“Everything Is Possible for One Who Believes” | Mark 9:14–29

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Good morning, good morning, we talk morning, good morning,

do you and man? Oh man, yes, it's twice this week.

What I told you is coming. Jeff, it's the immense talent.

I'm not sure that we can handle it. Chris, you

did not believe me, but I hold it out.

Man too.

Good mornings. Today's Thursday and I we we say good

morning on Tuesday. And by the way, I wonder if

people who have a habit of listening this in the

evening are like, come on, man.

Good afternoon, good any evening.

Yeah, well, I mean, like seriously, they're probably thinking themselves, like,

why do you always assume right bad assumptions.

Well, yeah, the majority of people do watch in the morning.

Yeah I know, I know they do. But anyway, way,

we are the Bible Guys, and we're in the middle

of a podcast or excuse me, I said that twice

now in the middle of a series about a podcast.

What if Jesus had his own podcast? And so today's

saying is something that Jesus said, Everyone is possible. Everything

is possible for one who believes.

O good one tongue tied. I like that one, though,

it's possible for one who live Yes, yeah, so before

we get into that though, Chris, you know our longtime

listeners know this is true. We scour the internet for

the very best every week, every week, the very best news.

We try, trust worthy intellectual information we can find for

our people.

Yeah, we try it. We try other ones, but it

always brings us back to the Babylon B.

What's the single greatest source of information on the whole Internet.

I agree.

If you don't look at the Babylon B on a

regular basis, you are totally uninformed and ignorant people.

Wow, wow, why.

Do why do people? What do people think? Are our superpower?

Where's this come from? It comes from the fact we

spent time with the Babylon B. That's it, ok think, yes, yeah,

so this one talking about deep research. There's been the

geniuses at the Babylon Bee have doing some very deep

textual research and they came up with this this thing,

nine movies that should be part of the Biblical canon.

Oh, I love it.

You like this?

I love it?

Okay, So here's what it says. As great as the

Bible is it's severely lacking in movies.

Wow, it's very lacking in movies.

Adding in some of the greatest films ever could have

ever made could bring some much needed excitement to the

collection in the Holy Scripture.

Okay, now, I didn't glance at this until just now. Yeah,

and I've decided this could be my favorite Babylon b e.

Okay, the Babylon b has come up with the following

list of movies that should be made part of the

Biblical canon. Oh one, the Matrix, of course, the one

coming from another world to save mankind. It fits right in.

Yeah, and I can go on and on about this.

Yes, I believe you.

It's all biblical. You know Zion the Hidden City. Trinity

is her name, right, he's the one.

Yeah. They're not even trying to hide it.

Yeah, No, they're not, they're not.

Okay, I don't know this one. Robot Jocks.

I don't know what.

I don't know that one either. It's a post apocalyptic

tale about scores being settled by giant fighting robots, which

is basically an exact piction of the end times. I do,

I haven't seen it. I don't know. UHF I don't

know that one. Either, I don't.

I don't know if I have seen that or not.

It's arguably the greatest story of redemption in finding purpose?

Not do you know? January sixth, No, don't know that one.

Let's move on. How about Brave Heart of course? Okay, Braveheart,

an epic tale of swords, blood and dismemberment on power

with the Book of Judges. Yes, yes, okay, Conan the Barbarian,

of course, I know that one. Yes, it's a sandal

wearing hero slaughters a giant serpent. Sound familiar.

That's great.

That's a good Field of Dreams. Of course, that's good.

The only movie that allows men to cry.

Yet, Oh, that's really funny.

The Lord of the Rings extended editions. Yes, except for

the boring parts of the Two Towers. That yeah, that's

that's a And then number nine, Raiders of the Lost Arc,

the single greatest movie ever made, features all the face

melting by the Arc of the Covenant left out of

the Old Testament.

Nice, and you love that. That's one of your favorite movement?

That's right? Is that your favorite movie? Probably? Not only

would it make the Bible more complete, but it also

give megachurch pastors the perfect list of films to show

clips from for for their annual at the Movies sermon series?

Nice which other movies should be cannonized? Post your suggestions

so let us know.

So, So there was a member Youth Specialties. Yes, so

when we were in I remember them when we were

in the nineties as pastors of high school.

Just crossed them up yesterday to some of these pastors.

Did you know they were? They were a great, big

company that used to supply all these different great ideas

for youth ministry. And one guy wrote a book from

satur Back Church and it was about incorporating movie clips

in every sermon.

Yeah, and you.

Remember that I do. And so I remember like he

would literally give you the time codes on the VHS, Yes,

and you'd fast forward into the VHS and you'd hit

play remember, and I used an okay, So do you

remember mister Hollins Opus, Yes, Okay. Do you remember at

the end when he walks into the high school theater

and then everybody uh hes all his the impact that

he made throughout his whole life.

Okay and everybody okay.

Well I set it up for that clip, and I

was following this idea of like teaching the Bible from this,

and you know how sometimes VCRs what they'll do is

they'll rewind a.

Little bit, just a little bit, and yeah, yeah, okay,

so I said it exactly where it is, I shut

it off, and then when I hit play, it had

played like the previous like five seconds and they call

the son, calls the dad.

And a bad name, a bad name.

Oh no, and it's a total cust work, right, and

and uh and and so and.

So that's that's right in the middle of your Bibles.

Yes, okay, So so literally in the middle of my Bible.

Aston I'm like, watch this, I plus press play and

the bof there goes the customer and I'm like, oh

my goodness. I'm like, I'm don't get get fired. It

was really funny. But hey, let me just say this

real quick too. Did you ever watch The Big Bang Theory.

I've seen a couple of episodes.

Okay. Did you hear about or know about how they

critique Raiders are Lost Dark?

No?

Okay, so they are all three for of these nerds, right,

They're just like these nerdy guys who are like geniuses

and they love sci fi and they love all these

different things, and one of the things they love is

Raiders the Lost Dark. So they play it for Amy

and Amy is also, you know, incredibly intelligent, and and

she watches it and he goes, so did you love it?

And she goes, yeah, it was great. She goes, except

for the gaping plot hole. And and so Sheldon goes, Amy,

there's no gaping plot hole in Raiders of Lost Ark

and she goes, well, she goes, yeah, there is the

fact that Harrison Ford is irrelevant. He has served the

purpose in the movie. And she goes. He goes, what

do you mean, and she goes, well, if he wasn't

there this, everything would have happened the exact same. The

Nazis would have found the arc, they would have had

their faces melted off, and they were, and then the

government would have stored it in uh, the would have

gotten it well anyway.

Without having an American at the spot, it just would

have been left there because all those Nazis would have

died and the other Nazis wouldnt have known where it

was because it was a top secret project.

So so Harrison Ford got the government.

That's the alls he did was he protected the whole

world by getting it into a US government warehouse. He

was the only American there. It was only him and

the girl that survived.

Okay, well, anyway, then you.

Just Amy's wrong, okay, all right, yeah.

Well that that is his only contributions.

Then it is right, that's it. Nine minutes of almost dying.

And the other thing was he happened to be tied up.

Yeah his eyes closed, right right? Yeah?

Okay, all right, so there it is. I'll give you that.

I like it. Well, that's how most of my life.

Just keep my eyes closed and land on my feet.

There it is.

Well, hey, talking about keeping your eyes closed and landing

on your feet, what I don't know?

Mark chapter nine, Yeah, that's not it at all, No,

because it's the transfiguration.

Yeah, oh, speaking of.

Bright things.

Nine is transfiguration. I have Mark chapter nine as Jesus

heals a demon possessed boy, verse fourteen.

Oh we're in verse fourteen. That's the reason, Yes, Jesus

heals the demon possessed boy.

Yeah.

Okay, Well how about this transition?

Okay, talking about melting your face off, all that's terrible.

I don't know. I don't have a transition for that one.

All right, well, hey, we'll just we'll take them melting

the face off things.

Okay, So we're gonna read Mark chapter nine, yep, Verse

fourteen through twenty nine, and it says when they returned

to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them.

They're coming down off the mountain of transfiguration. Yep. This

is Peter, James, John and Jesus. They saw a large

crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were

arguing with them. And when the crowd saw Jesus, they

were overwhelmed with awe and they ran to greet him.

Remember he's kind of glowing.

You were still glowing?

Is he?

Oh?

I would imagine they were in awe.

You were thinking, you're thinking Moses. Might I be getting confused?

No, I had this idea that he was still glowing. Okay, yeah,

I don't know. Anyways, when the crowd saw Jesus, they

were overwhelmed with awe and they ran to greet him.

What is all this arguing about, Jesus asked, and one

of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, teacher,

I brought my son so you could heal him. He's

possessed by an evil spirit that won't let him talk.

And whenever the spirit seizes him, it throws him violently

to the ground, and then he foams at the mouth

and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked

your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they

couldn't do it. Jesus said to them, you faithful, faithless people,

how long must that be with you? How long must

I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.

So they brought the boy, and when the evils spirit

saw Jesus, that threw the child into a violent convulsion,

and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at

the mount. How long has this's been happening, Jesus asked

the boy's father. He replied, since he was a little boy.

The spirit often throws him into the fire into water,

trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help

us if you can. What do you mean if I can,

Jesus asked, Anything is possible if a person believes. The

father instantly cried out, I do believe that helped me

overcome my unbelief. When Jesus saw that the crowd of

onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. Listen, you

spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak.

He said, I command you to come out of this

child and never enter him again. Then the spirit screamed

and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him,

and the boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran

through the crowd as people said he's dead, but Jesus

took him by the hand and helped him to his feet,

and he stood up. Afterward, when Jesus was alone in

the house with his disciples, they asked him, I couldn't

really cast out that evil spirit, and Jesus replied, this

kind can be cast out only by prayer. And by

the way, ships read praying fast.

Yes, I was just going to say that. Another another

gospel records that it's him saying this can this kind

can only be cast out by prayer and festing. And uh,

by the way, my favorite part of you reading that

is you, added the whisper of the crowd saying he's dead. Yes,

this is you, this is you reading?

This is you?

Said, I remember ran through the crowd as the people

said he's dead. Jesus took him by the hand.

I didn't even know, yeah you did in the story man,

that's you were in it.

Yes, so that's so funny.

Yeah, so I'm embarrassed.

Embarrassed. Why that's great reading right there. You know. Isn't

that what we do anyway? Isn't that part of our

job description to make these words come to.

Life and make them come to life? Yeah? Yeah, that's funny.

So anyway, the uh, the Jesus heals the demon possessed boy,

So let me just bring this up, shall we?

Yes? Please?

Whenever you travel, which is a lot, So you travel

like probably one hundred days a year, yeah, right, out

of three hundred and sixty five, and you're gone to

how many different countries in a year?

This year, I'll be in like twelve or thirteen fourteen countries.

Okay, And the number of times that I travel is

not very much. I've only been to one country outside

the United States, the Dominican Republics here yeah this year. Well, yeah,

I went to the Dominican once or twice. They going twice.

Just got back a couple weeks ago.

Yeah. Yeah, so anyway, so considerably less than you. But however,

in my previous job, in my previous church, I traveled

all the time and been the twenty countries or whatever.

So I've also experienced that whenever you're overseas there demonic

possession and evil spirits and cast out demons. It is

a regular party outside of the United States, And so

people who live here they hear this scripture and it's like,

this is unrelatable. Yes, like other than like a movie,

which again I'm a movie guy, So a movie about

a priest performing an extorcism, which we've seen on different movies,

if you've seen those kinds of movies. But other than that,

we don't run into this even in conversation. But yet

when you travel it's almost everywhere. Yeah, okay, so you

had a theory that one time that you said it,

and I remember thinking to myself, that completely makes sense

to me. So why do you think it's prevalent outside

of the United States?

Is this the front lines conversation?

Yeah, this is this is the demonic.

Yeah, so there's I think that there's a limited number

of demons created obviously, right, there's a limited number of angels,

limited number of demons. Only God is everywhere, that's right,

can't be everywhere all the time. So he's marshaling his

troops because they're spiritual warfare happening, and so he's doing battle,

I believe, mostly on the front lines of where the

light is pushing against the dark man. And so as

the Gospel moves into new countries, then I think that

there's more demonic activity in those areas prior to the

Gospel getting there, and then when the Gospel is there.

The other thing is a lot of countries have completely

sold out their heart and soul to demonism. The countries

that have engaged in voodoo, for instance, they're not even

shy about the fact that it's the devil, right, Yeah,

they understand it, they believe it. I've talked to voodoo

priests on a number of occasions, a couple who've actually

become Christians. But I've spoken with voodoo priests who've said, oh,

one hundred percent, it was the devil. The devil gave

me all my power, right. And I had one I

have a friend, his name's Joseph. He was a very

awful witch doctor in East Africa. So it's not full

on voodoo, but which doctor work is very similar. And

he said, the devil gave me all my power. He

could make it thunder like he could demand thunder and

it with thunder. Right, he would curse people with blindness.

He would do all these horrible things to people. And

he sacrificed even He said, the demons will give you power,

but they demand more than they give. And he wound

up human sacrifices of his wife, his two children, and

his mother over a period of time in order to

be able to get this demonic power. And he started crying,

and he said, the devil will give you power, but

he always takes you far more than he gives, right,

And he said, what kind of man does this so

really horrible? Anyways, nations that have wholeheartedly given their hearts

over to the devil, it doesn't surprise me at all

that there's more demonic activity there. He just free to run.

There's really nothing to holding back in that environment. The

Bible says that that Satan is the prince of the

power of the air. Right, So another place, the Bible

calls Satan the God of this world, small g God

of this world. And so without the power of the

Holy Spirit, without the light of the Gospel, without Jesus,

there's nothing to hold back evil. And so then in

those places, I think the devil just plays it, does

what he wants to do, just tears into humanity because

he hates the image of God. He'll never defeat God,

but he hates those that are made in the image

of God and the object of God's love and affection.

Hates them, and so he just runs rampant and wild

among them. In places where the Gospel is still existing

and is bright and is functioning, I think we see

less of it, not that it doesn't happen. I believe

here in America they're deemed possessed people. It's just less

frequent or less visible to us than it is in

the places where they're just totally dialed in to the

demonic things all the time.

Yeah, yeah, And that makes sense to me, And honestly

that's my experience as well. So I went to the

island of Haiti four different times, which is the same

island as the Domnican Republic, which means I've been on

that island quite a bit. But on the Haiti side,

now you can't even cross the border.

But but here's just roving gangs, just it's it's horrific.

What's happening in Haiti?

Yeah, horrific. Yeah, And here's what I know. On the border.

If you were to be standing on the border, you

can look to the left, assuming that you're facing north,

and you can look at Haiti and it is all brown.

It's like desolate and dry and brown. And then you

could literally stand on the border and look to the

right in the Dominican Republican it's all green, and it's

almost crazy. It's like, this is the same island. It's

the same climate, it's the same vegetation, it's the same everything,

same conditions. So why is it? And I'm telling you

if when you're in Haiti everything is so dark. I

remember going to the village of SEUs Matlas, and I

remember being in conversation with people who are just like

you said, voodoo, which you know, masters, what do you

call them, tru witch doctors, witch doctors, voodoo leaders. But yeah,

completely talking about embracing voodoo. And you see it everywhere too,

So you see the things hanging right from the windows,

and man, it's just incredible.

I don't know, so so true. Even in Cuba, inside

the capitol building, Uh, there's a statue of a fallen

angel and it has a spot at the base all

the way around so it's a multi angled base that

has all the different provinces, the names of the provinces

of Cuba, and the people who believe in Santoia come

and they make little sacrifices through the slots on their side. Right.

That's in the capitol building of Cuba.

Wow. Right, which I've been to.

Yeah, yeah, I didn't see that. Yeah, yeah, it's in

their capitol building.

Yeah. Reason why it is because they were it was

under construction. We weren't allowed.

Oh yeah. So Santaia is essentially voodoo with Christian words

spread over you know, stretched over top of us Catholicism. Yeah. Yeah,

and so yeah, it exists all over the world. So

here's it's not a surprise to me that Jesus would

encounter demons. The light is bright and so the demons

would be more visible in that situation. Right, that's what's happening.

But I love this. This is one of the whenever

I'm sharing the gospel, I'm preaching the gospel and crowds,

especially if I have a sense that people struggle with

the idea of do I have enough faith to be

a Christian? This is my favorite passage to deal with

because this guy comes to Jesus. He goes, hey, if

if it's possible, could you have mercy on us and

help us if you can?

And he says if I can, and he.

Goes, what do you mean if I can? It's one

of the coolest responses to yeah, mobile, what do you

mean if I can?

Hey? Do you know who I am? Do you know

who you're talking to?

Well, so Jesus is being confronted by this demonic, of course,

and this man steps in and goes, hey, if you can,

would you would you have mercy on It helps out

and Jesus is kind of powering up in this moment.

He's like, what do you mean if I can?

Right?

He says, man, everything is possible, anything is possible for

some beliefs, and the father instantly cries out so you

can hear the just the agony. He's crying out to Jesus.

He's so desperate, and he says, I do believe that

helped me overcome my unbelief and I love this. You know,

people ask sometimes how much faith do you have to have? Well,

Jesus goes on. He casts a demon out and heals

the boy right, defeats this demon. It says never come

back right, so full on defeat against this demon. So

how much faith do you have to have to have

God act on your behalf enough to ask? Because this

guy doubted and admitted it out loud. We have a

hard time admitting that we doubt. We feel like if

we admit to God we're struggling with doubts, that God's

going to give up on it. It's gonna be mad

at us. Right, this guy looks Jesus in the face says,

I'm not positive you can, but if you can, would

you help me out? And Jesus says, anything's possible if

you believe. And the guy said, I do believe, would

you help my unbelief? And Jesus heals his son defeats

this demon. So the amount of faith it takes to

have Jesus move on your behalf is enough to ask.

That's it. That's it, I do believe, would you help

my own belief?

So the people at our Stony Creek campus heard one

of our pastors, Dave Wilson, just three weeks ago from

this filming. And Dave has this statement that he had

written and it says, it's not the size of your

faith that matters it's the size of your God. And

it's a play on words, but it's basically it sort

of debunks the idea that people think I just need

more faith, more faith, more faith. And it's like, no,

you just you just have to have a little faith.

It's just stronger faith, right, It's just and and the

way to fix that is not to say, oh, my goodness,

I lack a quantity of faith. It's to say, no,

I lack perspective on who that is, right, right, So

it's saying no, you don't. You don't need to increase

the size of your face. You need to faith, you

need to increase your view of God. And so, yeah,

you just believe in God, which is why you know

he says how long do you have to put up

with you? It's coupled with if I can, right, if

I can, what do you mean if I can't? And

then he says, this kind of demon can only be

cast out through prayer and fasting. And I think that

it's really interesting how it's another it's another indication that

there are there are different levels of our relationship with

our heavenly Father. And I think that when God calls

us to do greater things, it's because those people are

on a different level. Which, by the way, I've said

this in the past before, I believe the only reason

why he asked Peter, James and John to go up

on the mountain with him for the Transfiguration is not

because he chose them. It's because they chose Jesus. They

kept asking, they kept they pursued him. In other words,

they wanted the next level.

We want to understand, we want to know, we want.

To know more than the average, we want to know

more than the crowd. Because guess what, nobody else came

up and asked him to explain those parables. Nobody else

pursued Jesus like they did. So Jesus rewards them with

next level experiences like the Transfiguration, right, and then other

places as well, and so and so again. This is

another indication that Jesus is saying, hey, you want next

level experiences, and it's then it's next level faith. And

this kind of casting out of this demon can only

happen through prayer and fasting, and it's and it's an

invitation to say, you want to go to the next level.

You want you want to you want to be right

there believing who I am, what I can do, knowing

more about me, knowing me personally, and then try fasting,

try more prayer, try communion with your heavenly Father. And

I think that fasting as something that we often overlook,

you know, uh, probably because honestly, there's no commandment to fast.

There's there's a commandment to pray.

Right, Jesus has an expectation that we would fast.

Yes, it's totally there when you when you pray, that's right.

So there's an expectation, but there's no like, there's no

thou shout for these many days that you know this,

there's there's no there's no It doesn't lay out necessarily

on on exactly how to fast. We just know that

biblical traditional fasting was going without food, right, And it's

and and and it's basically giving up something you love

for something you love more, which is every time you're hungry,

you pray and you say, God, I love you, I

want to pursue you more than I want this next meal. God,

I want you your presence and your power in my life.

And it's a demonstration of saying God, I'm sacrificing something

in order to get something else, right and that's what

that's what fasting is. So it's it's again, it's this

next level pursuit of your relationship with your heavenly father

and order to experience the next level kinds of things.

So of course this passage in the New Living translation

doesn't include the word fasting correct just prayer. Some translations

include the word prayer and fasting the general meaning and

prayer fasting is a dual thing that's mentioned multi times

in scripture. So the principle is true here and there's

no other way. So when you find Jesus, he goes

up in the mountain to pray, he goes out into

the desert to pray. This was a regular occurrence in

Jesus' life. And so the worst time to dig a

well is when you're thirsty and everybody around you is thirsty.

Best time to dig a well, best time to be

tapped into the source is before the problem comes. And

so Jesus didn't have to run off and go and

pray and fast in order to have the power to

cast us out in the moment these thirsty people, these

hungry people show up, and he was already full of

the power of God. He just casts out the demons, right,

and so this is what your family needs, if your

mom and dad, if you're a brother's sister, you need

to be that person that's building this spiritual well, this

spiritual resid of war in your life so that when

you're confronted with evil, so that when you're confronted with

a problem, you're ready to face it and not have

to run off and hurry up and let me hear

up and go get right with God. Right, just be

walking in the powers of spirit all the time, and

you'll see God do amazing things. That's what happened for Jesus.

It's like going out into the battle with no armor on.

He said, time out, time out, time out. Gotta go

get dressed right exactly.

Do that. That's great.

So all right, well, hey, that's all of our time.

So hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on the Bible, guys,