09/15/24 Mark 9:14-29 Pastor Cody

E [Music] behind yeah for you [Music] for [Music] e for [Music] St out of the way e well good morning church can you can you hear me am I coming through I am not coming through it is on okay there we go hey good morning guys good morning church it's good seeing you morning good morning hey we're going to celebrate baptism guys who's ready for that hey if you have a bulletin the testimonies are in there okay so if you want to read about U how they came to follow Christ that is to your advantage and so otherwise please welcome Thomas and Rosie as we celebrate baptism [Applause] people hear us okay all so Rosie said her cheeks were hurting her because she was smiling so much she's very excited I'd like to share a little bit that Rosie got saved during our VBS week it was in the missions rotation with Miss Heather and Miss Heather was sharing a story about a young boy who got abandoned by their parents was left out into the Wilderness and had his eyes being eaten out by bugs and the missionaries later on came and helped with him and shared the Gospel with him and so someone who was so hurt by their the people who brought him into this world were then saved by those who were now brought into the true family of God and he was blind and now he could see and it was a story that really moved Rosie to

Tears and when prompted if she recognized that Jesus died for her and had compassion for her because he loved her and that's why he came to die on the cross she emphatically With Tears In Her Eyes said yes so I wanted to share that with you all she wanted to but Rosie I got some questions for you do you believe that you were a sinner and deserving of God's Wrath yes do you believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised from the dead yes Rosie upon this confession I baptize you in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit buried with him and his death raised to [Applause] good morning morning yeah I can just hold it I won't preach long we've been pondering recently as a family just as we've been approaching this day the Great Commission for those of you that don't know our family well we were called as missionaries to serve in Bolivia with ethnos 360 and as missionaries we take very seriously the call of God to go and make disciples of all Nations all ethnic groups and what are we supposed to do with those disciples we baptize them and we teach them everything that Jesus commanded us as we look at Matthew 18 that's his mandate for the church and I can tell you that the most exciting part of this for me is I have the opportunity this morning to baptize two of my closest disciples first up is Addison Addie why do you want to be baptized today because I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and I want to show that to the church you're a sinner yes is there anything you can do to take that away no except for believe because Jesus paid for

Everything all right well based on that confession of faith I'm going to baptize you [Applause] I said too next up is her little sister Lydia Lydia why do you want to be baptized to show the church that I know I'm a sinner but I believe that Jesus Saved Me by dying on the cross for my sins and now he sees me as holy does this baptism do anything for that no it's just to show what I believe amen it's a symbol isn't it and a testimony to the church Bas the [Applause] You Know It those are yearslong conversations that have taken place with all of those girls and I'll never forget the first time when Rosie came forward for baptism it was at one of our Bluegrass baptisms and barbecues that we have and she didn't have that testimony yet and it's tough looking at a little girl and saying I'm sorry honey you're not you're not ready for that but it's what's necessary because we don't believe that baptism saves we believe believe that's by faith alone in Jesus Christ amen hey couple of announcements real quick before we dive into our service just a couple of quick things one is if you're here Welcome to our church we love you we love Jesus and we're glad that you're here fill out one of those connection cards that's in the chairs around you that'd be huge in us being able to just connect with you also if you have prayer requests that's the way that you can communicate to us you know rather than just grabbing me on Sunday morning and saying pastor can you pray about that my memory is okay but it's not that good and so please fill one of those out drop it in the offering plate as it goes by that'd be huge and us being able to pray for you it's

One of our Ministries that we do here also later on in the service we're going to be taking up two offerings okay we've got the first one which is our general offering and that goes to of course you know turn on the lights and pce salaries and run Ministries and things like that but we also have our Missouri missions offering that we've been telling you about at that time it's going to be after one of our songs Andrea is going to prompt us and while a video is playing you guys are going to be able to come up and give to that offering over and above your general tithes and your offerings that goes to support Missouri missions it supports College Ministries it supports the Missouri Baptist Children's Home it goes to support the Baptist home which takes care of retired pastors and their wives when they don't have anything and so as you give you give 100% to those kind of Ministries and its Effectiveness here in the state of Missouri now in a couple of I think it's next week we've got the Joy group dinner and I think that's on the 24th I don't have the dates for it but you can find it in your bulletin yeah we're gonna have Dr Neil Franks here he's with the Missouri Baptist Foundation which helps things like finances retirement planning investing and things like that but we're also having an Operation Christmas Child packing party at that time okay so if you want to come and be a part of that's a great thing for you to do it costs 10 bucks you can either sign up on Church Center or you can call the church office to register if you got any questions you can ask Pat Mitchell she'll be happy to get you all squared away it's a it's a fish fry so you know there's tons of crappie and stuff like that it's going to be delicious so make sure that you get there for that also we got some feedback from our church regarding one of our

Biggest Outreach events which is was Trunk or Treat okay we are rebranding that to be candy paloa and not only that but we're going to have very distinctive Gospel presentations not just Gospel tracks that are distributed but also presentations that will take place right here in our own sanctuary and so if You' got questions about that we'll be giving out more information but I'm also telling you that because well we need candy and so and takes literally 1 1200 130000 pounds of candy number one reason why people come here is because it's safe that's the number one reason why people come here they don't have to worry about walking up to scary homes or things like that they come here and one of the things that we're going to be doing to give it a distinctly Christian theme is encouraging those that participate to be Old Testament Heroes so if you want to reenact the valley of dry bones and have a bunch of skeletons around you I'm kind of joking but kind of not by all means do that but push why that's the case and why God's word is so amazing probably abstain from David dancing in public though okay I would appreciate that hey at the end of our service today we're also going to be commissioning our Mexico mission team to come forward we got three from our church that are going it's Mike and Connie lutrol and Diana Scoggins and Mike is sick so we really need to be praying that he gets better because y'all leave on Friday right where where you at Diana Friday y'all leave Friday okay and so that's going to be happening and so at the end of service we'll have an opportunity as a church to pray over them pray for health pray for protection as they go and serve with vision 316 down in Mexico at this time we're going to prepare our hearts for worship and invite the praise team to come forward so if you

Would bow your heads close your eyes and prepare your hearts for worship with me and so God we do thank you so much for this great day that you've given to us we submit ourselves to you we ask Lord that you would be first in everything Lord you're you're deserving of being our only Lord but we are so finite that we do depend upon other things and other things have our distractions Lord you are so worthy of being our only but Lord right now we pray and plead that you would give us Grace abundant grace to rely so completely upon you Lord we submit ourselves to you in worship you are good we thank you for that celebration of baptism Lord and I pray that as people ask questions about what does it mean what does it symbolize God how can I be a part of it God that you would allow the Holy Spirit to break through the hardness of their hearts to fully understand the glory and the Majesty of God Lord as we submit ourselves to you and in worship now may our Praises be pleasing to you and may we lay aside the weight and the sin that so easily entangles us Lord and look to you the author and the perfector of our faith we pray that we would be encouraged we pray that your peace would be on us today in Jesus name amen let's all stand let's worship togethers praise Lord praise God in his sctu praise him in his Heavens praise him for his mighty Deeds Praise Him according to his excellent greatness praise him with sound praise him with Lo par praise him with tambourine and dance praise him with strings and pipe praise him with sounding symbols praise him with loud clashing symbols let everything that has breath praise the Lord now I don't hear anything in there about Talent so if you don't think you can sing this morning I challenge you to try and just praise God morning with

Us join us in PSAL [Music] to God be the glory great things he has done so love he the world that he gave us his son who yeld in his life and atonement for sin and open the life gate that all may go in Praise the Lord praise the Lord let the Earth hear his voice praise the Lord praise the Lord let the people rejo oh come to the father through Jesus the son and give him the glory great things he has done oh perfect Redemption the purchase of blood to every belever the promise of God the vest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus heart and Rees praise the Lord praise the Lord let the Earth hear his voice praise the Lord praise the Lord let the people rejo oh come to the father through Jesus the son and give him the glory great things he has done great things he has taught us great things he has done and great our rejoicing through Jesus the son but pure and higher and greater will be our Wonder our transport when Jesus we see praise the Lord praise the Lord let the Earth hear his voice praise the Lord praise the Lord let the people rej oh come to the father through Jesus the son and give him the glory great things he has [Music] done at this time we're going to take up our offering and so if you would go ahead and have a seat as Nathan Guston comes forward to partake in that good morning church morning it's good to see you all here today let's pray for our offering father God we give you thanks for this day thank you for each and every day that you give us God thank you for everyone gathered here God I pray that our hearts and our minds be open to all that you have to teach us today thank you for just the blessing of hearing testimonies this morning just

For the faith of these young ones who have trusted in you God please continue to lead them and guide them pray that this offering would go lots of places God to be a blessing for you and we give you thanks for it ask this all in your name amen today's Scripture reading comes out of Ephesians chapter 2 veres 4-9 but God being rich in Mercy because of the great love which he loved us even while we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by Grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated with seated us with him in the Heavenly places in Jesus Christ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable Riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by Grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast [Music] I've seen my father's Glory revealed in Jesus Christ and the more that I Behold Him the more he satisfies when I gaze on his Beauty when I see him as I should then my eyes are lifted upward for his glory and my good there is hope in every Tri for I can try TR the Lord he will turn my heart towards him and help me bear The Thorn so in faith I follow Jesus on the road not understood for I know that he is working for his glory and my [Applause] good to our God Be The Glory To Our God be praised he alone the name above all names I will boast ever only in the Lord my God for I know his glory is my good [Music] see the Open Arms of Jesus upon the cross that day what they understood as

Weakness deserves my every praise for the charge that was against me it was nailed into the wood yes I know that he is SA me for his glory and my [Music] good to our God be the glory to our God be praise he alone the name above all names I will boast ever only in the Lord my God for I know his glory is my [Music] good would I gladly be made nothing that Christ would be made more would I seek the only Kingdom that far aways them all I would stand before my father where the faithful Saints have stood and with joy my heart shall praise him for his glory and my good and with joy my heart shall praise him for his glory and my [Music] [Applause] good to our God be the glory to Our God be prais he alone the name above all names I will boast ever only in the Lord my God for I know his glory is my good to our God be the glory to our God be praise he alone the name above all names I will boast ever only in the Lord my God for I know his glory is my good for I know his glory is my good [Applause] at this time we will be taking our Missouri missions offering so during the video you may come forward and place your offering on the in the house so Avery decided to come on our mission trip to Greece she was a sophomore nursing student at the time one of the things I realized right away about Avery was that she was on the ball and if I asked her to do something she was going to do it immediately with excellence and professionalism we just spent time showing the love of Jesus to different Refugee groups and we just got a love on them share the Gospel and just

By meeting their physical need get the opportunity to share the spiritual need as well I was going through a lot of things at the beginning of last year in December my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer she started radiation while I was away in Greece which was very hard so I think it was just a pure like Reliance on the Lord because I was worried about my family back home I was worried about my mom but just having the focus on God to be like right now I can't do anything about that and I have to really trust that he is holding my mom and that he's gonna get us through this I feel that motivated me to want to share more because I'm like I could not have done this without God beside me so I want to share that with everyone else when you know you're working with students who don't have necessarily full-time jobs and they aren't able to fully support themselves in missions really they are relyant predominantly on giving the Missouri missions offering is one of those ways that we are able to help students along so that task doesn't seem like they can't overcome it when we tell them the price tag of some of these trips that's a deterrent for many students they think okay I can't do this but what we've seen is when the student puts their yes on the table and says yes I will go people give and they go this trip definitely made me aware of how much I love going internationally places and sharing Jesus so my long-term goal is hopefully to end up living overseas and working there and just doing Outreach maybe through the state department maybe through a different organization but using Healthcare as a medium to share the Gospel the ultimate goal of these trips is just to show people the love of Jesus because there is power to sharing the Gospel through words but there's also power through sharing the Gospel through the change that you've experienced in your life and showing that through

Loving on people and I believe that everyone is made in the image of God and we need to treat everyone as fellow image bears and some people have had a really hard hand in life and they might think that they're not worthy of love but I think that's it's important to go and show them that like Jesus loved you enough to die for you and it's so important that we go there and we share that message with them [Music] would you stand and sing with us [Music] again Great Is Thy Faithfulness oh God thy father there is no shadow of turning with thee thou change just not thy compassion St fail not as thou H has been forever will be great is thy faithfulness Great Is Thy Faithfulness morning by morning new mercies I see all I have thy hand ha provided Great Is Thy Faithfulness Lord unto me Summer and wi and spring time and harvest Sun MO moon and stars in their courses above join with all nature and manifold witness to thy great faithfulness mercy and love Great Is Thy Faithfulness Great Is Thy Faithfulness morning by morning new mercies I see all I have thy hand has provided Great Is Thy Faithfulness Lord unto [Music] me pardon for sin and of peace that endureth th know dear presence to cheer and to guide strength for today and bright Hope For

Tomorrow blessings all M with 10,000 beside Great Is Thy Faithfulness Great Is Thy Faithfulness morning by morning new mercies I see all I haveed thy hand have provided Great Is Thy Faithfulness Lord unto me and so God we do thank you for your faithfulness that's toward us we ask that this morning that we would see a little bit more of your faithfulness as you've called us to walk by Fai faith help us to live by it as we have come to you by faith help us to continue in it and God I just pray that you would take this time that we get to have together to observe baptism and worship you and give and fellowship and Minister Lord we now set ourselves to the preaching of the word help me as a weak U vessel to pour out your glory before the congregation that they would know you more in Jesus name amen well if you have your Bible and I hope that you do please turn with me to Mark chapter 99 going to be in verse 14 Mark chapter 9 verse 14 we are talking about how Christ he delivers completely and we're also learning about the necessity of Faith you know one time I heard a story about John Wesley who he was aboard a ship with a bunch of Moravian missionaries and this was before he was converted and of course sailing across the Atlantic Ocean it was in January of 1736 that he was there and those North Atlantic storms in the winter time are no joke and they had been through three storms three huge storms and they found themselves going into a fourth one that was bigger and worse than any of the others that they had been through Wesley he scribbled in his in his journal storm

Greater colon of afraid but the moravians that were there they were simply trusting in the Lord they were so simple and complete in their in their faithfulness that God no matter how all this works out that he's going to be faithful to them and so they went ahead and they just persevered with their plans even in the midst of the awful storm they still had a little a little Sunday Sabbath service and in the middle of the singing there were there was this gigantic wave that came over the entire boat and it ripped down the main sails it broke one of the masts and it flooded everything and the water was pouring through each deck and the moravians didn't even miss a beat in the songs the children the women the men no one missed a beat they just continued singing about God and his faithfulness Wesley he wrote he was sitting there and he was observing the service and he wrote this down he said it was as if the great deep had already swallowed us up and the English passengers they were screaming the ship was lurching and tossing and Wesley he just was terrified and he clung on for dear life but the missionaries they kept singing and after the storm had gone and it was calmer Waters he asked the missionaries weren't you afraid missionary said no I thank God I wasn't afraid weren't your women and children afraid he said no not at all and so when he got to London Wesley he was so struck by their sturdy faith that he decided to attend that a Moravian meeting it was on Aldersgate Street this was two years later over two years later when he came in and he heard the Gospel and he wrote this I felt my heart strangely warmed I felt that I did trust in Christ Christ alone for salvation and assurance and an assurance was given to me that he had taken away all of my sins all of

Them Wesley of course he became a famous evangelist and reformer and the world was in a lot of ways his Parish but he himself was one to Christ by a very small group of faithful Believers today we're going to see the importance of faith and we're going to see this through the Deliverance of a demon possessed boy who had epileptic symptoms this passage is going to teach us about the priority and the importance of faith and the dependence that we are called to have on God Jesus he's going to be pointing to Faith over and over again In this passage and my prayer for you today is that you leave here with greater and living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so let's stand together in honor of God's word as we read Mark chapter 9 starting in verse 14 God's word it says this and when they came to the disciples they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them and immediately all the crowd when they saw him were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him and he asked them what do you arguing about with them someone from the crowd answered him teacher I brought my son to you for he has a spirit that makes him mute and whenever it seizes him it throws him down and he Foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid so I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able and he answered them oh faithless generation how long am I to be with you how long am I to bear with you bring him to me and they brought the boy to him and when the spirit saw him immediately it convulsed the boy and he fell on the ground and rolled about foaming at the mouth and Jesus asked his father how long has this been happening to him and he said from childhood and hadd often cast him into 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 all things are possible for one who believes immediately the father of the child cried out and said I believe help my unbelief and when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together he rebuked the unclean Spirit saying to it you mute and deaf spirit I command you come out of him and never enter him again and after crying out and convulsing him terribly it came out and the boy was like a corpse so that most of them said he's dead but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose and when he had entered the house his disciples asked him privately why could we not cast it out and he said to them this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and so God we do thank you for this time help us Lord to understand your word and what you want to say to us through it we ask that you would move Among Us and if there's anyone here that doesn't know you that today would be that day that they come in full repentance and faith in Jesus Christ it's in his name that we pray amen so Jesus Peter James and John they come down from the mountain after the Mount of transfiguration that big event that we talked about last week can we bring up all the house lights completely it's just a little difficult to see thanks man appreciate that a lot at the Transfiguration we learned that they got a heavenly vision not just a vision but physical a transformation that took place in the person of Jesus Christ where he disclosed his divinity maybe a little bit more and he revealed his divine presence of course he they also got to see the presence of the father that was veiled in the cloud and speaking from Heaven they got to see Moses and Elijah can you imagine that kind of discussion that came down off of that mountain or maybe it was just stunned silence like what do you say after something like that either way as they

Were coming down they noticed a large crowd that was at the bottom of the mountain and it appears that there's some kind of a disturbance that's going on they're arguing about something the remaining nine Apostles they down there at the bottom of the mountain arguing with this notorious group the scribes now of course Jesus he wasn't there when the AR arguing began so whatever happened happened without the presence of their Rabbi and they had to exercise Faith because they were not in the presence of their master and they failed terribly everyone's attention must have been on each other in the argument that was taking place because they didn't see Jesus and the three coming down from the mountain but when they saw them they were amazed and they ran to him and greeted him that word amazed be better understood as excited in the Greek it is eomi which means not to respond to something that Jesus has done but in anticipation of what he is going to do and so Jesus asked his disciples what are you guys arguing about what is going on and it's interesting that the scribes they not the ones that speak up it's not even the disciples that speak up it is the father there was a belief in the old times that the student reflected the teacher and so when the student or the disciple speaks it's on behalf or even in representation of the master and so the Assumption from the scribes is that if the students of Jesus Christ cannot count cast out this demon then neither can Jesus so the father speaks up teacher I brought to you my son Luke he includes my only child for he has a spirit that makes him mute Matthew continues on and says Lord have mercy on my son the man couldn't find Jesus but he found the disciples he's like you know these guys have a good reputation they were sent out two by two and they were preaching and they

Were casting out demons and they had healed so many people so maybe they can help he was looking for Christ he found the disciple he settled for the B team and they totally failed him this man's whole purpose in bringing his son was to see him be healed and all he got was disappointment and a religious debate this man he's suffering from terrible discouragement once heard a story from John Lawrence who said that the devil he was going to go and put up all of his tools for sale and on the date of the sale the tools were displayed and there were hundreds of thousands of tools that the devil had he had everything ranging from lust and lying and deception and jealousy and doubt and pride and all of these things that we know about Envy the list goes on and they were all listed at pretty fair prices and but then set aside was this other tool and it had been well used and the price was very high someone asked what does that tool do and the adversary says oh well that's discouragement so why do you have it priced so high said because it's more useful to me than all the others so I can pry open and get inside just about everyone's heart with that one I can't get near them with all the other tools in some cases but once I get inside with discouragement I can influence him and wear him down it's a badly worn tool and I use it on just about everyone because so few people know have no idea that it belongs to me you see when a person is discouraged and they don't come to Christ it leaves them feeling hopeless and directionless it leads to Great discouragement let's look at Verse 18 it says say and whenever it seized him okay Luke he includes he suddenly cries out

Almost in Terror when it comes this be an awful and horrific thing that a parent would have to experience Mark he continues it throws him down and he Foams and grinds his teeth and become rigid and becomes rigid Luke says it shatters him and it will hardly leave him this is a constant persistent thing that's been happening in this in this child's life and the disciples couldn't do anything about that it brings to mind maybe some thoughts that we should have about the nature of demons every demon is a fallen angel they rebelled against the Lord sometime early in creation we don't have an exact timeline probably pretty thankful for that there's mystery there but they were once messengers of God who became ambassadors of Satan Jude chap Jude verse 6 it says and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling he has kept an eternal chains under gloomy Darkness until the Judgment of the great day you know that might be a good book for us to tackle maybe next time you know after we get through Mark and Ruth but demons they are referred to as this in Ephesians 6 the rulers the authorities the cosmic Powers over this present Darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly places demons they are not all powerful entities like they're portrayed in books and movies they don't have complete license to do whatever they please to do but they are subject to the complete Authority and lordship even of Jesus Christ Satan is not a foe that has free reign to do whatever he pleases even he cannot act unless the Lord gives him permission to and when he does ACT he hatefully behaves in such a way that God's good plans come to pass and I thank the Lord for that he is moving all of history to

A point in time that would be consummated at his second coming all the things that are written have to come to pass and I thank the Lord that God's the one driving that boat so but Satan he is powerful he is a foe of ours his dark servants are deceptive they are creative and they are opposed to Lord in every way and they hate Humanity do you want to know why they hate Humanity so much it's because humans are created in the image of God the imod de you might remember us talking about the demon-possessed man that was in the tomb among the tombs in the Gatherings right he was so twisted and that's why as Society has progressed so far away from God we see the image of God being minimized through things like abortion and transgenderism and all of the other people dressing as animals and things like that it minimizes the image of God that is reflected in their natural creation and you can go and you can read the news about dozens of examples every single day so I won't go into all of that but I do think you guys know I like to use some classical art in some of my stuff this is from Raphael you guys know Raphael this is a picture of the Transfiguration this is hanging up in the Vatican right now you got Jesus okay with the glorified shikina Cloud behind him with u Moses and Elijah there you got the disciples that are right there you got Peter James and John I don't know who these people are but you know they're there but that's only the top part of the picture this is the bottom part of the picture okay you've got the disciples down here that are arguing with the crowds and right there is the demon-possessed boy who is being thrown down now obviously this is an artistic representation but I thought that the

Contrast between the glory of God and the Darkness of humanity is very important for us to understand because at when we come here into this church this is a Christian environment okay we are here to encourage one another we preach the Gospel in such a way that it encourages Christians and it encourages those who don't know the Lord to understand the Lord in a clear way it we're not a Seeker sensitive church we want to reflect the glory of God where people come in then they go wow these people love and serve and follow the Lord Jesus Christ but we look at the disciples failure here they're they're supposed to be bearing light and yet it's so dark down there and Jesus he asks the question and he responds like oh faithful generation Matthew he adds in there twisted generation how long am I to be with you how long am I to bear with you bring them to me and there's this image of Christ that we don't get to see too often this is kind of a high implicit christology in that Jesus is both sympathetic to us as our great high priest and yet he's also so high and set apart in that he's a bit exasperated with the disciples and their faithlessness they have seen Jesus work in so many wonderful and Powerful ways from healings to miraculous Works raising little girls from the dead casting out Legions of demons calming the wind and waves and yet they still have such weak Faith now Christ he has perfect faith and he has a godward perspective and so he makes a clear distinction between himself and this faithless generation what generation was he talking about was he talking about the crowds was he talking about the scribes was he talking about the father that was there was he talking about the disciples no matter what he's talking

About he's setting himself apart and using himself as an example of perfect faith and he contrasts that with faithlessness that's unbelief and what is faithlessness though how do we see that play out in this passage well I want you to notice that the disciples they tried their absolute best to cast out this demon they had done everything that they had done previously when Jesus sent them out two by two to go out and cast out disciples and yet they couldn't do it the big problem was not the confidence that they had themselves it was that they misplaced where their confidence came from where the power came from they knew that they could do it cuz they had previously done it on numerous occasions but they weren't trusting in the Lord Almighty and so when Jesus he ask how long must I bear with this faithless generation there is a cry from the Lord and the master that has all the resources of Heaven and the disciples are trying to do it in their own power sounds like the church today doesn't it got so many churches with tons of resources and we got all the training we got all the teaching you've been instructed And yet when it comes to Faith and exercising it because faith is placed more in the strategies and the programs and all that other stuff when it comes to going out and doing the ministry it's powerless and it's fruitless you cannot stand on your own when it comes to spiritual battle you must trust in and rely on the Lord Jesus Christ and this teaches us an important application is that when we rely on ourselves and on our own wisdom we will be Terri insufficient for all matters for life and for eternity I was tempted there to write for Spiritual matters but it impacts every matter of Our

Lives because everything flows from a right relationship with Jesus Christ but Christ he is so patient he is so good instead of chastising his disciples and going into some teaching he turns his attention to the need that's at hand with the father and he tells the man to bring the boy to him and what's Happening Here is Jesus is taking this man into a progression of faith and what happens is that he tells the man to bring the boy to him notice that as the crowd it's bringing the boy forward it says that the spirit saw him and immediately it convulsed the boy this boy was so possessed that according to the Scriptures they don't record it as the boy's sight but the spirit's sight he's a small boy you gota wonder and this is a mystery okay I don't have the answer to this but what happened to where that boy was exposed in such a terrible way we don't get to know those Mysteries we entrust that type of stuff to the Lord it hasn't been given to us the wisdom as to why God allows that to happen but one thing that we do have the answer to as to even though those things happen we do know that Christ is always the Cure Christ is always the answer the evil spirit it takes a boy it throws him down he's rolling he's foaming at the mouth the goal of the spirit has been to utterly destroy this child and then Jesus asks the question and he's not behaving like some sort of diagnos tic physician like Dr house right he is drawing the boy's father out of unbelief to show him his need for Christ how by showing that he has that need the man doesn't need the disciples in their Ministry he needs Jesus this teaches us one thing and I don't have it written down here but it teaches us that all of our Ministries must be designed in such a way that it points people to their need for

Christ Christ he desires to hear and to ease the father's pain for his only child and this displays the love of the father because God he's not uncaring or indifferent to our suffering God he really does care and he really does sympathize with us and we see this and when we see the sympathy and the mercy of Jesus we see the sympathy and the mercy of the father and what has the spirit done well it's tried to kill the child now I don't know why a demon would benefit from trying to kill its host we do see it when Jesus casts out the legion into the herd of swine and they go and they drown themselves I don't understand why but I do know that demons Delight in death and destruction that's just what they like to do and this child has had numerous encounters with fire and with water water it's tried to burn him alive it's tried to drown him and so the probability of death is very high unless Jesus can heal this boy which prompts the father to say if you can do anything have compassion on us and help us because the father's Faith isn't very big the man he is petitioning Christ's mercy and his compassion for help in order to help someone it takes compassion and the ability to help if someone wants help and they don't have the resources then they cannot help but if someone has the means to help and they don't have compassion then they won't help but Jesus is full of both he has both compassion and the ability to help us despite what our needs are and listen to the father's plea if you can do anything have compassion on us and help us and Jesus what is what does he say if you can if you can if you can I don't know where the emphasis is there people have been debating that for years all things are possible for one who believes Jesus he takes this third step of progression and he calls the man to trust

Him the issue is not whether or not Jesus has the ability to heal this man of course Jesus can Jesus he puts the burden back on the man because everything's possible for him who believes Christ is challenging the man to believe even in his most desperate moment even when it doesn't make sense even when it's really really hard and some folks they take this verse and they rip it out of context and they try to preach that Faith controls God somehow some people say if you just believe hard enough then God has to do it and that's just man-made religion it's all that is real Faith does not go further than God's promises and what's the father's response immediately the father of the child he cries out and he says I believe help my unbelief and how good is that's been a profession of faith that so many people have clung to during the Dark Nights says help me God I know that I have little faith and he's moved from if you can help me to now with help me just as I am a doubter this man is not asking for his unbelief to be built up until he reaches some sort of critical mass where oh he's got more than 50% Faith now I can help it's not like that God doesn't increase our faith until it's deserving of his Mercy Jesus doesn't chastise them and say oh just a little shame on you no Jesus answer answers not according to the man's impoverished Faith but according to the riches of his Mercy the father he asked Jesus for practical help by confessing that his faith isn't very big it's riddled with doubt however just in his coming to Jesus he is showing Faith that's enough that's what happens when we're justified by faith in Christ this is how it goes for most of us because belief and unbelief are kind of a mixed bag for us depending on the season of Our Lives

That we're in this man's faith is bolstered by the acknowledgement that he is struggling with unbelief right now and that dual statement is two sides of the same coin I believe that is a conscious decision he is saying I do believe this and yet simultaneously he's recog izing in his flesh that he's struggling with doubts help my unbelief and ironically it's that second second Cry of faith that he's calling on God to help me with my faith because he's coming to God and he's saying you are the essence of true faith my faith is struggling right now help it and by him coming to God he is professing his need for God which in itself is faith you see our faith is going to grow and we're going to be Rock Solid at times other times we're going to struggle with it's going to diminish sometimes it's found to be pretty brittle in certain trials no matter how strong your faith is there are going to be moments in life where it is assaulted fiercely by the enemy and sometimes it might seem to you as if your faith is barely hanging on and so you might make a prayer to Jesus that saysi believe but my belief is not perfect and it's not totally pure and strong and I need help me with my unbelief and when those Trials come and you struggle with those doubts and your faith seems weak then you need to go to the source of Faith Paul he writes this in Romans 10 so faith comes from hearing it and hearing through the word of Christ if you're struggling with we weak Faith then go to the word abide in it memorize it think on it meditate on it spend time rereading the passage until you understand it what's will happen is that the Fountain of Life which comes from being in Christ overflows and we get to experience the

Fullness of God's Presence by understanding in his word and meditating on him and his being and his person you see there is no time in my life personally when I am stronger in my faith than when I am immersed in God's word and also in prayer staying close to the Lord and his word is good and it's right but let us not forsake the ministry of prayer when we open up our heart and we cast ourselves in desperate need before the father see faith is ultimately a display or prayer is ultimately a display of Faith because we're acknowledging our complete Reliance upon the Lord so we learned this is that even in perfect faith when it's directed toward Christ can access his power I don't mean that there's some sort of hidden key like what you hear but we do have access to God Almighty by faith alone in Jesus Christ and we must acknowledge when we're struggling in our faith or our unbelief and we seek his help look at what happens in verse 25 Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit I should say this let me go back he sees the crowds running do you know why Christ hurried up and finished on there is because everyone is in this Messianic frenzy and they want to make Jesus Christ like their leader okay they are looking for this and so in order to avide a Messianic frenzy he is hurrying up and he is going to rebuke this so that way he can get back to discipling the disciples verse 25 Jesus he rebukes the unclean spirit and it comes out of him in verse 26 it says and after crying out and convulsing him terribly it came out Matthew it records that the boy was healed instantly boy was like a corpse he was very weak most of them even looked at him and said he's dead this is an evil spirit that is retreating just like a an army right where it's not going to leave any

Resources it's going to go scorched Earth and destroy everything that it can before it's leaving its position this demon displayed as much hatred and contempt towards its creator as it was capable of while also reluctantly obeying Jesus but Jesus he takes the boy by the hand he lifts him up and he arose in Luke it says that they were all astonished at the Majesty of God the glory of the father was manifested in the Son of God and it shocked the crowds into being overwhelmed with the Grandeur and the goodness of God and this teaches us an important point is that Christ alone has the power to conquer sin in spiritual Darkness this power is accessed through faith alone not by human effort and what a powerful lesson that is but will the disciples learn it will we learn it because they have some questions right why couldn't they cast it out in Matthew it records that this way 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 mustard seed you will say to this mountain move from here to or to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you Jesus is using hyperbole there okay if you've ever looked at a mountain and said I believe move from there to there oh you know it's because he's using hyperbole but he's pointing to their need for Faith greater Faith it's because of your little faith and Market includes this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer now why this lesson well it's because prayer is a display of faith in God I've already said that but if you're not praying then you're not living by faith Fair Faith in prayer means that you are directing yourself to the Lord for your specific requests to God faith and

Prayer is a testimony that your power is not in yourself but solely relies upon on the Lord God and so we trust in him we hope in him that he will do exactly what he has said that he will do and it's all throughout the This Book of Mark that it's pointing to the disciples inadequacy they have to remain in Christ they have to remain in prayer and full Reliance upon the father demons they can't be dealt with in our own strength and that was the problem is that the disciples they were starting to feel like we can do this guys they were relying upon themselves and the authority that was entrusted to them by Christ but it wasn't Christ word in fact this humiliation of not being able to do this in front of a big crowd they probably felt pretty ashamed why couldn't we do that and it was an important teaching point that it's the meek that inherit the kingdom of God it's not the strong it's not the wise it's not the best it's those that walk by faith so why couldn't Christ do it why wasn't he praying or why could Christ do it well it's be why wasn't he praying if it can only come out by faith and prayer where was Jesus where was he praying well if you remember he was doing that on the Mount of transfiguration according to the Book of Luke before all of this takes place he was praying he was spending time with the father Jesus he is always the perfect example for us in our weaknesses and it is through perfect Reliance on the father that Jesus Christ was able to overcome this dangerous foe which teaches us this is I don't have it written down sorry prayer is the expression of our dependence on God in spiritual warfare our strength comes from communion with God through prayer

If you're going through it if you're struggling spend time with the father abide in him okay I'm not going to say everything's going to be great and wonderful and it's going to be smooth saling but you will have the full Direction and encouragement that Faith gives in Christ remember that it's not prayer that earns God's favor and anyway it's not oh yeah you know I prayed so many minutes today therefore I'm good we're called to constantly submit ourselves to the Lord in prayer so what can we learn about this how can we apply apply all this to our lives well firstly is that Christ he is supreme He reigns he rules he is the king of kings and the Lord of lords even right now Jesus he Reveals His glory and his power at the Transfiguration and he displays clearly this power and authority in the exorcism disciples can't do it the scribes can't do it Jesus he does it with a simple command and he forbids it from ever coming back praise the Lord for that it has no more power and in the same way Christ he has all authority right now over all creation as Christians we are called to bring all things under his authority and things in heaven and on Earth and as we share the Gospel that's how it's accomplished it's through the preaching of the Gospel and the making of disciples that we see the supremacy of Christ grow and flourish in our society if we see the things that are happening in our world it's because we're not making disciples it's because we're not walking by faith we're not abiding with God In Prayer so let's make it our habit to do that secondly we learn about our need for greater faith we see this in the disciples inability to do that spiritual work and the father struggle for greater faith our belief in God it will be challenged in our lives it will

Happen we might say I want to believe help my unbelief and Faith it can waver When Trials come it's just like when Peter stepped out onto the water I mean he walked down on the water that's amazing and he stepped towards Christ but then his eyes became distracted and he began to sink but we must remember Christ's promise to us is that everything is possible for the one who believes and so when our faith waivers it's not because we're not working hard enough or that we're not confident in our abilities it's because we're not looking to Christ Paul he said I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength verse is not about scoring the touchdown in football it's about walking with the Lord enduring with him the disciples they come to Christ after this because they knew something was wrong in Jesus he doesn't Point them to a ritual or a strategy or a program or anything like that he calls them to prayer and to grow and increase in their faith in the Lord and that's true for us today if we want to be used by God and we want to see God work then we too must be led by his Holy Spirit in prayer we also learn about the reality of spiritual warfare this is just another reminder from Mark that there does exist a real demonic realm in which Spirits are at work in our world the world is more than just stuff we really do contend for the Gospel word contend is fight it's found there in that passage in Jude we really do contend for the Gospel we're not to lay back and just let people Proclaim their own truth God is the author of Truth are we really going to surrender that are we really going to surrender truth in our postmodern world no God is the author of all truth and when we walk by the spirit we don't come become experts in rituals or Traditions or anything like that we

Increase in faith and we trust in Christ and we grow in him more and more head heart hand head God he wants you to know that we must place our faith holy in Christ so you know acknowledge those weaknesses right Express those struggles see what God does come to Christ and trust him with greater Faith heart God wants you to believe that our faith is nurtured by prayer it's nurtured prayer is dependence upon God's grace and when we pray we grow in our faith finally hand God wants you to grow in your faith through prayer so plan to step aside set aside you know whatever amount that you can whatever amount that you feel is appropriate wherever you need to step I would suggest 10 15 minutes of time just concentrated in prayer set it aside in the mornings to just abide with Lord not for the Scripture reading or anything like that but just petitioning the Lord in your life and then once you run out of things to pray for that's when prayer really starts and see what God does in your life as you trust him at this time we're going to conclude the preaching part of our service if you got questions about what it means to walk with God by faith you can come up talk to me after service say Pastor I need to talk with someone about this I need to be challenged in my faith I need accountability in my prayer life or something like that come and talk to me talk to a friend that invited you we'd love to walk with you in that at this time we're going to pray and then we're going to respond to the Lord and worship and then we'll pray over our Mexico mission team as it goes if you would stand with me as I pray father Lord we just thank you so much for this day that you've given to us help us to walk by faith looking to you God abiding in your presence father and I pray that

For those that maybe are struggling with weak Faith the ones that do say I believe help my unbelief Lord encourage them and strengthen them today God help them to know that you are the safe place where they can abide Lord for our ourselves Lord that may not that may have pretty strong faith right now we thank you for that and I pray that would just grow and flourish into a mighty flame that would set on fire our very Souls that we would be holy and purified before you God we just lift ourselves up to you and ask that you would have your way among us we thank you that you are the God that we can rely on fully and completely the only safe place the rock upon which we stand we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ that died on the cross for our sins we thank you for God the Holy Spirit that abides within us and teaches us all truth and we know that your word is truth so help us Lord to abide in them we surrender ourselves to you God in Jesus name amen [Music] when I fear my faith will fail Christ will hold me fast when the tempter would Prevail he will hold me fast I could never keep my hold through life's fearful path for my love is of and cold he must hold me fast he will hold me fast for my Savior loves me so he will hold me [Music] fast those here he saves are his Delight Christ will hold me fast precious in His holy sight he will hold me fast he'll not let my soul be lost his prises shall last but by him at such a Coss he will hold me fast he will hold me fast he will hold me fast for my Savior loves me

So he will hold me fast for my life he bled and Christ will hold me fast justice has been satisfied he will hold me fast race with him to endless life he will hold me fast till our faith is turned to sight when he comes com and last he will hold me fast he will hold me fast for my Savior loves me so he will hold me fast he will hold me fast he will hold me fast for my Savior loves me so he will hold me [Music] f praise the Lord that he holds us even in our weakness amen at this time I want to invite Diana and Connie to come up and anyone else that wants to pray over these two wonderful ladies we're also GNA pray for Mike he's not able to be here but yeah come on forward guys come on forward if you want to lay hands and pray on this group we're going to pray for safety for health for God to work in really wonderful and Powerful ways as they go to Mexico are y'all going to Waka okay and so we're going to be praying for them and that God works in some really cool ways and so father we do thank you so much for this day that you've given to us we thank you for Diana and Mike and Connie and we do we do pray that Mike would get better before they fly out Lord we ask for that very practical thing we ask that by faith that as they go they would experience good health and also the whole team that goes to waka as they go to minister Lord you've really worked in really powerful and unique ways among that Ministry seeing lots of people come to Faith In You by us providing sight and the Gospel Lord I pray that they would once again experience that good

Fruit where they get connected with other churches they in Waka God we pray that your grace and your peace would be all over this group Lord that all of the planning and all of the training and all of the communication would just all come together in your perfect time thank you for Diana and her leadership thank you for Mike and Connie and their willingness to go we just submit them to you as they go as ambassadors of you and representatives of First Baptist Church may they just glorify you while they're there in Jesus precious name amen that concludes it e spe [Music] like [Music] it's a k oh that's good we have to make sure the