopeless and helpless. And it shows up in his sentence and what he says next in verse twenty two. But Lord, if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Do you notice the problem, what we just said there? He said, Lord, if you can do anything, have compassion on us. There's doubt in his voice. He's ready to doubt even Jesus' ability to help. And I get it. You've gone everywhere and nothing's helped. You've gone to the religious teachers, you've gone to the the ones who orchestrate the worship of God. And none of them can help. And now there's this man here, and you know, there's rumors that he's the Messiah or something, but what maybe he won't be able to help either. But Lord, if you can, help us. And this is how Jesus responds. Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes. Jesus puts it back how it needs to be. You see. The secret of victory here is not dependent upon the power of God to whether or not it can happen. You think God is limited in being able to deliver someone from a demon? No. You see, the the the the dependent factor here is the faith of the Father. If you can believe, all things are possible. It's not it's not if God is able, it's not if God is willing. There's no if on the part of God. It's the if on the part of man. If you believe, if you surrender, if you trust and obey. God places the ball in our court. He says, I'm ready, I'm willing, I'm able. How about you? You see here something I want to highlight about faith. Sometimes Christians unintentionally place their faith in their faith. Does that make sense? You see, they assume that that faith is the victory that overcomes the world. That's what the Bible says, right? I that's what that's our scripture reading today. This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Does faith save you? No. I mean, let's see. I don't wanna break anything. I'll use my c tie clip. I have faith, I have great faith that if I drop this tie clip, it's gonna hit the ground. I have never done this before. But if I drop do you think it's gonna hit the ground if I drop it? No, why do you think so? Have you ever seen me do this? Come on, who's cheating? How do you know it's gonna drop the ground? How do you know? I don't know, right? I've never done it. But how do you know it's gonna hit the ground if I let go? Because you trust gravity, right? It worked last time, it's probably gonna work again. You have some sort of confidence in the reliability of gravity. And so faith doesn't make this hit the ground when I drop it. Gravity makes it hit the ground. Faith is what why I let go. Because I believe that gravity is gonna do what it's always done. And in the same way, faith is not what saves us, Jesus saves us. And if gravity is reliable. How much more the one who made gravity? Right? If gravity is gonna do what it says it's gonna do every time, how much more the God who says that his words never come back void? The one who says that everything with him in Jesus is yes and amen. This is the God we serve. And so our faith is just the means by which we lay hold of Jesus. Your faith isn't gonna save you, Jesus is gonna save you. But faith is what's going to let you take hold of Jesus. And so he says to him, If you can believe, if you can just take hold of me, everything is possible to the one who believes. And I want to encourage you today. Do you believe? If you can just believe, everything is possible. There's no lack on the part of God. There's no ifs on the part of God. The ifs are all in our court. It's not, well, God, if you love me, if you're able, if you're willing. No. God has already told us in his word. He loves us with an everlasting love. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. And he's more willing to forgive us than we're willing to ask. And so the man in response realizes that Jesus has just called out his doubt. And the father of the child cried out with tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Isn't that beautiful? Even in this moment, he knows that his faith isn't strong enough. His faith isn't strong, but he lays it on Jesus. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. You see, the sermon titles Where is Your Faith? Not in the statement of quantity, but in the statement of direction. The f the the the whole issue with faith is not so much how much faith we have, but where is your faith placed? Who has your faith? Is your faith placed on yourself? You think that you're gonna commend yourself to God and you're gonna make it work? Good luck. Is your faith placed in some benevolent, senile grandpa in heaven who just wants to make you happy? That's not my God. You see, faith just places our hope and our trust. It places us in connection with the source of power. So where is your faith? And who is this Jesus in whom we place our faith? I'm gonna take a side note to Isaiah forty. I think this is so beautiful. It says in Isaiah forty, starting in verse six, the voice said, Cry And I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people is grass. See, Isaiah here is saying, What shall I cry? Humanity is weak. Fickle. Here today, gone tomorrow. The people are grass. You have no power in yourself. And verse 8 is the transition The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. So then it transitions. O Zion, that bringeth good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bringeth good tidings, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. You see, the solution to our human frailty is not another 10-step plan. It's not to just buckle down and try harder. It's not to put more dependence on ourselves or anything around us, but to behold our God. Because when that man put his faith in Jesus. As however weak and trembling it was, his son was delivered. So I want to ask you today, have you been beholding your God? You see, right here after this, it gives us a glimpse of this God we behold. It says, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains and scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? Who Being his counselor has taught God. With whom did he take counsel? Who instructed him and taught him the path of judgment? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, counted as the small dust of the balance. To whom then will you liken God? What likeness will you compare to him? Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who created these things, that brings out their host by number. He calls them all by their name, by the greatness of his might. Because he is strong in power, not one of them fails. So why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? That my way is hidden from the Lord, or my judgment passed over from my God. Have you not known? Have you not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, he does not faint, neither grows weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and grow weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint. That's our God. And that's the one who we just have to place our faith in. When all around you you see, man, I'm a I'm a fading grass, I'm a fickle flower. Don't look to yourself. Yeah, you can't change your circumstances. You can't fix yourself. If you could, we Jesus wouldn't have had to come. Jesus came because we couldn't do anything to save ourselves. And the solution, the secret of victorious faith is not trying to build your faith up until it's good enough and strong enough to hope in God for deliverance, but like the Father, just to come to Jesus and say, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. The Father's faith was not in his faith. The Father's faith was in Jesus. His confidence was in Jesus as one who could do what he said he would do. This is why faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Not because the faith is strong, but because the one who we put our faith in. Faith lays hold of God, and that's why it overcomes all things. So if faith comes by the word of God, I want to encourage you today, grasp the promises. What does the Bible say? The Bible says if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just. Do you believe that? Do you lay hold of that by faith? The Bible says that if any man comes to me, I will now in no wise cast him out. Do you believe that? The Bible says That if any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. And all of God's biddings are enablings. We gotta believe these things, not because we see any change in our hearts and our minds, but because he who promised is faithful. Something else that's interesting as we dig into this and wind down. After Jesus tells the disciples that they couldn't cast out the demon because of unbelief, he says two things. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible for you. And then he says, How be it this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. Two questions. Number one, do you think Jesus is talking about this literally or symbolically? Do you think if I literally have the faith size of a grain of mustard seed, I can literally say to a literal mountain, remove and it will do it. Or do you think it's symbolic and saying, symbolically if I have faith that says of mustard seed, I can say to a symbolic mountain and it will symbolically move? I think it's both. I think literally, if God needed you to move a mountain to do something for his will, that mountain would move. Amen? And we need to have that kind of confidence in God. God asks us and expects us to expect big things from Him. We should stop praying, ⁓ God, help me to fix this little thing in my life and help me. No, we need to pray mountain sized prayers, right? God help me to conquer this city for you. God help me help my whole neighborhood to be singing your praises by the end of next year. But also symbolically, I'm sure each of us have a mountain in our lives, right? Something that we're just struggling to get through. Something that's just beating us over and over and over, right? And God says, if you have faith like the size of a mustard seed, wherever that mount whatever that mountain may be in your life, whether it's finances, whether it's disease, sickness, whether it's depression, anxiety, addiction, anger, you can say to that thing, get out of here. And it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible. That's what the Word of God says. That's not what I say. Do you believe that? Question number two How be it this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting? What is this kind referring to? Is this kind the demon or is this kind the unbelief? That makes a big difference. Do I do I get rid of my unbelief by prayer and fasting? Or do I get rid of really strong demons by prayer and fasting? I think it's the unbelief. I think if the disciples, instead of repining like we talked about earlier, instead of dwelling on their faults and dwelling on the difficulties, if they would have spent that time in prayer and fasting, seeking to understand why God did what he did rather than being complaining about what he did, if they would have spent that time getting closer to God, having a mountaintop experience like Jesus just did, I think that demon wouldn't have been there. He would have right when they cast it out. I think that the prayer and fasting Is not something that that commends us to God, but it's something that helps us to deal with our own unbelief and the struggles of our heart. That's why Jesus says, When you fast, don't be like the hypocrites. He doesn't say if you fast. I think fasting is important and we should have regular times of fasting, not to be holy or to show ourselves holy, but because that's how we deal with the unbelief that so frequently creeps into our hearts. When we s take the time and set aside the food, set aside whatever it is, set aside the social media, the T V, the XYZ, you name it, whatever your thing is, set it aside and say, God, my heart is not right. I'm murmuring, I'm discontent, I'm getting frustrated things I shouldn't get frustrated at. I don't have the power that I need to have. I'ma be here with you, I'm gonna seek your face through prayer and fasting. And I will not let you go until you bless me. That's what I think he's talking about here. You see, the problem is not demons and the power of the enemy. Yes, that's real. They're real. Please remember that they're real. They're already overcome. Jesus said, I give you power to tread scorpions and serpents, and nothing from the enemy shall by any means hurt you. Our only problem is whether or not we stay connected to the source. That's easier said than done sometimes, I know. I struggle with it. And I'm preaching to you as much as I'm preaching to myself here. If we want to have the victorious faith like Jesus, the Jesus that Jesus exercised to cast out demons, if we want to have faith that can move mountains and faith that can be a witness to the world, a faith that overcomes every trial. The question is not how do we get more faith? The question is where is your faith? Are you placing your faith in yourself or your own ability to make yourself stronger, make yourself better? Do you think that if you just check some boxes or do things a little different, that it's going to be better? You're going to gain the victory? Don't put your faith in yourself. Put your faith in Jesus. And even if, like the Father, you start by saying, Lord, I don't believe that much. Help my unbelief. Jesus can work with that. Because it's not about the size of your faith, it's about where your faith is placed. And a mustard seed is a cute, cool little thing. It's very small. But seeds are powerful things, right? And that tiny little seed puts out its roots and it goes deeper and deeper. It's soaking up the nutrient nourishment and the nutrients and whatever it can find and it grows. And so the faith that Jesus is talking about here is yes, it's small, but it's a growing faith. It's a penetrating faith. It's a faith that takes what God provides and uses it. And that kind of faith grows greatly. And that kind of faith will make anything possible to the believer. So as we close, my question for you is where is your faith? Have you come to the end of yourself yet? Have you realized that you can't do it? Sometimes I think I've realized that I can't do it. And then I try to do it again. But day by day, we need to come in the morning and have a mountaintop experience, right? And then from the mountaintop, we go down into the valley and don't allow the tumult and the pain and the suffering and all the nonsense that we deal with in this world to shake our confidence, to shake the power that we receive from Jesus in that mountaintop. When those things come that that are just Crazy. And the things that that make you want to question instead of looking inward and saying, Well, why did you allow this to happen, God? Or why is this here? And how is this happening? And da da da. Jesus says, No. Spend time in prayer and fasting. Dig deeper, get closer, and nothing will be impossible for you. We can overcome, not because of anything in us, but because greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world. And that's why this. Is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. So I'm gonna ask you this morning, are you willing to put your faith in Jesus? Do you believe that he's able? Able more than able, as one of my pastors likes to say. I believe he's able. Not only able, but I believe he's willing. Not only able and willing, but I believe he's waiting. Just waiting for us to ask him to do those impossible things. Because with God nothing shall be impossible.

Mark 9 · chapter mention