Matthew Pt. 64

Turning your Bibles to Matthew chapter 17.

Matthew 17 · chapter mention

I know I've said this before and I'll continue to say it about

different passages that we read, but this is one of my favorite

passages. Matthew chapter 17.

Matthew 17 · chapter mention

Remember we had the mountain. We're on the mount of

Transfiguration. Last week Jesus transfigured

before three of his disciples. There's the revelation of his

deity. There's the continued

establishment of the promotion of the Father.

There's revelation coming to his disciples.

There's preparation for Jesus to go to the cross as he talks with

Moses and Elijah. And now he comes down the

mountain. So again, same moment.

We took a whole week off. But this was the same occasion,

the same day, the same evening, the same night, whatever time of

day it was. They were up on the mountain.

We don't know how long, but when they came down, this is

immediately what they came into. Matthew 17, verse 14.

Matthew 17:14

And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and

kneeling before him said, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has

seizures and he suffers terribly.

For often he falls into the fire and often into the water.

And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not

heal him. And Jesus answered, O faithless

and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you?

How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.

And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy

was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus

privately and said, why could we not cast it out?

He said to them, because of your little faith.

For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of a

mustard seed, you'll say to this mountain, move from here to

there, and it will move and nothing will be impossible for

you. God, we thank you for the

promises that are here. God, we thank you for the

correction and the help that's here.

We know that we need more faith. We ask that you would increase

our faith today. Faith comes by hearing the Word

of God. So we have every right and every

expectation now to claim that promise by faith that you will

bring and deliver with the Word of God today.

Faith to believe the Word of God.

I pray that you would enlarge us, that You would purify us,

and that our faith would not be in the concept of faith or any

formula, but our faith would be in you.

Our faith would be in Your Word, in Your nature, and in Your

character. All of our confidence pointed

directly to you, not our ability to believe better or harder or

more, but our simple, pure, even very small mustard seed faith

that is landed in the right soil of God himself.

In Jesus name we thank you for your word.

Amen. So the mountain top was great.

They've just been up top. Incredible revelation,

incredible delight. What an incredible story they

have to tell. Jesus says don't tell it for a

while, wait till I'm resurrected.

But what an incredible story. And we saw that John talks about

it later in the his gospel. We see Peter's talking about it

many years later. He's saying, I was there.

I was an eyewitness of His Majesty and his glory when he

was transfigured on the holy mountain.

I was a part of it. Remember Peter?

He said we didn't have fancy footwork, we don't have clever

myths, something really well crafted and thought up.

I was on the mountain that day. I've seen it all and I've seen

the resurrection and I watched Jesus fly up into heaven.

I'm not going to die for a lie, but I will die for the truth.

Peter goes on to do that, of course, all the almost all the

apostles going to do that. And of course they're not alone.

Many Saints have done likewise. Why?

Because the truth changes you. That revelation sets you on

fire. So you would, you would think

again, the disciples, they've seen so much, they've

experienced so much. You would just think, how could

they ever doubt? Well, how could they doubt?

The same way you and I doubt. Haven't you seen God do great

things in your life? Haven't you seen his power?

Haven't you seen his glory? And still don't you have doubt?

Don't you have struggle? Don't some days you're so high

and built up. You're like, man, I just you,

you couldn't get me to doubt God if you paid me like I couldn't

doubt him if I wanted to right now.

That is, that is when faith is high and you're just so certain.

And it's not that you're doing anything.

It's just that your faith is placed in the right place.

It might be a mustard seed, It might be a mountain.

It doesn't matter how big your faith is.

That's not the point Jesus wants to emphasize because he says you

got little faith. That's the problem.

And they go, my faith is too small.

He goes, but let me clarify. I really mean you have no faith

because if you have faith in God, then that settles it.

So you don't need to get caught up in is it big?

Is it small? Just just faith is faith.

Faith will accomplish things. So if you have faith for a small

thing, you could expect that small thing to be accomplished.

But if you put that measure of faith toward a big thing, the

measure of faith is not what matters.

It's where the faith is placed. And the faith is in the Lord

Himself, His Word, His nature, and His character.

He's the one I'm trusting. So if the faith is placed on

God's promise, if the faith is placed for God's work in God's

hand and God's miracle, then we can expect that God is going to

be God. So they come down the mountain

and this is the moment where again, we've, we've all had

those mountaintop experiences. I'm at a high right now.

Things are wonderful, things are great, but life comes at you

fast. And today we're going to see

people struggling to believe God, and we're going to be

reminded that our faith plays a necessary role in our walk with

God and in receiving His promises.

This is one of those sermons where your pastor will # the

pulpit. There are plenty of things where

I've preached you and I go, hey, some folks think this and some

folks think that. Today's one of those where I go,

some folks think this and some folks are stupid.

And this is, this is one of those areas where I'm very, very

dogmatic and emphatic. And if you're not, then I'm just

going to say keep reading your Bible.

Don't take my word for it, but I'm going to keep showing you

the Scriptures. I'm going to keep saying out of

the mouth of two or three witnesses and you're going to

keep coming back to the word. So I want you built up.

I want you encouraged. I want you to know how good your

God is. He's better than you think he's

better than I think. He's better than any of us dare

to believe. But it is important and it is in

a it is an important Christian doctrine that all Christians

should hold on to, not just with their brains, but in their daily

lives, that our faith plays a necessary role in our walk with

God. And it does impact how we do or

do not receive his promises. There's no there's not any

condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but there is

supposed to be revelation and understanding.

So let's keep going here in verse 14.

And they came to the crowd. A man came up to him and

kneeling before him. He said, Lord have mercy on my

son for he has seizures and he suffers terribly.

The first point in application I want to make here is not the

main thrust of the Scripture, but there are many applications

we can make with verses. There's the primary, which is

where we should really focus. And then there could be some

secondary things and maybe some tertiary things and say that's

also true. But the point I want to make

here is that, parents, you should bring your children to

Jesus. The Samaritan woman did this.

Remember, Lord, my daughter, bring them to Jesus.

This father in this place does this.

Bring them to Jesus. Bring them to Jesus in prayer

and physically put them in the presence of God.

Parents make all kinds of great efforts to take their children

to sports practices, to universities, to doctor's

offices, and more. Not bad things.

But if we don't put even more effort into bringing our

children to Jesus, we have failed them as parents.

We have failed the assignment given to us by the Lord.

Jesus is the head of the household, and he expects to be

served there. I tell you often, He expects to

be served everywhere. The government should serve

Jesus. They don't believe that.

Does it matter what they believe?

Jesus built the whole world and he expects governments and

nations to please him. Jesus established households and

he expects them to please him. Jesus established the church.

All three spheres of influence in the earth and authority in

the earth are pointed to and designed to worship and serve at

the pleasure of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our households are the same. So this Father, of course, in

his desperation, bringing his child to the Lord, we don't want

to just wait for desperate moments to bring our children to

the Lord. We're going to be bringing them

to the Lord in prayer and bringing them to the Lord for

Sunday worship, bringing them around the Saints of God, and

all that goes along with that. Keep going.

Verse 15. Lord have mercy on my son, for

he has seizures and suffers terribly, for often he falls

into the fire and often into the water.

So we realized that this demon, as I said earlier, the spiritual

and the physical are connected. It's easy for me to think that

they're not. It's a it's poor teaching.

It's bad thinking. When we thought, well, there's

like an invisible realm. I guess I'll see that in heaven

someday. But all these things are

intertwined. You are a complex creature.

You're made in the image and likeness of God.

And people think, man, that's fascinating.

The human body, if we just study the physical portions of things,

it's fascinating. But what's even more fascinating

is the more detailed you study the human body is, the more

mystery starts to come. We understand it at a higher

level. We go, yeah, the heart pumps

blood, and that moves around, and we bring in fresh oxygen,

and then that works through the lungs and that transfer happens.

But that transfer is a miracle. Everything can't be understood.

The nerves work like this. Yeah.

Yeah. You described the concept.

But when you bring it down to the detailed level and then

don't even get started on the brain where like who knows how

much crossover there is, but where is the mind and the soul

and the spirit? We know there's distinctions

between between these things because the Bible tells us that

the word of God can even divide between the soul and the spirit

thought those were the same. Apparently not.

So our soul, you might say, is the mind will intellect and our

spirit is that thing that was made brand new.

My spirit is brand new in Christ.

Couldn't get more perfect when I die and go to heaven.

And yet my soul, my mind, my will, my intellect, my emotions.

But where are those things? Are they physical?

Well, if you take my brain away from me, I certainly wouldn't

have those things anymore. But they're not purely physical,

are they? So all these things are tied in

and connected. And I don't know how it works

and neither do you, but the Lord does.

But we know these things are connected.

So this, this boy is dealing with a demon inside of him.

How do you get there? We don't know.

Scripture doesn't tell us, but it certainly, it certainly isn't

a good thing. It's an obviously evil,

objectively bad thing. But this manifests with physical

problems. It's not just like, well, he's

got a spiritual problem. So, you know, sometimes he wants

to do bad. Well, we all have that that

problem then. But it, this thing can take

control of him and create circumstances in his body.

It can create his body and make it seize up and make it freeze

up, and all kinds of problems can come along with that.

So we just want to understand that the the spiritual world and

the physical world are deeply connected.

We see in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12, we do not wrestle

Ephesians 6:12

against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the

authorities, against the cosmic powers, over this present

darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly

places. So our temptation could be to

think that everything is physical again.

And the Scripture tells us we're not wrestling with flesh and

blood like we might be thinking. Now, I don't mean to imply that

every single physical negative thing we ever experienced is

spiritual. And yet we should be open to the

possibilities and have understanding to go.

Lord, bring us revelation, teach us how to pray.

How should we be praying for this thing?

What's really going on here? Is this just a physical thing

going on? Does this person have what we

would just call epilepsy? Jesus didn't walk up and go, oh,

epilepsy and I'll heal him of epilepsy.

All of a sudden Jesus walks up and he says he tried drives the

demon out of him. So we're not wrestling with

flesh and blood. We're dealing with rulers,

authorities, and cosmic powers who are ruling over this present

darkness, and we're dealing with them.

We're fighting against the spiritual forces of evil in the

heavenly places. So there is a demonic realm,

just like there's an angelic realm.

We don't see them, but we're experiencing them all the time.

Those who allow demonic influence in their lives and

continue to tolerate sin will experience more demonic

activity, more oppression, or even demonic possession.

Jesus was casting out demons all the time.

Remember this is a big part of his ministry.

The disciples have cast out demons before.

It makes no sense that in our modern moment, people still

wouldn't be satanically influenced, oppressed, or

possessed. And I think we often see demonic

issues today, but we foolishly think that we're wrestling with

flesh and blood. I think we see those things and

we just go, that's crazy. Like, well, it might be, it

might be something else, but we shouldn't be naive.

So I'm not naive enough to say there's a demon behind every

door, and I'm also not naive enough to say there's not.

The point is we have authority over these things.

This is Jesus's frustration with his disciples.

You've been given authority over them.

You've previously it previously. They rejoice.

Lord, even the demons obey us in your name.

He goes, duh, I know. Of course they do.

That's not a big deal. Of course they have to obey in

my name. So now he comes down the

mountain. He goes, Why weren't you?

Why? Why didn't you?

Why couldn't you? How long do I have to deal with

you? So what are we supposed to do

with all this? We need to be spiritual people

who bring the authority of Jesus to deliver others from evil.

This is part of your Christian ministry.

Christian ministry includes exorcism.

Every Christian is an exorcist. Movies have made that a weird

and fanciful thing. It's not intended to be.

According to the Scriptures, Christians are to carry the

spirit in the presence of God. And we say, well, I don't have

any experience there. Well then let's get some, let's

build some, let's make ourselves available for ministry.

Our prayers have to change. We've got we've got issues in

our own lives and we say, Lord, I need help here and I need

freedom here and I need growth here.

But don't ever fall for the trap and think once I get squared

away, then I will be equipped and prepared for ministry.

That was not the model that Jesus showed us with the

disciples. So wherever I've gotten that

from, I didn't get it from Scripture.

Once I become a perfect Christian, then I can go make

disciples. No, that's not how it worked

with the 12. They're a mess.

And Jesus says go, you mess, go help people.

If you're one step in front of me, you're able to lead me,

aren't you? You're just one step.

You don't have to be a mile in front of me if you're just

barely in front of me. If you just know one thing I

don't know that can help me, that can set me free.

And if you got a power that I don't have that can transform

me, well, I just think I don't know if I'll be able to answer.

Don't get caught up in the pride now.

Now you're going to start thinking about being

embarrassed, which really is pride.

And then you're thinking, I don't want to look dumb.

I don't. Oh, so the issues that the truth

comes out that I'm actually more worried about how I look instead

of the work that the Lord has given me in this ministry.

But the Lord has given the the ministry of exorcism to all of

his disciples, you and I included, and he expects that we

should walk out our ministry faithfully.

Keep going. Verse 16 I brought my son to

your disciples and they could not heal him.

And Jesus answered, Oh, faithless and twisted

generation, how long am I to be with you?

How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.

Jesus reveals his frustration toward unbelief, and he is not

sweet about it. That's not a nice thing to say.

He's not gentle about it. Faithless and twisted, Twisted

meaning perverted, turn from the truth corrupted.

He's calling the generation that.

So the scribes were there also. Mark Chapter 9 gives us the same

Mark 9 · chapter mention

account Mark Chapter 9 tells about.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

They just come off the mountain and Mark Chapter 9 says and now

Mark 9 · chapter mention

here's what happened. So I'm going to read this to you

from Mark Chapter 9. Mark 9/14.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

And when they came to this disciples, they saw a great

crowd around them and the scribes arguing with them.

And immediately all the crowd, when they saw Jesus, him, they

were greatly amazed and they ran up to him and greeted him.

So what do we see here? It's a mess going on.

The scribes are here arguing with the disciples.

We don't know who started it. We don't know how it started.

Maybe the father said, hey, disciples, can you heal my son?

Because we're all like the massive crowd waiting for Jesus

to come back down the mountain. Can y'all heal my son?

And maybe the scribes, they don't have any power and

authority. Like the scribes are the fancy

guys, the religious leaders, They're supposed to know stuff,

do stuff, and they're supposed to have all of the honour and

all the attention and they're like, we don't want the

fishermen doing anything. Maybe that's how the fight

started, and maybe they said no. Maybe that brought doubt for the

disciples don't know where their doubt came from.

Maybe they tried to cast out the demon, but the demon didn't come

out. Why?

Because of their little faith. I love reading the Bible because

there's this thing that happens in Christian conversations

whenever you teach on faith. Those who disagree with these

conclusions that our faith matters will condemn you and

imply that you are condemning others.

It might be, it might be a little too wordy, but the thing

that often happens when you teach on faith is whenever you

teach it plainly like this, people will say, well, you're

telling people it's their fault. That's the thing that people

really want to get to. And although you didn't use that

language, and although you didn't quite mean it as in

fault, at the same time, let's just read out loud.

Let's use our basic reading comprehension and go.

Jesus said, why didn't these things happen because of your

little faith? He didn't say because of the

Father, because of me, because of the Spirit, because of the

weather, because of the biometric pressure, because of

the length of time. He said this was the reason.

What are we supposed to do with that?

We're supposed to grow and walk with our gracious and loving and

forgiving God, but many get hardened at that.

I've seen it many, many times as somebody who grew up in a

denomination who was big on emphasizing faith and I thank

God for it. Often times whenever I would

share this message with others, the the main pushback I get is

so you're saying, hang on, I'm not, but he is.

And again, there's some things here that are really on the

nose, hard to avoid, hard to hard to slide away from.

Like I always tell you, I listen to a lot of sermons.

I listen to sermons in preparation like, hey, how do

other pastors approach this? I knew exactly what I was going

to come across in preparation for the sermon.

And I wasn't surprised. It was the very typical

approach. Like, like I've told you many

times, faithful men of God, good pastors, good churches, they

love the Lord and I respect them.

And yet when they'll come to passages like this, they were,

the word says this last week. The word says that the week

before that they come to this one and they go.

So, you know, here's the thing. And I'm like, here it comes, you

know, and now we're going to, we're going to Bob and weave a

little bit like, well, you know, this isn't saying this and this

is saying that going let Jesus speak.

Jesus speaks pretty plainly and we've got enough scripture, we

can bring it all together. I want to be fair.

We don't want to just beat people with a verse.

We want to set people free with the word.

But that's what Jesus is doing. But there are consequences for

my lack of faith if I'm a part of a faithless and twisted

generation. So back to where we were here in

Mark 9. We've got this mess, this

argument, this crowd. Like we said, that's we've all

been there. We've been on the mountain

before and now sometimes we're back down in the valley.

The disciples could not cast out the demon.

Maybe the scribe started the fight.

Maybe the disciples lost confidence.

Maybe the disciples are now embarrassed.

But now Jesus steps in and he brings a loud and stiff rebuke.

I'm like, if we could see this stuff on video he would not be

all faithless. And perverted generation, how

long must I bear with you? We want to put a smile on

everything that he says, but I don't think that would be

honest. That doesn't seem reasonable at

all. Jesus wants the crowd to hear.

It's a stiff rebuke, even though even as his compassion continues

to come through, though, because he says he finishes it with

bring him here to me. He doesn't says you faithless

generation, get out of my sight. He says you faithless and

twisted generation, everybody, what's coming next?

Is he going to send us all away? And he goes bring him to me.

I'm correcting a problem and yes, I'm going to answer the

prayer. Verse 18 makes it again pretty

simple. Jesus rebuked the demon and it

came out of him and the boy was healed instantly.

Duh. Surprise, spoiler alert, Jesus

wins over demons every time. There is not an epic battle

between Jesus and his enemies. There's not an epic saga of

who's going to win and it might go to the last round.

It only looks that way because God lets it look that way.

Man didn't. Didn't the devil kill Jesus?

Nobody killed Jesus. Jesus laid down his life.

He did it for you. Nobody takes anything from God.

Nobody takes anything from the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the demons beg Jesus for mercy.

Normal stuff. Keep going.

Verse 19. Then the disciples came to Jesus

privately. How do you think they came to

him privately? Like we get blasted enough in

public. Like I'm going to come to a

private. Hey, Lord, just real quiet over

here in the corner. If you don't mind, how, why

could we not cast this demon out?

He said to them, because of your little faith.

For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a mustard, like

a grain of a mustard seed, you'll say to this mountain, the

mountain he was just on guys, that maybe they're walking away.

If you say to the mountain be moved and thrown into the sea,

then it will do what you say and nothing will be impossible for

you. So first, before we dig into

what Jesus did say and how he really answered them, let's look

at what Jesus didn't say. Lord, why could we not cast the

demon out? Here's some things Jesus didn't

say. You guys couldn't cast it out

because it wasn't God's will for you to cast it out.

Duh, right? Like oh that, that that's the

implied thing If you ask plenty of Christians why things don't

happen. Why didn't this person get

healed? Wasn't God's will for him to get

healed? Why is that person demons

possessed? You're not so confident to say

that, are you? Yeah.

Because you know it's wrong. In your heart of hearts, you

know it's wrong. Why?

Why do all kinds of bad things happen?

Because the world is broken. The devil is bad and Jemichael

is stupid. You you add them up.

You come into all kinds of problems.

You come into all kinds of difficulties.

And God is still good and God is still merciful.

And God still catches all of your tears in his bottle, and

he's still compassionate and kind and does he still move

sovereignly apart from our faith?

He does. But that's not his normative

function. That's how he is chosen.

He is chosen by his own decision to function and operate mostly

in accordance with our faith. That's his choice.

Is he limited by that? Limited isn't the right word.

He chose to function and operate that way because He loves you

and He wants fellowship and life with you.

Remember the beginning of the book?

God made a garden and his family and they all lived happily ever

after. Whoops, we messed that up.

Enter the whole middle of the glorious story.

And now Fast forward to the end. God has his family again and we

all live happily ever after. We're in this messy middle.

All things are going to be made perfect.

All things are going to be made new.

So in the meantime, there are many problems.

There are many challenges. Well, I just wish God would ZAP

everything. I I don't blame you.

I've felt that way many times. I wish God would just boom,

boom, boom, boom boom boom boom boom.

Spoken like a human who's not God, who doesn't want to develop

their fellowship with God, who wants to walk in natural things

and not become more heavenly minded like their God, not grow

up into the head of the church that is Jesus Christ.

I mean, that's, that's our flesh.

Of course I want the microwave option.

You want dinner to take two hours to make or would you like

to have it in 30 seconds? I'd like to have it now.

And I'd personally, I don't even have to put in the microwave.

That's a bit of a, that's a bit of a chore.

I mean, just the more convenience, the better.

Well, that's not how relationships work.

Is that how marriage works? Yeah.

I just wish we could just be super close all the time.

Well, then there's going to be a lot of hanging out on the sofa

talking. There's going to be a lot of

walks and there's going to be a lot of just relate just being

together. Just keeping the boyfriend,

girlfriend dynamic in your marriage.

Like you don't, you don't get the fruit without the effort.

It's not that you earned all the fruit either.

It's just that it's the inevitable outcome.

Jesus didn't say, oh, guys, you couldn't cast the steam mount

because it wasn't God's will. Jesus didn't say, hey, guys, the

the father actually wanted this boy, that my heavenly Father

wanted this boy to have these seizures because it was teaching

him and his father. He has some powerful lessons on

trust. I mean, I'm still waiting on

this New Testament passages that say that.

Now I definitely know that we learn from those things.

Some people on the podcast are like from strangers from the

Internet are losing their minds right now because they're going

to go to James. We do learn perseverance, Yes,

we do. But that's not the same thing as

God wanted the evil to happen in spite of the bad thing.

We will learn. Will good things come out of bad

things? Yes, yes, yes.

I'll # the pulpit on that too. 1000 times, yes.

Why? It's the principle of

resurrection. It's the goodness of God.

It's the tragedy of Cole's cousin who died.

But what will God, what good things will God do?

He'll do many wonderful and good things.

He'll do some sovereignly good things, apart from anybody's

faith and apart from anybody's prayers, because He's that good

and he's that wonderful. And yet our faith will also pave

a road that heaven will carry its mighty cargo.

Even more so on. Jesus didn't say any of these

other things. What did Jesus say?

The reason was that the demon didn't come out because of your

little faith. It shouldn't surprise us.

We've seen Jesus rejoice over great faith and we have seen

Jesus rebuke small faith, basic Christian stuff.

I'm pastor obvious today, y'all. Basic Christian stuff.

The centurion, great faith. The woman who brings her

daughter great faith. Jesus tells her no.

Remember one of my favorite passages on faith?

We hit the same kind of stuff, but it's right here again, right

in front of us. Jesus says I'm not going to give

the children's bread to the dog. She says, but even the dogs will

take the crumbs. He goes, that was a test and you

passed, but what would have happened?

I asked you this when I preached that message, what would have

happened if Jesus said it's not right for me to give the

children's bread to the dogs? And she went, OK, well, I think

he would have stopped her. Well, I don't, and neither of us

can prove it, but I don't think he would have.

I think it would have. Again, that was a faith test.

She didn't pass it. Oh my goodness, she's out of

here toying with people. No, Jesus is out here drawing

people unto himself. The Father wants fellowship.

He wants closeness. I want my faith to be a formula

so I can push that button every time. 2 weeks ago, my son needed

a life saving surgery. In our modern moment, it's

really kind of no big deal. And at the same time it's kind

of a big deal because he'd be dead if he didn't get it.

Natalie keeps accidentally saying he had a hysterectomy.

He did not have a hysterectomy. Just to let everybody know he

had an appendectomy. Very different.

So life saving surgery, big deal.

You know, did I pray for my son the night he had tummy aches?

Of course I did. Was I in faith?

Was I not in faith? Well, I was going through the

motions. I'm trying.

I'm seeking the Lord. This is real talk.

Is this OK? And then the next day he wakes

up and he's still got tummy pains and I'm working and

Natalie says he has appendicitis.

It hurts to touch. It's moved over to the one side,

blah, blah. I'm like, Yep.

And right away, where did my brain go?

We we pretty much need to go to the hospital.

That was my plan A, right? My plan A was not.

All right. Well, I'm stopping work for the

day. I'm going into the prayer

closet, and I'm not coming out until his symptoms are gone.

That wasn't my response. My response was, well, I've had

appendicitis. He's got appendicitis.

Hey, these hospital workers, they're the Lord's servants to

accomplish the healing ministry of Jesus.

I can receive from that. And you know what?

The Lord answered our prayers that doctors would be blessed,

that they would be skillful, that surgery will go well, that

there be no infection, that we'd all live happily ever after.

That's where I laid my faith. And I received from the Lord

comfort and reassurance throughout that day.

Do I think that was God's ideal and God's best?

Nope. And nobody can convince me that

it was. God is good and he met Joe

Michael where Joe Michael was because God is good and he's

gracious and I don't walk in one ounce of condemnation about it.

But I know other Saints and even other moments in my life where I

did take the prayer closet approach and said, I'm, I'm

going to, I'm going to be with the Lord.

I'm not going to eat, I'm not going to drink, I'm not going to

talk to anybody. I'm getting my answer.

I'm getting the, I'm getting the, the promise of God fully

delivered. Old timers used to call that

praying through, praying through actually, instead of just like I

prayed. Don't you think his father had

prayed before? We don't have a verse for it.

Do you suspect though, that since this guy had he's, he

said, how long has he had it? Since he was a little boy.

Do you think this father has ever prayed?

God, please heal my little boy. Come on, church.

What do you think? I suspect he probably did at

some point in his life. Why didn't God heal that little

boy that father prayed? I love reading the Bible because

now I don't have to say it. Jesus said it for me.

I'll tell you why. Because of his little faith.

Are you mad at him? Are you shaming him?

Not at all. I am that father.

I get it, Lord, I believe help my unbelief.

I am that guy. So I get it.

I plead with him, but I won't be dishonest with the with the

scriptures. I won't say something else and

go well, you know, hey, we can place our faith where we can

place what do we believe in for Let's unite together, man.

We're going to pray and expect these doctors that let's do it.

Are you really in? Do you really trust?

So to clarify, you'd be shocked then if that didn't happen,

right? Because when you're praying in

faith, remember that that's a good test.

Am I in faith or am I not in faith?

Would you be surprised if your prayer wasn't answered?

Yeah, That would, like, be crazy.

You're probably then you're really solid on that thing,

right? You're not like, fingers

crossed, which is how most folks pray.

God, please get this demon out if it be your will.

I mean, who can know these things, right?

Well, look at all the demons that Jesus cast out.

Look at all the demons that you know, people came to him and he

said, no, it's not that it's not time yet.

This this demonic thing hasn't finished its its season yet.

Jesus drives these things out. We're making some straight line

conclusions here from what's right in front of us.

Your faith matters, Church. That's the encouragement I want

you to have. Your faith matters.

The absence of faith, also known as doubt, it blocks, it hinders,

and it obstructs the move of God.

Pastor Obvious. Here today, the presence of

faith invites hosts and facilitates the move of God.

Pastor Obvious, thanks a lot. Can you show me this in the

Bible, Pastor? First of all, that is the right

question. Good job.

Second of all, I just did show you this in the Bible.

And third of all, yes, I'll show you again.

I'm going to take you to Mark chapter 6.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

So we need multiple witnesses, right?

We're establishing a point. I told you, I'm pounding the

pulpit on this thing. What?

What is the thing exactly you're pounding the pulpit on?

That our faith matters and that our, that the presence of faith

or the absence of faith will impact what we received from the

Lord. That's like the most straight

line conclusion to make from this text, right?

I didn't shoehorn this one in, right?

Come on, tell me there's no fancy footwork here today.

Why couldn't we do it? Here's why you couldn't do it.

OK, which why are you? Why are you so emphatic about

it, Pastor? Because so many people don't

believe that. That's why.

So the reason I get emphatic on certain things is because large

swaths of the body of Christ who love the Lord and love their

Bibles still will come to some strange and incorrect

conclusions with these passages. Why?

Because they look at their circumstances and they want to

outsource everything to the Lord and say everything that happened

was the Lord's will. Everything.

That's what some folks believe. Everything that happens is the

Lord's will. But I'm going to show you

something in Mark chapter 6 and verse one, Jesus went away from

Mark 6 · chapter mention

there and came to his hometown. What a special moment for the

Lord. He's going to go minister to his

hometown where he grew up. You know, Hey, I remember that.

I remember that. That's Miss so and so that's Mr.

so and so, you know, he's looking forward to blessing

them. And his disciples followed him

and on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue.

And many who heard him were, who were astonished saying, where

did this man get these things? We know.

We know this guy. Where'd he get this teaching?

What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done

by his hands? They're like we saw him play JV

football, You know, like, I'm not, I'm, I'm confused.

It's I'm having a hard time receiving from him.

Isn't this the Carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James

and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And aren't his sisters here

still with us? You know, maybe his sisters of

married guys there and Nazareth. And they took offense at him.

And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor,

except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own

household. And he could do no mighty work

there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and

healed them, and he marvelled because of their unbelief.

And he went about among the villages teaching Jesus said to

them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own hometown

and among his relatives and in his own household.

And he could not, he could do no mighty work there except he laid

his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

And he marvelled because of their unbelief.

The Lord was hindered because of unbelief.

Are you saying Jesus act like couldn't, couldn't, couldn't?

Well, hang on, let's clarify. God can do literally anything.

OK, unless we're just playing some philosophy, some stupid

philosophy game, but God can do anything.

So why could he do no mighty work there?

Well, because of their unbelief. So God's limited, remember,

because he has chosen to limit himself.

The Lord has said I will function in accordance with the

faith of my people. I will interact with their

faith. So in that sense, yes, the Lord

literally could do no mighty work there because he has chosen

to function with people in that way.

I've never heard anyone teach or anyone believe that God was

incapable, actually, or powerless that day.

But the point is that he has chosen to interact with his

people in a certain way, and he marvels when people doubt him.

He marvels when people doubt him.

Jesus marvels. I can't believe this.

This is crazy. He's shocked, he's surprised,

which also necessarily implies that Jesus is not the one

preventing them from believing. Somebody say Amen.

Jesus is not stopping them from believing him, because if he was

stopping them from believing him, how then could he marvel at

their lack of belief? Right?

So again, to our brothers and sisters who we dearly love, who

are Saints, who will be with forever, and who we fellowship

with now, but for our brothers and sisters who would say that

the Lord controls everything, even people's faith.

Is there interaction? Yeah, but there's some stuff

that's not quite clear. But Jesus is displeased with

them. Is it reasonable to be

displeased with someone when you are the 1 causing the problem

that they're supposedly causing? No, that's just like, I don't

know what that I guess that's gaslighting is what that would

be, right? So your faith, your trust, your

belief, your expectation is the road.

Here's one way to think about it.

Our faith, what is our faith? What's the, what's the, what's

the play that it has? Our faith is the road that God

uses to deliver his promises. The promises of God are the

thing. The road is not the thing, but

it needs to be there though. But we don't make a big deal

about the road. The road's not the special

thing. The cargo is the special thing.

That's what's important. Can He deliver his cargo without

your Rd. Yes, he can, and yes, He has.

But as you read your Bible, you will continue to see that God's

preferred and normative approach is to use and work with the

faith of His people. God wants you to have a road of

faith so that heaven can constantly deliver its promises.

Well, I've seen the Lord work sovereignly, apart from anybody

or anything. And in spite of our faith, in

spite of all of our doubt, I've seen the Lord do this.

Welcome to the goodness and kindness and extreme goodness of

your God. He is so good, by the way.

We don't deserve anything. Even when we lay down the road,

we don't now deserve it. He's always good.

But how much more, even in our doubt and in our unbelief, when

he does something sovereignly, we go, wow, that's not to be

taken as a lesson to go. God will do what he wants.

There ain't nothing you can do about it.

Let's, let's be more clear. Let's be more clear with what

the Scripture gives us here. So your faith matters.

Can you show me that somewhere else, Pastor?

I sure can go to James Chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

And we're not exhausting the subject of faith today.

It's important to clarify just really quick the, the

distinction between the, the kinds of faith.

So a lot of times, like if you're talking to somebody out

in the world, they might say, Oh, your faith's really

important to you. They mean your Christianity.

So that's one way that your faith is used.

That's not the way I'm preaching on faith today.

I don't mean like, hey, our faith in God matters.

Like the devil has faith. Everybody knows there is a God.

Whether or not they would acknowledge that the Lord would,

the Lord would disagree with them.

Whenever they say that, you know they don't believe that.

Now they've hardened their hearts and there's a lot going

on there. So when we're talking about

faith, we're talking about actual grabbing a hold of God's

promises and trust, expectation, his word, his will, his nature

and his character. And that's what James is

referencing here. He's not referencing just the I

have religion. He's referencing the specific

promises of God. James chapter one, verse 5.

If any of you lacks wisdom. So now we're going to lay our

faith on one specific thing, to ask for God.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God.

Well, that's me. I've asked for wisdom many

times, and I'll continue to let him ask God, who gives

generously to all without reproach.

Well, that's good news, and it will be given him.

What a promise. You need wisdom, Ask God for it.

He gives generously to everybody.

It will be given to you. But now James goes on.

He goes. Let me clarify.

There's a condition here. Everybody say there's a

condition, but let him ask in faith with no doubting.

For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven

and tossed by the wind. What will happen if I doubt?

Verse 7 tells you. For that person must not suppose

that he will receive anything from the Lord.

Oh, OK, well, that's the full picture, isn't it?

I like verse 5 all by itself. Ask God, He'll give it the end.

That's how most Christians function.

I ask God, he didn't give it. I guess he didn't want me to

have it. There's other factors here at

play, friend. What are you saying?

Are you saying it's my fault? Calm, calm down.

My my brother and sister in Christ, I love you.

I just want to give you the whole story here.

Can we reason together? Can we look at some passages

together? I just think you're going to say

it's my fault. I'm not going to say anything.

How about we just read out loud together and we and we just,

I'll ask you what it means. How about we do that?

Maybe that would be a wiser approach.

Maybe that would be an easier way.

Why? Because the ego is big and the

ego is real. And there's a lot of

consequences and there's a lot of tragedy that people have

experienced and people have prayed for a lot of important

things that didn't happen. So there's a lot of hurt around

these things. It's not always small, you know,

not that wisdom is small, but it's not always like I need

wisdom. I don't know if I've got it or

not. How do you measure it?

I feel like I'm just as dumb as it was yesterday, you know,

compared to my child, compared to my sick loved 1, compared to

other catastrophic things that they need power and they need

the movement of heaven right here, right now.

So there's a lot of hurt and there's a lot of weight around

these things, which is why we should be gracious, which is why

we should be gentle while at the same time being truth tellers.

Who does that? Remind me of a truth teller, you

wicked and twisted generation. Bring him here to me.

He brings the whole thing all the time.

We need to be the right thing at the right time, of course, like

Jesus, but I like verse 5. Ask God and it's done.

But there's more than verse 5. But let him ask in faith with no

doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that's

driven and tossed by the wind. What's wrong with that?

I'll tell you what's wrong with that.

That person must not suppose that he will receive anything

from the Lord. Ah, oh, so we have a condition

here with God's promises. Yep, Yep, Pastor, obvious.

Thanks for that. There's conditions with God's

promises verse 8. He's a double minded man,

unstable in all his ways. Pastor, what point do you want

to make? You seem angry.

Well, I get frustrated when people don't understand how God

works, especially whenever it comes down to their ego.

And I think a lot of times this becomes an issue of ego for

folks. Whereas like I've prayed for

many things that I haven't seen answers to, but I consistently

say God, you're good and I don't understand everything.

Maybe I thought I was in faith, maybe I don't.

I don't want you to get caught up in it.

I don't want you to get tripped up.

I don't. You go more faith to have less

faith to have big faith to a small faith.

I just want you to keep looking to Jesus.

I just want you to look to Jesus.

Just go. I feel like I got a spec fine

that speckled to do just fine as long as you planted in the soil

of Christ. The rest is history.

I want you to keep putting your eyes on Jesus and I want you to

know your faith matters. I want you to know your God is

sovereign and all powerful and His sovereignty.

In his sovereignty, He is chosen to function in a particular way,

and that is a participation with your faith.

I want to encourage you to build your faith.

How do you do that with your Bible, with the Word of God?

The more time you spend getting familiar with the Word of God,

the more things you you can recognize truth more clearly.

Saints who have been in the word for a long time, man, there's

just a it. There's just a filter and stuff.

Can't get through it all. Christians who have spent a lot

of time in the Word you, you just know a lie when you hear it

and you just know truth when you hear it.

Why? Because the Spirit of God in you

and the voice of God in you is confirming these things or or

denying these things depending on what they are.

But your faith, your specific trust and expectation in God's

word and his nature and his character, they matter.

And your faith often determine, determines what you will and

will not receive from God. God's not angry.

God's not shaming or condemning. God is just saying, here's the

way I've set things up for fellowship for you and I, I want

you to learn me. I want you to seek me.

I want you to walk with me. There's there's blessings that

come along with that. And it's sure enough, there's

consequences for not like I said, pastor, obvious stuff that

Christians have to agree with in the pews on a Sunday morning

when it's laid out in front of them.

But many times we don't believe it in day-to-day life.

The way that we speak reveals what we think is really

happening with something. Well, this thing happens.

So I guess the Lord wanted to blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, I cringe every time I hear something like that.

Yeah, I thought. I mean, I talked to a lot of

people throughout the course of a week and people talk as though

everything that happens is the Lord's will and, and bless their

hearts. I don't mean that in the

southern passive aggressive, insulting way.

I mean it in the genuine care and compassion that I have for

them way. Bless their hearts.

They most of the time they just haven't pulled that thread all

the way out. They just haven't followed it

all the way through to its logical conclusions to go, oh

man, I was doing this, that and the other and then, you know,

got in the car wreck and blah, blah, total this thing.

But then this is so look at what the I'm like, yeah, what you

just described was the goodness of God and his resurrection

principles in spite of a bad thing.

But people often like they just don't think through and pull the

thread all the way out and go, oh, oh, they just see a little

thread dangling and they say, this is what the Lord wanted.

Everything that happens is what the Lord wanted.

This is what the Lord wanted. This is what the Lord wanted,

and they're not recognizing God is good and he brings good out

of bad because God is good, because God is wonderful.

Saints, everything that happens is not God's will.

Everything that happens is not God's will.

Did he just say that? Yeah, he did.

He'll say it many, many more times.

It's not God's will for me to sin.

We must pray, we must obey, and we must believe God if we want

to see more of His power. Like I said, we know that Father

prayed for his Son before that day arrived many times.

Why did anything happen? Some would even argue, well,

because the Lord wanted to do it that day, fine, fine.

But my, my point remains, the Lord wanted to do it.

Nobody can point to the ministry of Jesus and show me anywhere

where the Lord didn't want to do it.

Everybody will always have to come to the Lord wanted to do

it. Well, why did you do it at this

time? We can argue about timelines.

I'm open to that one. I'm open to being wrong on that

one, not open to the Lord. Didn't want to do it.

Clearly he did, but my faith played a part.

Keep going. I want to take you back to Mark

91 last time and we're going to start closing now.

So Mark's account just gives us more detail.

Same thing. Same thing as Matthew.

Mark's just filling in other details.

Mark filled in certain details. Matthew and Mark both recorded

Mark 921 and Jesus asked the Father, how long has this been

happening to him? And he said from childhood.

And it is often cast him into the fire and into water to

destroy him. But if you can do anything, have

compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, If you

can stop him in his tracks, if you can, all things are possible

for one who believes. So Jesus quotes the man back to

himself. He interrupts him right away.

Lord, if you can do anything, please help us if you can,

quoting the man right in front of him, all things are possible

for the one who believes. Correcting this father right

away. Immediately the father of the

child cried out and said, I believe help my unbelief.

I've prayed this prayer many times, Lord, I do believe help

my unbelief because I know there's some doubts in there

too. And it's like this weird

mixture. And I don't want any poison in

my dinner. Do you?

How many drops of how many drops of Sinai do you want in your

dinner? And just one, maybe 0, right?

Yeah. So the same way Lord, purify my

faith, help me to trust you and stop believing my circumstances.

Help me stop being such a natural man.

And the Lord is saying keep walking with me, son, even right

now. Jesus says this, this kind

other, other there, there's other passages here that say

this kind doesn't come out by prayer.

He tells them in verse 29, this kind of doesn't come out by

prayer. Why couldn't we cast the demon

out? He says this kind of only comes

out by prayer. That wasn't to say you have to

go pray alone and then come back.

The point was the development of your faith through a life of

prayer. The emphasis is not on here's

the formula to make the demon come out.

The emphasis is on building up your faith.

A life of prayer is where faith will come from.

A life in the Word of God is where faith will come from.

If you can do anything, This is the fatal flaw in our faith that

makes our faith not faith at all.

The IF. How many times have have I

placed the if on God? But Jesus fixes it real fast?

No, no, no, no, no. There is an if, but the IF is

not with me. Jesus says if you can believe,

all things are possible. For those who believe will make

the quick and obvious point that when He says all things are

possible, we're not talking about ridiculousness or

stupidity, you know, or I want Lamborghini lightning bolts

flying across. They're like, we're talking

about things that the Lord wants, things that come from the

Word of God, things that are in line with His nature and His

character. Do you have confidence?

Faith begins where the will of God is known.

I can't have faith in God for for things that I'm just coming

up without a thin air. And yet when we know the word of

God, the nature of God and the character of God, now I can

start to put my mustard seed or smaller right there and say it's

settled. I don't see it yet.

Oh, I've been waiting for a while.

Oh, it's through faith and patience that we inherit the

promises. It's not always an instantaneous

thing, but there is an if and all things are possible if we

will believe in verse 20 of Matthew 17 now.

And he said to them, because of your little faith for true lay,

I say, if you have the faith like a grain of a mustard seed,

you'll say to this mountain, move from here to there and it

will move and nothing will be impossible for you.

If your faith is in God's Word, if it's pure, you won't need to

focus on bigger faith or or over analyzing the quality of your

faith. Just faith and you're all set

because faith is just the road. The road isn't really what we're

after, is it? It's the cargo that we're after.

It's the cargo of heaven. So pure trusting Bible faith is

enough to move a mountain. Now we'll say this, we do know

that when Jesus said anything, he didn't mean anything like I

said, according to the will of God.

So if you needed a mountain to move, a literal mountain, that

could happen. There's not a limitation.

It's not more difficult for the Lord.

Why would you say that, pastor? Why would you go out like this?

Why would you end it like that? Well, because the fig tree

Withers up. Jesus cursed a fig tree and the

disciples marvelled at it. He said no one will ever eat

fruit from you ever again. And the tree Withers and the

disciples go, that's crazy. And then Jesus, who's just done

a physical example right before their eyes, says, if you think

that's crazy, I tell you that you can move a mountain.

So what's your point, pastor? My point is that your faith is

the road that can carry anything on it.

It can carry a fig tree. It can carry a mountain.

He said I don't really have much need for cursing fig trees right

now. And there's actually no

mountains around here, and I really don't need any of them

out of my way. Fair enough.

The point is, anything and everything that you would come

against in life, that's against the will of God.

He wants you to be the minister. He wants you to be the disciple.

He wants you to execute the work of His ministry.

He wants you to charge and storm the gates of hell.

He wants you to be that prayer warrior.

He wants you to be that Christian who joins with your

brothers and sisters in salt. He wants you to be that

Christian who blesses the people of the world around you.

And He expects ministry power to flow through you.

He expects you to have a road. I need to develop my Rd. then

get to developing it. How do I do that?

Is there a formula? Well, there's some best

practices. Read your Bible, read your Bible

and joy and feast on your Bible. Pray, pray about your Bible.

Talk to the Lord about what you read in your Bible.

You're going to develop your relationship with Him.

You don't have to complicate it. You just enjoy him and walk with

him. Your faith will be developed.

That road is being built. Darren's built a lot of roads.

He's built a lot of bridges. Why?

For the precious cargo of people.

But the roads, there's a lot required there.

It takes time. So we, we want to develop our

faith. We want to build our faith.

But remember, faith comes from hearing the word of God.

So get the word of God more in your head.

Get the word of God more in your heart, more before your eyes

because you have you have ministry work to accomplish.

There are people who need to believe, who need you to believe

God on their behalf. Like this boy.

He needed others to stand up for him.

Your children, your spouse, your friends, your family, your

enemies. This world needs a bright

believing church who walks in power, not who says whatever

will be will be, but who says we're going to make the Kingdom

come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We're going to do our part. We're going to make sure we have

a road. We're going to make sure we have

a road. We're going to make sure we use

it. We're going to say, Lord, find

this road, bring your heavenly cargo down this way.

Use me. Believe God, believe that he

loves you and that he loves to be believed by you.

The Lord is so pleased when people believe him.

I love to see the delight in Jesus when people believed him

and he goes, that made my day, that made my day.

You just believed me. You trusted me.

I mean, it's a pleasing thing. The Lord is so satisfied when

his Saints believe him. He goes, ah, you will not be put

to shame. Those who trust in the Lord will

never be put to shame. But that trust looks like

something. He loves to be believed by you,

and He loves to come through for you.

Your God will come through for you.

Your God will come through for you.

There's no issue with the cargo. Lord, build our roads, build our

roads stronger, build whatever needs to be built on us.

Lord, there's areas of our lives where we're actually quick to

trust you. There's some areas where it's

just easy, where it's just, we've always been able to trust

you in that area. We laid our faith on it.

Maybe it was wisdom or, or maybe it was for financial provision

or, or maybe it's for healing. Maybe there's areas that's just

ma'am, I just trust the Lord and, and, and his heavenly cargo

just flows quickly in that area. And then maybe there are other

areas of my life where I know why I'm not receiving because of

my little faith. Lord, protect me from

condemnation. Protect your your Saints from

the accusations of the devil, from shame and from guilt or

from overwhelm and bless them with relief and delight.

Lord, even as the Word was preached today You have

delivered again the faith needed to believe in.

So we believe Your word and we pray that You will continue to

purify our faith so we would receive all that You intended

and that You would make us effective and powerful

ministers, well equipped and well able to glorify Your name

to carry out Your ministry work. We love you, we thank you, we

honor you, and now the Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face Shinedown upon you, and be gracious to

you. The Lord lift up his countenance

upon you and give you great peace in Jesus name, Amen.