Praying for Belief | How We Change

Providence Family, it is uh once again, it's great to see you.

If you're in this room or over in the harbor, we're glad that you have joined us.

If you're a guest with us, we're honored that you are here, and I pray this time will be encouraging to you.

Uh, as a church family, we want to help each and every one of us understand uh the steps that we can take uh as his followers to how do we really know him, how do we grow in him, how do we serve, how do we take the gospel all around the world.

And so we provide a lot of opportunities, but we also want to provide you with knowledge of where those are happening.

And so this app is for you.

I hope that you will download it.

If you already have, if you want to go to the bottom of it, you'll find a little button down there.

It says weekend.

If you hit that button, you're gonna find the notes to the sermon that we're gonna walk through right now.

And so um uh so that's first.

Second is uh tonight at six o'clock, we're gonna meet right here to pray and to worship.

It's one of the sweetest times of the whole month.

And as we walk through this sermon, what you're gonna see is what we're gonna pray about here at 6 p.m., which is really for our heart.

I believe that tonight will not only be uh formative for us as people, um, but it will, I think, help transform our own church family.

And so um I say I invite you, I do invite you, I appeal to you, would you please come?

It'll start at 6 o'clock tonight.

So let me pray.

Father in heaven, we bow before you and we ask that you would open up our hearts to be able to receive your word and to believe.

We are thankful for the privilege to be able to do this, and we confess to you that there are parts of our heart that really do believe in you.

We believe your promise, we believe what you've said, and yet you know that the truth be told, that you can find places within our heart where there's a lot of unbelief.

And we would ask, Father, that you would root that out.

That you would expose it, you would help us to grow.

We thank you that the Bible is true, and that the Bible tells us that we've been made in your image with a capacity for good.

We're thankful for that.

Your word also tells us that we are fallen, that we've fallen short of your glory, which means that we have great capacity to do evil.

But we praise you that your word tells us that we are redeemable.

And being redeemable, we have the ability and the capacity by your spirit's power to grow and to change.

And we want to change.

So would you use this time in your word to contribute to that change in our lives?

And we pray all of this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Well, two weeks ago, we launched into a new series here at Providence.

It's for two months.

It's called How We Change.

And um, change is something that we all want.

It's it's very obvious, and the reason is because each one of us lives in that really disheartening gap between who we are and who we want to be.

I've said before that our life, our nature is like a rubber ball.

You can grab it, you can say, I want this to change shape.

And so you can exert influence over it.

You can squeeze it, you can manipulate it, you can exploit it, you can twist it.

But once you release pressure, that ball tends to revert back to how it was always was.

And we find that to be true in our own lives.

The true change in our life, lasting change, seems to avert all of our goals and resolutions and efforts.

So, what we're doing in this series is looking at the steps that God tells us to take in his word, that we're supposed to take, that he's promised that he will meet us in these steps, provide his power, and in doing so, he will change our heart.

And so, two weeks ago, we began by looking at how we walk by the Spirit.

If you're brand new to all of this, that might sound like a weird sentence, to walk by the Spirit.

But the Bible says when we put our trust in Christ, that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, comes to dwell and live within our heart, well, he speaks and he can be grieved and he can hear us.

And so we need to learn how we, as followers of Christ, can walk by the Spirit who lives within us.

And the reason is because he empowers every part of the Christian life, including every step of growth.

And then last week we looked at the importance of the first step that we take, and that is that each and every one of us would try to inject truth into our life by reading the Bible.

Truth, of course, is critical to life, it establishes reality.

Each and every one of us needs truth over life, about death, about marriage, parenting, about sexuality and gender and work and worship and rest.

We need truth, and truth is real.

What's interesting is Jesus came to the earth and he says, I'm the way and the truth.

He says, I am the truth, which means that we not only need truth because it establishes reality, but truth establishes the target of our growth or our change.

We want to become like Christ.

And so we looked at a verse last week, which is really a fascinating one, 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and this is what it says.

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

It says, and we, he's speaking to Christians.

This is to a church in a city called Corinth.

He says, and we with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Now, if you take the ingredients of that one verse, it is one of the most powerful and formative things that you can understand.

In fact, this is the New Testament model of change wrapped up in a sentence.

If we begin, he says, when we come to faith in Christ, the blinder comes off of our eyes and we are able to behold.

We're able to see, and we're able to see the glory of the Lord.

It's to see Jesus.

Every one of us becomes like the person we admire.

We want to be like them.

And so what he's saying is this is that the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to see the glory of Jesus Christ.

And in seeing his glory, we are being transformed into the same image.

The same image is his image, which means that your goal in life in terms of change should not be, I want to be a better me.

I want to see the best version of me.

Our goal should be, I want to be like him.

Like him.

And it's incremental.

It happens, as he says, from one degree of glory to another, which means that the circle that we're working through in a sermon series, one time through, is something we do over and over and over and over through our whole life with every part of our life.

And as we do, incrementally we grow and we change.

And all this comes when the Holy Spirit exposes our eyes to the truth of his word and to the glory of Jesus in his word.

So if you want to grow, you need to see Christ.

And you need to read the Bible.

And the reason is because Christ is either promised, he is celebrated, or he is described in some way on every page of the Bible.

And this leads to the third message, which is the second step in this wheel, and that is praying for belief.

So if you have a Bible, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

And as you're turning there, I want you to try to imagine something.

I want you to imagine you have a sports car and you have an adult child, and you want to pass that sports car to your adult child, and he doesn't know how to drive a stick shift.

Okay?

So I realize there's a lot going on in that sentence, okay?

One, it assumes you have a sports car, many of us don't.

We want to give it to an adult child, many of us won't.

And it's just a crime that he doesn't know how to drive a stick shift, okay?

But work with me here, okay?

So he doesn't know how to drive it, so it's now time.

You want to pass this treasure of yours to him, and so you say, we need to learn how to drive this car.

And so, first, before you get in it, you explain it.

You explain the clutch.

Here's the stick, these are the gears, this is how it works, these are the RPMs.

When it gets to this level, this is when you push the clutch in, this is when you shift.

This is why we do it.

It's gonna protect the car.

And all of a sudden, he's ready.

He says, Dad, I'm ready.

Let's do this.

He gets behind the wheel and he stumbles into first gear.

So, but we're now moving, right?

So now we're going, all of a sudden he kind of gets locked up and he just will not shift out of first.

And so you're sitting there like, okay, it's now it's time.

You need to go to second gear.

Push the clutch in.

No, really, like right now, like right now's the time.

So you see that it's in the red over there?

Like this is not good for the car, and I promise you that this was created and manufactured, so there's more joy when you get to second gear, and then even more joy when you get to third gear.

You have to shift, and you won't shift.

And so you say, I'll tell you what, just pull over for a second.

Just a second, just pull over.

So you pull over, and you say, Look, I don't know why you won't shift, but you really need to shift.

And you start going through all the reasons once again.

This is how the car was built, this is where joy is found.

He says, Okay, dad, I got it.

He gets back out, he's in first gear, and he refuses to shift the second.

You're not sure what to do.

You've already said all your words to him, and so you say, Okay, I'll tell you what, just stop.

Just stop the car one more time.

You're on 540.

So he pulls over to the side, and you get out of the car, you only got one option left.

So you get down on your knees and you look up to God, and you're like, God, please.

Would you help him to see the potential that's available to him right now?

Now that is what Paul does in Ephesians 3.

He knows that Christ lives in the church.

There is untold potential and power that is within their heart, and yet they are all locked up in the first gear.

They're locked up in addiction.

They can't get over their temptation, they can't seem to be kind to their spouse.

They have the Spirit of God within them.

They're moving as believers.

But most of what is available to them is not being enjoyed or used.

And so Paul, after explaining to them, drops down on his knees and he prays.

Look what it says, verse 14.

For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, for whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

Now you notice the words that are circled.

What he's about to do is this one prayer, it's stacked four high in order to get somewhere.

He's going to build a foundation, build a second layer, a third layer in order to get to the fourth layer.

He says that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

Now, Paul was writing this from a prison in Rome.

His heart is in Ephesus with this church, and yet you notice that he bows his knees, he kneels in verse 14, and suddenly he is before God Almighty in heaven.

He couldn't get to Ephesus, and so he brought the church in Ephesus to heaven.

And you notice a number of things here immediately.

First of all, you notice a posture.

He's kneeling, he's bowing his knees before the Father.

Now, the Bible tells us that God hears us no matter our posture, and you read through the Bible and you find that lots of people prayed in different ways, standing, sitting, quiet, loud, all kinds of different ways.

But posture reflects attitude.

And sometimes earnestness.

The very posture of kneeling is the posture of surrender, urgency, desperation.

He doesn't say, Yeah, I'm laying here on my bed just throwing one up for you.

He says, I am on my knees.

And that tells something about the urgency within his heart.

Second thing I want you to notice in verse 14 is the access that he and we have to Christ, to God Almighty, to be able to pray.

This is amazing to me.

He is in Rome, he bows his knees in Rome, and yet he is before God in heaven.

You see that?

Our prayers can go today where we can't.

It's a beautiful thing.

He has access, and so do we.

This is one of the family rights, everyone who is in Christ.

But it wasn't always this way, friends.

And this is one of the most amazing things.

You see in the Bible, it says that when we sinned against God, we broke fellowship with him, and suddenly he who is holy, and we who are now sinful, there's a gap between us.

And so God tells us that he wanted to bridge that gap.

And so he makes a promise that one day he's gonna send a savior to the world to reconcile us back to him.

Well, in the fullness of time, God did send a Savior, His Son, gave him the name Jesus, which means Savior.

And Jesus lived his life without sin, and yet he went to a cross and there he died for our sin.

He was buried and he rose from the dead.

What does that mean?

Well, when Jesus was on the cross, there was a temple, and the temple had a curtain that separated what was called the most holy place from the rest of the temple.

It was a temple that separated the holiness of God from the sinfulness of man.

And yet when Jesus died on that cross, that curtain that was physical, but it was also symbolic of the gap between us and God, it was torn from top to bottom.

And that represented for us something so remarkable, and that is that if we would put our faith in Christ, Hebrews says that he becomes our great high priest, and we have constant access.

In fact, in chapter 3, verse 12, he says, we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

So we see posture, we see access, and we see him praying, and what he prays becomes an instruction manual on what we are to pray for if we want to change.

Or parents, what we pray for for our children if we want them to change.

The first thing we find is that we are to ask God to strengthen our heart.

Our heart.

We're to ask God to strengthen our heart.

Our heart that he calls the inner being in verse 16 is like a tree that bears fruit.

The fruit is our words, our attitudes, our actions.

And depending upon the quality of the root system, the fruit comes out either good or bad.

Of course, Jesus said this, speaking of the human heart in Matthew chapter 7, he says, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

And the fact is that every one of us know that we bear some bad fruit.

Good fruit, but there's also words and attitudes and actions that come out of us.

We're like, that needs to be covered up or that needs to be dealt with.

That's not appealing.

But here's a challenge that we have.

And the Bible addresses that because we live in community and other people are watching us, we become very aware that they're watching us.

And so we become instinctive to deal with polishing up the rotten fruit as opposed to taking the time that is necessary to address the root system.

And so Jesus expressed this in Matthew 23 when he said, You clean the outside of the cup and plate.

What people can see.

But inside you're full of greed and self-indulgence.

He goes, here's your strategy first.

Clean the inside of the cup and plate.

The outside also may be clean.

In other words, if the only thing we do is we're trying to hide all of the ugly fruit, if we try to paint it, spray paint that so that other people, it looks really, really healthy for other people, what happens is the root system is going to continue to bear that ugly fruit more and more and more.

You won't be able to stop it.

But if, however, we would take the time necessary and ask God to address our heart to change the root system, then suddenly it's going to be producing instinctively good fruit.

What I'm saying is the battle is won in the heart.

Which is why Paul prays in verse 16 that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

Literally, he's on the side of the road saying, God, address their heart, fix their heart, reform their heart according to or with the riches that you've already given to them.

This is an amazing thing.

He's not saying give them something new.

He's saying, with what you've already given them.

You've already given them your word.

Use your word to strengthen their heart.

You've already given them your promises.

Use your promises to strengthen your heart.

You've already put them in community of love and accountability.

Use your community to strengthen their heart.

So let me encourage us before we move on is let's not tire in praying for our heart.

In our personal life or even in our parenting or in our friendships, our instinct is always to address the symptoms.

And God always tells us to set our target on the source.

God, start here.

The second thing that we find that he teaches us to pray is that we are to ask for faith so that Christ would dwell peacefully.

We're to ask for faith so that Christ would dwell peacefully.

Now, Paul knew that his first readers in Ephesus were believers.

In chapter 1, verse 1, he calls them saints in Christ Jesus.

In chapter 1, verse 13, he says, When you believed in Christ, you were filled with the Spirit and sealed for the day of redemption.

In chapter 2, verse 4, he says, You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but now Christ has made you alive.

You're born again.

He knows Christ dwells in them.

And yet notice what he prays next.

He's saying, I'm praying that God would strengthen your inner spirit, your inner being with his spirit, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Now, why does he pray that if he already knows that Christ is dwelling in their hearts?

Because the word dwell in verse 13 is a pretty interesting, amazing word.

In Greek it's kot oikeo.

Kot means down, oi is home.

It's literally to settle down at home.

To dwell peacefully.

In other words, all of us know this to be true.

Some of you you grew up in a home and you dwelt there.

When you had to put down your address, that's the address you put down, and yet you couldn't dwell there peacefully because it was violent, or cold, or abusive, or loud.

You couldn't dwell peacefully.

And what he's saying here is this is that we want to con to be the house.

Christ lives in us, but in some of us, he's not living peacefully today.

The conditions are such that it makes it a pretty aggressive place for someone who is holy.

All of us who share a living space with someone else, whether it's a college dorm room, an apartment with friends, a home with your family, if you live in a space where there's other human beings, you know that how we live affects their ability to dwell peacefully in that place.

Where you leave your stuff, what time you get up, what do you do at night, how mean you are, all of it, right?

I mean, when you live in a place with someone, how you live affects how they dwell peacefully.

Paul's saying Jesus lives in you, he dwells.

The question is, is he comfortable?

So what allows Jesus to settle in our heart, to dwell peacefully?

Well, he tells us, one hint in John chapter 14, he says, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.

John 14 · chapter mention

That's obedience.

And my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

So one clue of how we can be a place where Jesus dwells peacefully is that when we hear what he says, is we give quick obedience to it.

But interestingly, there's always something that precedes obedience.

Obedience is the fruit on the branch, but what is it in the root system that produces obedience?

What I want to show you in verse 17 is the answer.

He says that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Faith.

In other words, Christ dwells in every believer.

But he lives peacefully in hearts that are full of faith.

The Bible says that God is a promise maker.

So let me ask you, how do you honor and please a promise maker?

You believe him.

This is why Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6 says, without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Hebrews 11:6

So I want to give you an example to show you the connection because sometimes we have a hard time seeing it without something like this.

The connection between our unbelief and our sin, or our belief and our obedience.

So a long time ago, God comes to a man named Moses and he says, Moses, I have this people, Israel, your people, and I want you to lead them out of slavery in Egypt to a land that I have for them that I promise called the Promised Land.

So Moses does so, and God performs all kinds of these amazing miracles, and they get to the border of the promised land.

They're about to enter, and God comes to them and he says, I want to make a promise to you.

I'm going to go with you.

I'm going to provide for you.

I'm going to take care of you.

I'm going with you.

And they send 12 spies into the land, check things out.

Those spies come back and they say, Well, the land really is amazing.

However, there's giants in the land.

We can't do it even with God.

And those spies lead the hearts of the people to rebel against God.

They say, We're not going.

And so God says in his justice that everyone here who's an adult, the adult generation, you're going to wander around this wilderness for 40 years until you're all dead, and your children will be able to enter the promised land, but not you.

That's pretty harsh, right?

I say harsh, that's serious.

That's serious.

Now, if I ask you, what was their sin?

What was their sin?

Most of us would go, well, they were disobedient or they were rebellious.

But notice how God diagnoses their behavior.

He says, How long will you not believe in me?

So they walk around the wilderness for 40 years.

Everyone in that older generation or they all die, and so it's time to go into the promised land with the next generation.

They get to the border of the promised land, there's no water, so the people begin to grumble.

Moses is exhausted, but he's also a godly man.

So he goes to God and he goes, All right, what do you want me to do now?

You've been feeding us miracle food and miracle water in the wilderness.

You have taken care of us in all these ways.

Here we are, there's no water.

What do you want me to do?

And God says to him, I want you to lead the people, I want you to gather them around this rock.

And when you get out there, I just want to do I want you to speak to this rock, and I'm gonna perform a miracle and provide water for everybody.

Moses goes out, he gathers the people, but all of a sudden, for whatever reason, it says that his anger just flared up, he's in rage and fury, and instead of speaking to it, he said he took his staff and he began to beat the rock.

In God's mercy, he provided water for the people, but in his justice, he says, Moses, you will not be able to enter the promised land.

Now here's a question for you.

If I had to ask you, why did Moses not get to go in?

What was his big sin?

Most of us would say, what?

Rebellion, disobedience, rage, anger.

How does God diagnose Moses' sin?

He says, because you did not believe.

And the New Testament doubles down in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 19, and he says, They were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Hebrews 3:19

You see, friends, rage was the fruit on the branch, but unbelief was the root of the tree.

And so let me encourage us to trace our sin to its unbelief.

It'll make your confession of sin not more effectual in being forgiven, but it will make your confession of sin much more effectual in learning to hate the sin and not just the shame that it produces within your heart.

Let me show you what I mean.

Every single sin, its roots are submerged in unbelief.

God says, don't worry.

When we worry, why do we do it?

It's because we're not believing he's gonna be faithful tomorrow.

He tells us not to gossip.

When we do gossip, it's because we don't believe his promise that gossiping is gonna be relationally destructive.

When we refuse to forgive, when he says, I want you to forgive, it's because we don't believe in his future justice.

We don't believe.

And so God tells us to use our mouth to help one another, remember his promises to us, because there's another voice in our ear all the time.

And so in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 13, he says, he says, exhort one another every day.

Hebrews 3:13

Literally, open your mouth, remind each other of the promises of God, as long as it is called today.

Why?

So that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Sin talks, sin makes promises.

God makes promises.

God makes his promises on the basis of his goodness displayed in the death of his son.

So you have two promise makers in your ear all the time.

And when we sin, it's because we're believing sin's promise instead of God's promise.

And what I want you to know is Christ, who dwells in us, feels that insult.

So if we desire to be a place, a habitat where Christ dwells peacefully, we have to believe Him.

So what I want to encourage you to do is that when you see sin in your life, to live slow enough, don't just give a terse, oh, sorry for that one, Lord.

But think about what is it that I'm not believing that caused me to do that?

What promises have God made that would lead me to not believe those promises, but instead to believe his promises and then confess it as thoroughly as God describes it.

So take gossip, for example.

Many of us we gossip and we say too much, and all of a sudden we feel the conviction of sin.

It's easy to go, you know what, God, here's my confession.

I said too much.

Let me tell you something.

God never describes gossip as you said too much.

And so he may forgive you because you did confess it to him, but you don't hate the sin.

You only hated the shame and you want to get rid of that shame.

But what is it that would actually cause us to say, I don't want to gossip anymore?

A change of heart, of desire.

This is how, is you look at what the Bible says about gossip, and then all of a sudden, or any other sin, but in this case gossip, and you say, Now, how does God describe that?

And then you anchor your confession with those words, in other words, with gossip.

One of the things you could say was this, God, I want to say, I am sorry, because I did not believe your promise that what I would say would destroy people.

I'm aligned, a human being that was made in your image.

I sowed seeds of discord that created division within your people, and I liked it.

Now all of a sudden, you're confessing in a way.

It gives your confession teeth to not only hate the shame, but also the sin.

The third thing that we find here is that we are to ask for help in understanding Christ's love.

Every one of us knows that when somebody loves us and they make a promise to us, we're more apt to believe their promise because we know they're for us and not against us.

And so it is with God.

Until we can see that God is infinitely for us, we will struggle to believe his instructions and his restrictions.

And so you notice what he's stacking.

He's saying, okay, first level, I'm praying that you would be strengthened in your inner being by his spirit.

Second, so that Christ would dwell in your hearts through faith, that you would be praying for additional belief in your heart.

Third, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

In the Bible, he uses the word knowledge in two different ways.

It's really interesting.

You can know about something, and then you can know something.

That's why in the Bible it's an interesting way to describe it, but it's like, and this man knew his wife and she conceived.

So you can know a woman, and then you can know a woman.

You can know about her and you can know her.

Or take a waterfall, for example.

Let's just say you go out to some smart people in here, and you're like, you know what?

I know how to measure the volume of water.

I'm gonna stand next to it.

It's temperature, it's volume, it's force.

I'm gonna know all kinds of things about this waterfall.

But friends, you don't know it until you get underneath it.

So it is with the love of God.

We can know all kinds of things about it.

It's breadth because it's for all people.

It's length because it began, we're told, before the foundation of the world.

It's height because it reaches to the heavens, its depth because it reaches down into the worst places, the pits of our sin.

But none of us know God's love by definition, only by experience.

So let me encourage you to take time to prayerfully consider his love for you.

You may not know it.

You may know about it.

You may be able to describe it.

But many of us don't know experientially the love of God.

And the more you do, the more prone you will be to say, oh, is that what you desire?

Well, if that's what you desire, I know you're for me.

I know you have my best interests at heart.

I'm inclined to want to believe you.

And this is why we need to think about the love of God for us.

Friends, he loved us before we were born.

He loved us before we considered him.

He loved us before we ran from him, and he loved us after we ran from him.

He loved us when we had nothing to give to him.

He loved us when he stood from heaven, took on flesh, he came to the earth.

He loved us when he received nails in his hands and feet that should have been in ours.

He loved us.

And Romans chapter 8 says, He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Romans 8 · chapter mention

In other words, if God Almighty would kill his son for you, don't you think that his instructions would be in your best interest about other parts of life?

It is his love that motivates belief.

The last thing is we are to ask for godliness to overtake our life.

So, once again, let me just stack him up again.

He starts and he says, I'm praying for your inner being that it would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit.

Second, I'm praying that you would increase in faith to be a place where Christ can dwell peacefully.

And then I'm praying that you could comprehend the love of God for you so that you would be inclined to want to obey Him and believe in Him.

But what is all this for?

He gets to the last one, he goes, now this is what I've been after the whole time.

This is the point.

That you may be filled up to the whole fullness of God.

Sometimes the language within the word of God is like, okay, what does that mean?

Let me just ask you this.

What characterizes a person who is filled with God's fullness?

And the answer is godliness.

What is godliness?

The word literally is God-like, to be like God.

What's the goal of change and maturity in life?

It's to the target of Christ, is to say, I want to be transformed into his image from one degree of glory to the next, to become more like him every single day of my life.

When you're filled up to the fullness of God, he's compassionate, kind, and generous.

What happens to you?

You become compile, you become compassionate, kind, and generous.

We become like him.

And friends, what I want you to know is this even incrementally, when you are filled with the fullness of God, it feels like finding third gear.

It's available.

And it is possible.

Because verse 20 and 21 say that he has the power to do exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine.

In closing, I want to give one more application, but it really answers the question, and that is okay, I see the importance of belief, and I need to pray for belief.

And he does amazing things in my life.

If I believe, what if I don't believe?

Or how much belief do I need before he'll start doing amazing things in my life?

So let me encourage you as let's bring our imperfect faith to Christ.

One day, a very anxious dad brought his afflicted son to Jesus in hope that Jesus would rescue his son.

And this dad in Mark chapter 9 says, Jesus, if you can do anything, have compassion.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

He's saying, I want you to feel something.

That's what it means to have compassion, to feel something in this area of your life, literally, your gut.

Have compassion on us and help us.

The word help means to run to the aid.

So here we are.

I'm asking you to see us, to feel something for us, and to run to our aid.

Now watch this.

Jesus finds it really interesting that he began with, if you can.

This is the Son of God, complete power.

And so Jesus says, if you can, all things are possible for one who believes.

But this dad has some measure of integrity.

And the reason is because he could have said, okay, I believe.

That's great.

He could have hit all kinds of cavities of unbelief within his own heart to say, No, if you want belief, then I'll tell you that I believe.

The problem was, is this is a dad who is coming to a man because he believes that this man has the authority that can actually rescue his son from affliction from the demonic power.

And if this man can rescue my son in that way, then this man probably already knows the cavities of unbelief in my heart.

So I can't lie to him.

I can't make this up.

So he has to confess two realities at the same time.

And he says, I believe.

I want to believe.

I do believe.

But help my unbelief.

And interestingly, the word help is the same one as up here.

Run to the aid.

So this is what he's saying.

He's saying, Jesus, I'm asking you to run to the aid of my son's affliction and run to the aid of my unbelief.

This is a prayer for belief.

This is what the whole sermon is.

There it is.

I believe, help my unbelief.

And Jesus didn't say, When you have no more unbelief in your heart, then come back and we'll and I'll think about this.

No, what does he do?

He heals his son in mercy.

So how much did it take?

How much faith did it take?

If faith, if our heart's a beaker and there's lines, and you fill it with faith, how many lines have to be crossed before Jesus goes, okay, now I'll act on your behalf?

How much faith do you need?

How much faith did it take for you to sit in that chair right there?

It did take faith.

Every one of you, you probably don't know this.

I'm amazed.

Look at all the faith in the room.

Look at all you.

How much faith did it take for you to sit down?

I don't know.

Only enough to convince yourself, sit.

And you did.

And don't you know that that chair, it's strong.

You see, a lot of us, we all know this right now, that your faith is not what's holding you up in that chair.

It's the strength of the chair.

It's the steel, it's the strength of the steel in that chair.

And so it is with Christ is that our hope in life is not the strength of our faith, it's the strength of the object of our faith, which means you only have to have enough faith to cry out to him to say, I believe, but help my unbelief.

For those of you who have never put your faith in Christ today, you hear the gospel, you can be forgiven of your sin and given eternal life right now.

And you might say, I think I'm close, but I'm not there.

Cry out to him right now.

Say, I believe.

I know you know.

If you can save me, then you can see all the parts of my heart that aren't right.

Help my unbelief.

And those of you who've already put your faith in Christ and yet you're dealing with whether it's temptation or addiction or some pattern in life where you're looking at it and you go, Man, that looks like a good thing, but I just don't believe that's gonna work today in my situation.

Believe him.

Have enough belief that he can take care of you.

So let's pray.

Father in heaven, we ask that you would be merciful to us and that you would respond to our longing to believe more with mercy to help us at the point of our needs and the crisis of our life.

You see our weaknesses, you see our addictions, you see our temptations, you see our stumbling, you see our longing to be completely changed.

You see how patterns in our life are destroying us.

You see how all of our resolutions and goals have done nothing for us.

You see it all, and we see it too.

We believe you have the power.

And so we cry out to you would you help us with our unbelief?

Help us sing to you now about our faith.

And we pray all of this in Christ's name.

Amen.