I invite you to open the Bible and let's go back to the Gospel of Mark, everyone. Let's all turn back to Mark, chapter 9, verse 14, right where we left off last year. And I've already met some people; this is their first time here at our church. Can we give them a warm welcome here today? Thank you for joining us. We love to study through books of the Bible, and so, last year, we opened up to the Gospel of Mark twenty-nine different times together. And our goal now this year is to go through the rest of the Gospel of Mark. If you want to find out who Jesus is, well, the Gospel of Mark, it will reveal him to you. And at the nine o'clock service, we had a man get baptized, born and raised Huntington Beach. Never heard anybody speak to him from the Bible until he came here to church. And then we just had Laura get baptized. Forty years she's been going to church, until she finally started really saying the Bible has authority over my life, and now she is saved. And so, what can Jesus do? If we open up to his Word and we really learn who he is. So, I want to read for you one of my favorite accounts in the entire life of Jesus. It's Mark 9:14-29. And if you don't have a Bible, it's actually printed on the handout in the bulletin. So, get that handout out so you can read along with us.
There have been some very serious events that have just happened in the Gospel of Mark. Peter has announced that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus has told his disciples that they're going to kill him and he'll be raised on the third day. And then Jesus took Peter, James, and John, they went up on the mountain, and he was transfigured into his glory. And the father said, “This is my son with whom I'm well pleased.” So, where we're picking it up is when Jesus comes back down from the mountain. Have you ever come down from a mountaintop experience? Well, that's what Jesus is doing, and he sees a whole big scene of argument going on as he walks into it. And so, I want you to really pay attention to this account from the life of Jesus. So, out of respect for God's Word, I invite everyone to stand up for the public reading of Scripture, and I'm going to read starting in Mark 9, verse 14, all the way down to verse 29. Please follow along as I read, because this is the Word of God.
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 are you arguing about with them?” And 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, “O 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 it has 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 is 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.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, have your seat. I would love for you to take some notes as we go through this text together. And let's just ask a review question from all of you who were here last year. What is the key word from the Gospel of Mark? Immediately is the key word. It's this Greek word, euthus, and we see it three times in our verses. Look at verse 15. Can you circle that “immediately” right there? And can you next to that “immediately,” write down chapter 1, verse 3, because the Gospel of Mark began with John the Baptist, “The voice crying in the wilderness,” the Lord is coming. He said, “Make his paths straight. Prepare the way of the Lord.” And so, when he said, “Make his paths straight,” he used this Greek word euthus. Hey, make his paths immediate, at once, straight away. Hey, the Lord is coming. Make sure you're prepared. Make sure you're ready for the Lord now.
So, in this passage, Jesus comes down from being revealed in his glory with the Father up on the mountain. He comes down the mountain. He comes into this scene. And when people see Jesus. Here comes the Lord. There's a strong reaction of the crowd here. It says, “Immediately, when they saw him,” and underline this, “they were greatly amazed.” Now, the word amazed there is used other times in Mark, and when it's used in the other passages, it's translated “disturbed” or “alarmed.” So, this isn't kind of a yay, I'm amazed Jesus is here. This is like, oh, wow. What is Jesus going to do? This is like people being disturbed or people being alarmed. This is people who have learned at this point that Jesus can do such things unlike anything they've ever heard of. In fact, Jesus has power over creation. He has power over spiritual beings, like demons. He has power even over people's lives, to heal them and bring them back when they when it seems like they're dead or they really are dead. Wow. Jesus is someone to be feared. That's what we've learned in Mark. And so, the crowd, they're amazed, but they're just kind of overwhelmed, is what it means. They're just, oh, Jesus is here. Whoa, what's going to happen? So, you get that “immediately” there in verse 15.
And the next “immediately” is when the Spirit, this demon, look at verse 20, “When the Spirit saw him,” right there in the middle of verse 20, circle that “immediately”. When the demon sees Jesus, immediately it convulses the son of this man who in this this demon, when it possesses this man's son, it causes seizures. It causes convulsions. It might sound, when we read through our passage, it might sound to you like what we commonly refer to today as epilepsy. And I talked to a dad and a mom, and their girl had epilepsy growing up in their house, and they talked about the horror of these seizures and how they didn't know when they were going to happen, and they didn't know if she would make it or not. And so, while epilepsy might be a physical condition that some of us maybe know someone who has it, or maybe it's been someone in your family. This is a spiritual condition where the demon is causing these seizures in this man's son, and when the demon sees Jesus, it's like the demon knows, oh no, and just immediately throws this son of the father here into these convulsions.
And then the last “immediately” is from this father. And you can see it in verse 24. Circle that third “immediately”. The father is trying to explain the situation with his son to Jesus, and he says, I”I you can help me.” And Jesus kind of rebukes him. He says, “If you can?” And the father, it's like his eyes are opened, and he reminds himself why he came here, because he believed Jesus could actually cast the demon out of his son. And he cries out what many people have been crying out ever since, “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.” It's like when he really sees Jesus by faith, he cries out in response, I have faith, but I need you to help me with my faith.
And so, you can see that all the “immediatelys” are how people respond to seeing Jesus, the crowd, the unclean spirit, and even the father. But what I want us to really focus on as we go through this today is I want to focus on the three things that Jesus says. And I want to look at what Jesus says in verse 19. If you can circle verse 19, we want to pay attention to what Jesus says there. I want to focus on what Jesus says in verse 23 if you can circle verse 23 and then if you flip it over, yes, it keeps going over to the back. And I want you to circle what it says in verse 29 because Jesus says three things that are going to take this beyond just an account of how he could cast out an unclean spirit, and Jesus is going to teach you an important lesson about faith, if you're willing to listen to what Jesus says. People who listen to Jesus, it changes their lives.
And so, Jesus, he has something to say, not just about this particular situation, the statements that Jesus makes here, they will teach you about how to overcome the obstacles and move the mountains in your life, if you will really listen to the words of Jesus. And so, look at verse 19, and look what Jesus said. After the man steps forward and explains why the scribes and the disciples are arguing, and they're arguing because he brought his son to have this demon cast out, and the disciples, he says, were not able to cast it out. And as soon as Jesus hears that his disciples were not able to cast the demon out. Look at what he says in verse 19. He answered them, primarily to the disciples here. “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” You guys have no faith. That's what it means. No-faith generation. You see what Jesus says here? How long am I going to have to bear with you? How long am I going to have to be with you? Now, if you were here for even just a few of those twenty-nine sermons we did from the Gospel of Mark last year, let me ask you a question, does Jesus have the authority to cast out demons? Are these demons afraid of Jesus? Do they shout his name whenever they see him? Was there a story that we looked at together where a man was filled with a legion of demons, thousands of demons, and Jesus cast those demons into the pigs, which then the demons ran the pigs into the sea, and the people who lived in that area were so afraid of Jesus having authority over these demons. They were more afraid of Jesus than they were afraid of the man who was possessed by all those demons, and they asked Jesus to leave their region. Does anybody remember that?
So, by this time, in the Gospel of Mark, should we have the faith that Jesus is able to cast out demons? So, to hear that the disciples were not able to cast it out is very frustrating for Jesus. He's been proving this for chapters. I mean, people have been bringing whoever's got an unclean spirit, they've been bringing him to Jesus from all over. He read so many different examples where he's gone from place to place, casting out so many spirits. Even in Mark chapter 6, remember when he sent out the twelve, two by two, and he gave them authority, and what did they come back saying? We were able to cast out demons, but not here, not in this story. And I want everybody to hear Jesus say, “O, faithless generation,” how long do I have to put up with you? That's what he's saying here. Jesus isn't some fake, nice, perfect person. Jesus is real. And Jesus gets frustrated when he's proving himself trustworthy time and time again, and you still don't trust him.
We've made this like a phrase, oh ye of little faith. We've made that like, Oh, those cute little disciples with their little faith, right? Jesus, when he says little faith, it's he's not smiling, he's not winking, he's not acting like it's okay that they have little faith. He's frustrated. I want you to hear Jesus get frustrated that these disciples, they should know that he has the ability to cast out this demon. They should have been able to do that by faith, and he's not okay that they don't have faith in him.
So, let's get this down for point number one, If you want to take some notes: “Don't frustrate Jesus with your lack of faith.” Don't frustrate Jesus with your lack of faith. There are people in this room, and you need to hear Jesus say, how long am I going to be with you? How long am I going to bear with you? How long am I going to keep waking you up in the morning? How long are you going to keep hearing about my blood that was shed to pay for your sin? How long are you going to keep hearing that I rose from the dead to give you a new life? How long am I going to keep rescuing you from this and saving you from that before you will trust me? How long? See, Jesus expects a response of faith from his people, and to be one of those, well, I'm a perpetual Christian who doesn't really trust Jesus. You don't need to think that's okay. You need to think Jesus is frustrated. That's what is expressed here in his attitude toward his own disciples, and when he says no faith generation, when he brings out that word, “generation,” see we already saw that in the Gospel of Mark. Go back to chapter 8, verse 12. Remember how he said, “Why does this generation seek a sign?” This is after Jesus has already done so many amazing miracles, healing so many, casting out so many demons, feeding thousands. I mean Jesus, he's at a legend status, and they're still like, we need to see a sign from you. He's like, this generation. He says it again in verse 38 of Mark 8. He says, “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation.” Now, he's saying here, oh, this faithless generation in verse 19. So, this word “generation” is not just meant to speak of the people that were there at the time of Jesus. The word “generation” is also a biblical throwback that was supposed to bring up in their mind the original generation of the Israelites who got delivered out of their slavery in Egypt. And God had Moses go to Pharaoh, right? And he said, “Let my people go.” And there were ten plagues. And God brought his people out through the Red Sea. He parted the waters of the sea. God led them as a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night. God brought them bread from heaven; water came out of the rock. And then God said, I've got a land flowing with milk and honey, and I promise I'm going to give you this land. And did the people go into the Promised Land? No, because they didn't have faith.
And so, they're forever known as the faithless generation. So, when Jesus says to these people, “You faithless generation,” when the disciples hear that, they would also think of that previous generation where God did all of these amazing miracles to prove and then he said, I promised you the land. I'll be with you. I'll fight for you. Go and take the land. And they didn't believe, and they wandered in the wilderness. For how long, everybody? Forty years. Go with me to Psalm 95:10. If everybody could grab your Bible and turn to the book of Psalms. We're actually reading the Psalms together as a church right now. Who's reading the Psalms here at Compass HB? Hundreds of people are reading the Psalms every day throughout the week. We would love for you to join us. And it just so happens that Psalm 95 is our very next psalm that we're reading tomorrow, everybody. So, I love studying the Bible. I love how God works it all out in his timing that God has us in this passage in Mark 9, as we get back to the book of Mark, and then in this passage, it literally refers to our next psalm of the day, because you can see in Psalm 95:10. This is where that generation kind of became famous. In this line, Psalm 95:10 for forty years, I loathed that generation and said they are a people who go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways.
If you were here last week, we saw that God is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, that even a thousand years, or just like yesterday, or a watch in the night to God. Well, now God's acting like forty years was a really long time to bear with those people. See, that's like what Jesus is saying. How long am I going to be with you? How long am I going to bear with people who don't believe in me? See, if you're a parent, maybe you've had to tell your kids things a few times. Am I speaking to anybody right now? Are there any other dads out here where your kids have never missed something they needed because they've always had it provided for them? Can I get anybody amen on that? You know, how long is it going to be before these kids get it? Maybe you're a boss or a manager at work. How long is it going to be before these employees get it? Maybe you're a teacher at school. How long am I going to keep saying this before these students really start applying what I'm saying you? You, maybe, have felt that kind of frustration, but you have never felt it like God felt it when he's doing everything for people. What we're supposed to think when we hear the word “generation,” when Jesus is saying faithless generation, or here God is saying, I loathe that generation. The two times that the most miracles happened in the history of planet Earth, where when God was working through Moses to deliver his people out of Egypt, and when Jesus was going around in Galilee with the healings and the feedings and the casting out of demons. And the generations that were alive that saw most of the miracles are known as people who didn't believe in God. They didn't respond with faith. Just because you see miracles doesn't mean you really learn to trust God. Just because you hear the Bible preached doesn't mean you really learn to trust God. Just because you go to church doesn't mean you really have faith. In fact, in Psalm 95, the idea of this generation, it comes from Deuteronomy 32:5, that's where Moses started to refer to them as a “crooked and perverse generation,” a generation that lacked faithfulness. And then this Psalm kind of made that thought even more famous when it got said from God's perspective how frustrated he was with that generation. And then Hebrews, chapter 3, verses 7 and 11 quote Psalm 95. And it makes a whole sermon out of it. And it's like, hey, if you can hear what God is saying, can you hear Jesus expressing his frustration? Well, don't leave church and harden your heart and just keep frustrating Jesus. If Jesus wants his people to have faith, then you need to ask yourself here today, what does Jesus think when he looks at me? The question is not, do you think you have faith? The question is not, do you have more faith than other people? The question is, does Jesus think you have faith? Does Jesus think you trust him? Does Jesus think, after all he's done for you, after all you've heard about him, after all that you've read and studied in the Bible, does Jesus think that you really believe in him, or is he frustrated with you? Some of us, if we're going to be honest here today, we would have to admit that what you've heard about Jesus is not on the same level of what you believe about Jesus, that your faith does not match what you've heard about him, and you need to not think, well, that's okay. Barely anybody has faith these days. You need to hear Jesus say, oh, faithless generation. Oh, you're just like the people that God brought out of Egypt who didn't trust him to take the land. You're just like the people who were there seeing Jesus do miracles, the disciples who even saw him cast out so many demons, and now they don't have the faith to cast out this demon themselves. Oh, Jesus says, he sighs, how long am I going to endure this? See Jesus, he's not okay with people saying they're following him, but not really having faith in him.
So, hear the frustration of Jesus. And if you think, “oh ye of little faith” is some cute phrase, you need to hear that Jesus is calling his disciples out. And he's kind of putting them on blast in front of this crowd, in front of this father. He's like, “Oh, faithless generation.” Who's he primarily referring to? The disciples who were not able to cast the demon out. So that's the frustration. Now let's see why.
Go back to Mark, chapter 9, and look at what the next thing that Jesus says, because after the demon sees Jesus and it starts convulsing the boy, and the boy is on the ground, and he's foaming at the mouth, and he's rolling around. So, picture this scene. There's been an argument going on. There's been a crowd gathering. Well, now, the son of the father is on the ground rolling around, foaming at the mouth, and everybody's like, whoa, what's going on? And at that moment, Jesus asked this question in verse 21, Jesus asked his father, how long has this been happening to him? Now let's think this through. From what we've learned about Jesus so far, does Jesus actually not know how long the Son has been like this? See, so whenever Jesus asks a question, you’ve got to really think about Jesus isn't seeking information. We've already seen Jesus tell people what they were thinking when they said nothing. We've already seen Jesus know what somebody was thinking when he wasn't even around. So, Jesus, he clearly knows what's going on. So why does he ask the father this question? How long has this been happening to him, as he's foaming at the mouth and rolling around on the ground? What he's doing is he's trying to get the father back to why he came there that day. He's trying to draw out the heart of the father. And it works perfectly. Look at what he says, “From childhood, and it has often cast him into fire or into water to destroy him.” I just imagine if this was a movie or a TV show, and the father is saying to Jesus, yeah, my son, it's been going on ever since he was a child. So, clearly, he's kind of older now, as he's telling Jesus this, but since he was just a little child, oh, I remember one time he had a seizure when the Spirit threw him in the water, and I was diving in the water to save my son so he didn't drown. And one time, it threw him in the fire, and I dove in the fire to save my son. And you can just see now the father's remembering how terrible this has been for his son all the way since he was just a boy, and he says to Jesus, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” He's getting back to his original purpose. I came here to ask you if you could help us, but unfortunately, maybe based on the disciples not being able to do it, and based on the argument. And now his son rolling around on the ground with the way the father says it to Jesus. He says, “If you can.”
And Jesus immediately picks up on that, and he repeats it, “If you can”? Have you ever said something, and then an authority figure in your life repeated back to you what you just said with a little tone in their voice. Am I the only one that says stupid things? Can anybody else relate to that where you say something and then you hear the words that you just said repeated back to you, and you're thinking, I should have never uttered those words, “If you can.” And Jesus is like, “If you can”? That's how you want to come to me, if you can, everybody here today, we all need to hear Jesus repeat to this man, “If you can,” because some of us, even when we do try to have faith, it's an “if you can” kind of faith.
In fact, a lot of people at church when they pray, they pray, “if it's your will,” and I know they're trying to be respectful, like maybe they don't know what's going to happen, so if it's your will, but if you really listen to a lot of people's prayers, it sounds like what they're saying is if you're going to do it or not. Sounds like kind of what they're saying is, if you're even able to do it or not, if you really want to do it or not. It sounds like a lot of people these days are praying with an “if” basis, just like this dad did here. And you all need to hear Jesus say, if you can, you're going to come at me with your if all things are possible for the one who believes. That's what Jesus reframes as all things are possible. You're coming at me with an “if,” when all things are possible to the one who believes. And I love the father's response. Immediately he cries out. It's like when Jesus calls him out for saying, “if you can,” it's like he's reminded of who Jesus is, and he cries out, “I believe, help my unbelief.” See, the really good news for everybody here today is it's not about how much faith you have, it's about who your faith is in, and if you have faith in Jesus, he can. That's what we need to leave here with today, Jesus can. Jesus is able. Jesus has the power over things that seem impossible. Well, all those things are possible for the one who believes, because Jesus can see and you might have just, just not much faith at all. Well, as long as you have faith in Jesus, he can take it from there.
See, we need to stop thinking about, oh, that person has a lot of faith, and I have kind of a middle amount of faith, and I don't know how much faith they really have, like we're all ranking each other's faith or something. No. The issue is, do you have faith in, and who is your faith in? Because if your faith is in him, all things are possible for the one who believes in him. And so the father prays what many of us need to leave here today and pray as, I believe, but Lord, I need you to help me with my unbelief, because I am so weak in my own faith that I might bring you down to my level, and I might start saying things like, “if you can.” So, watch out for that.
Let's get this down for point number two: You need to “Turn your ‘What if?’ worries into ‘Since you can!’ prayers.” Okay, you need to turn your what if worries into since you can prayers. Now, there's a way to pray that is not based on the mystery of what might happen in the future. That's the problem. A lot of people, the way they pray is some unknown thing. A lot of times it starts with anxiety. It starts with worry. What if this happens? What if this doesn't happen? What if we're just looking at the future, we're not sure about what it is. And then we bring this “what if” about the future, and we say, well, let's take the “what if” to God. But instead of really trusting in God, it's like we say, well, if you can do something about it, God. And see, what we should be doing is we should be starting in our prayers with this is who God is, and this is how I know who God is, and this is what God has said, and this is what God has promised to do. And because you're like this, and since you said this, and because I one hundred percent know you to be true like this, I'm asking you to do something based on who you are and based on what you've said, not based on what could possibly happen in some scenario in the future. But way too many people today are praying out future scenarios. And they're not asking God to act. They're not praying things like, “Hallowed be your name and let your kingdom come and let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” No, we're just so focused on ourselves, we're not seeing him. And so, the father's eyes are opened here, and he's like, I believe, but wow, help my unbelief. I want to see more of who you are and less of what I can see just going on in front of me.
And so, you need to have a change in your perspective, possibly, if your prayers aren't coming from the character of God and from the promises of God in Scripture, then you might be already praying, “if you can” prayers, and we want to pray based on, this is true about you, and based on, this is what you said you would do. I'm asking you to, since you're like this, since you said this, please do this. See, that's a whole different way to pray. And so, if you believe, ask the Lord to help you with your unbelief. Okay, now I want everybody to circle or write down if you're taking notes, “All things are possible to one who believes,” because that's what takes this beyond just how to cast out a demon who's causing this man to have these seizures and throwing him around on the ground. Yes, in the Gospel of Mark, one of the things that we've established Jesus can do is cast out these unclean spirits. But when Jesus now goes to “All things are possible to the one who believes,” he's now expanding this thought about faith beyond that particular situation into all the different ways that we might need to trust that Jesus can. And this phrase, all things are possible to one who believes, what does that really mean? We need to come to an understanding about it, because people use a phrase like that to mean all kinds of different things.
Go with me to Philippians 4:13. Let me give you an example. If everybody can turn in your Bible with me to Philippians, chapter 4, verse 13, everybody. If you’ve got a Bible, flip on over there. We haven't talked about this verse since before COVID I think here at our church. So, I want to bring up Philippians 4:13, and it says, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Now, who's ever heard that verse quoted by somebody before? Raise your hand if you've ever heard Philippians 4:13 quoted by someone, okay. Now put your hand back up in the air if it was regarding sports. Raise your hand if you heard that verse regarding sports. Okay, I've literally seen Philippians 4:13 on the black paint before the helmet goes on. And I'm not quite sure what that means on wild card weekend. Does that mean the Chargers are going to win if they quote Philippians 4:13? What if the other team has Christians on it too? What happens then? You know, whatever we do, we want to do it for Christ. I appreciate people who speak the name of Jesus as the reason they're doing what they're doing, but is that really what this verse is saying? Like, sometimes I just hear people quote this verse, and I just know in my heart that's not what that means. Like, we're taking this all-things thing to mean something different. Like, you're making it sound like, because I have Jesus, I can do all things. So, who wants to swim to Catalina with me this afternoon. Like, if we've got Christ, we can do it, right? I mean, we can go set a new world record today. Like, what exactly does that mean? And the problem is, a lot of people, they read verses rather than paragraphs. Just because somebody put a number in front of it, doesn't mean the thought stands alone. And if you read the whole paragraph, look at verse 10. He says, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that you revived your concern for me.” What is he talking about? Verse 11, not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
So, what is he talking about? In context, he's saying, thank you so much for sending me money, not that I'm all about money, because I've had times where I didn't have money and I was going hungry, and then I've had times where I had more money than I needed and I had plenty. And I've learned in Christ that I can be in need, or I can have an abundance, and I can do it because Christ gives me the strength. He's talking about financial contentment, is the context of what he's able to do in Christ. But we're acting like we're going to win a sports game, or we're going to set a new Olympic record, or people just quote this verse like somehow it's a self-help pep talk to have strength. And so, when I'm growing up, I just want to tell you how this played out for me, so it makes sure this doesn't happen to you. Because when I was growing up, and I heard people take this idea that all things are possible for the one who believes, and then I heard people applying that kind of an idea to sports, and I heard people applying that kind of idea to how much money God would give them, and I heard people applying that kind of idea that we should all be healthy and we should all live these long lives and cheat death. And when I heard people saying, well, you need to have faith to believe. You can be healed, and you need to have faith that you can be rich. I knew that wasn't what Jesus meant. And so, what I did is I said, that seems wrong, and that seems wrong. I don't think any of these people are taking the “All things are possible to the one who believes.” And so, then I just kind of took my ball and went home and did nothing. Basically, I saw so many people misusing this idea that you can have faith that God can do all things, and so many people were taking that idea to mean whatever they wanted, that I began to think it didn't mean anything at all.
But what did Jesus mean when he said to this father, “All things are possible to the one who believes”? Because whatever Jesus meant, I want to do that. I want to believe that. I want to know that he is able to do all things. In fact, go with me just a few pages back to Ephesians. 3:20 to 21, just a couple pages to the left. You go from Philippians, and you flip on over to Ephesians. And right here in the middle of Ephesians, Ephesians 3:20-21 it says, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Where does it say in these verses, the power is at work within where, everybody? Within us? Do you see that there that God is able to do more than what I would ask. He's able to do more than what I would think, and his power is working in the church for his glory in the name of his Son, Jesus. God's power in us is able to do way more than what we would ask or think. So, even though people may be misusing this idea to act like God needs to do something for me, I want to know what it actually means, that God is going to do for God, because God wants to get the glory, and God wants his name, the name of his Son, Jesus, to be exalted. And God wants his power working in us, here in the church. And even if we ask him, and even if we think, what could God do, he is actually able to do something more than what we would ask.
So, there's a mystery to this. It's not maybe how a lot of people are saying it, but there is truth to the fact that God is able, he has power, and that power is working in us. There is a way through faith that you can tap into the power of God and see his glory. And we should all want to know, what does that mean? What are the all things that are possible if I really believe in Jesus? Now, go back to Mark 9 and see how the story keeps unfolding here for us, because after he has this encounter, this strong encounter with the father, where the father is crying out what I hope everyone will leave here and pray. “I believe, help my unbelief.” I don't want to be an “if you can,” kind of person. I don't want to be a no faith disciple. Please make me a person who responds to Jesus in faith. Let me know that you can. But see, look what happens right after the father cries out, “I believe, help my unbelief.” Notice, in verse 25 you might want to circle this when Jesus saw. So, this is on the back of your handout. Now, when Jesus saw, notice we've seen from the crowd's perspective, from the unclean spirit's perspective, and from the father's perspective. Well, now all of a sudden, Jesus sees the crowd coming together. And so, when he sees the crowd coming around, Jesus has a thought that now is the time. So, he rebukes the unclean spirit, and he says, “You mute and deaf spirit.” And a way you could translate that is, you spirit that's making this son of the father here mute and deaf. So, it's not necessarily that the spirit is mute and deaf, but that's the effect that the spirit is having on this man's son, is it's making him mute and deaf. And so, he says to the spirit, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you come out of him and never enter him again.” I love that part, because Jesus has already warned that even if a demon leaves, it can come back, and it can be worse than the first, so here he says, you're never coming back. And then look, there's this dramatic moment, verse 26, this demons is like crying out. It's convulsing the son of the man terribly. And then he came out, and the boy, he's now like a corpse. So, picture this scene. There's been an argument going on, the disciples of Jesus and the scribes, the crowd gathers to hear the argument. And then Jesus shows up, and the father starts talking to Jesus, and he cries out, while his son starts rolling around on the ground and foaming on the mouth. And then Jesus now comes to the Son, rebukes him. And there's this violent cry, this violent convulsion on the ground. And now the son is lying there completely still. You can just picture the hush coming over the crowd. And people are like, oh, he's dead. Oh, look, he didn't make it. Look what happened. And then Jesus comes up, verse 27, “But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.” And let me just tell you, we should know by now, in the Gospel of Mark, that if Jesus comes to anyone and takes them by the hand, they're getting up every single time.
But that's not the point that Mark wants to make here. Mark doesn't talk about the joy of the father seeing his son now restored. He doesn't talk about the crowd and how their minds must have been blown and how they must have gone and told everybody. He doesn't talk about how the demon is now cowering in fear at the authority and power of Jesus. Now look where Mark takes us in verse 28. He takes us into a house, into a private discussion with the disciples and Jesus. And this is really where we're going in Mark 9:10-11, we're getting into the heart of Mark's gospel, which is how Jesus really teaches his disciples. And they're like, why couldn't we cast it out? Remember when you sent us out, we were able to cast out the demons before? Why weren't we able to do it this time? And look at what Jesus says. This is so important. Listen to Jesus, verse 29, “And he said to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but” what, everybody? Oh, you guys want to know why you couldn't cast it out because you didn't pray. Now, people, they run the wrong way with this phrase. People get very interested in this. Also, some demons are cast out by prayer. Well, what are the other kinds of demons, and what are they cast out by? And you can go down the whole rabbit hole for the rest of your life of all the different kinds of demons and all the different things you got to do to cast out the demons. That's not the point here. The point here is the disciples who had cast out demons before, just thought they would be able to come and do it again. And they didn't ask God to do it. They weren't trusting in his power and his ability. They weren't humble and relying on him in dependence. They weren't like God, Jesus isn't here right now. We need you to help us in his name to cast out this demon. They just assumed that they would do it because they'd previously done it, and they ended up playing the fool in front of everybody because they did not pray. How many problems have you had in your life that became big problems all because you did not pray?
You're telling me that you went to go face the enemy and you had no protection. You didn't put your armor on, you didn't pray up before you showed up. You just showed up. How many people do you think on this Sunday, one of the first Sundays in 2026, how many people do you think rolled out of bed, rolled to church, served in the kids ministry, did the parking came to worship God, and they didn't even pray before they showed up, because I've gone to church so many times, they just assumed it would happen again. See, this problem of you're trying to do it without prayer, that's a big problem that Jesus just exposed right there. That's a very common problem. See, the way Jesus is talking, this isn't a story just about how to cast out a demon the way Jesus is talking. This is a story about how to live your life. What do you think is going to happen if you don't pray?
In fact, go to Matthew 17, because Matthew gives the same account of the father who comes with his demon-possessed son, and Jesus casts out the demon. But at the end of Matthew's account, in Matthew 17:19-20, Jesus gives a little more, or at least Matthew records a little more of what Jesus said. So, Mark just keeps it very to the point; you didn't pray well. Here in Matthew 17:19-20, “Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your little,” what? Faith. And what we're seeing here, look at how this reads “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 there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” So notice, when Jesus says, “Because of your little faith,” the implication behind that phrase is because you didn't have faith. Because then he goes on to say, if you just had a little bit of faith, if you just had faith, like even a mustard seed, the smallest of the seeds, just even a little bit of faith, you could have tossed the mountain into the sea. So, notice how Jesus now he's not talking about demons anymore, and he's not talking necessarily about physical mountains. He's talking about the obstacles that all of us are going to face in life. He's talking about the immovable things, the things that seem like that's just the way that it is. And how could that possibly change?
Do you pray about those things? Do you have just a little bit of faith that he can? Let me tell you, the number one way that I see people have a lack of faith is in their own life changing. Like, people, they'll be quick to pray for physical health. They'll be quick to pray for financial blessing, but people, when you ask them, okay, well, what's your sin that you're saying no to? What's your new way that you're learning how to live?
We've heard testimonies this weekend here at our church of how people's lives have changed. Well, how is your life changing? Do you believe that Jesus can change your life? Do you believe that Jesus can save you out of your sins that used to define you? Do you believe that Jesus can teach you a new way to walk in his righteousness, that just as Jesus rose from the dead, so you also can walk in newness of life? You can walk worthy of his gospel. If he died for your sin, you don't have to live in it anymore. And if he rose from the dead, you could now learn to live a new way. Do you believe that Jesus can change your life? Do you realize how many people will say yes on a Sunday morning at church, but then you'll hear them say things like, I'm just human like everybody else. We all make mistakes and there's truth to what they say that, yes, in this flesh, in this world, with our enemy Satan, yes, we sin, but they start acting like it's okay that that sin still defines who I am. In fact, maybe I need to go find more understanding people who can relate to me in my sin? No, we can all relate to you in your sin. The question is, can you relate to those who have a new life in Jesus Christ? Do you believe that Jesus cannot just save people, so when they die, they go to heaven, not just save people, so at one point they're justified before God, but Jesus can save people so that they are no longer recognizable to the people who knew them before, because he transforms them from the inside out. That's something that Jesus most definitely says he can do. If anyone is in Christ, he is a what, everybody? “A new creation.” Do you believe that Jesus can make you new? Because if you do, then you can say no to ungodliness, and the grace of Jesus teaches you how to live a godly life of self-control, and you start learning how to put off the old ways and put on the new ways. How come all the things that are possible for the one who believes are always about physical things or financial things, or sports things, or how I'm feeling today, things. How come it can't be about me living my new life in Christ, the thing that Jesus came to save me so that I could do.
Do you really believe that Jesus can transform you from who you used to be to who you are now in him and that you're going to see for the rest of your life, a putting off of that old way and a putting on of that new way. That's one of the things I would love for everybody to believe. If there's some element of mystery, what are the all things that are possible to the one who believes you living a new life is something Jesus definitely can do, and he wants you to believe it this week. Do you believe? Do you pray? Do you say, God? Lead me not into these temptations. Protect me from the evil one. Forgive me for my sins. Lead me in your way, everlasting. Search my heart, show me my faults and show me your way. I don't want to live my way. I want to learn your ways. See, are you praying things like that?
Go to Mark 11. Mark 11 is what this is all going to build up to, okay? So, over the next few weeks, we're going to go through the rest of Mark 9 into Mark 10. We're going to get to Mark 11:22, which is kind of the climax of this section. So, I think the reason Mark just says prayer and he equates having faith to praying. Okay, so notice in Matthew, Jesus talks about faith in Mark, he just gives us because he didn't pray. So, Jesus was talking about faith and rebuking them for not praying, which teaches us something very important, the way that faith is seen, the way that faith is exercised, the way that faith is manifested, is in prayer. If you really believe that God is able, if you really believe that Jesus can, then you will ask him to act in what you believe about him. You will ask him to act in a way that would make himself known. You would ask him to act in a way that would be for the good of his people and for the glory of his Son, Jesus, to be spread across the earth. If you really believe that God is able, then you go to God and you say, God, do it. I know you're able. I'm asking you to act.
So, we think, oh, I've got faith, but I don't really pray. But that's okay, because I've got faith. Well, what we're learning in Scripture is that if you really have faith, then you will pray. And look how Jesus puts it here. This is the climax of what Mark builds to, Mark 11:22, “And Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass. It will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be, what everybody? It will be. Did Jesus just say that whatever you ask in prayer, if you believe, you will receive it? It will be yours. That's not an “If you can.” See, I don't know what happened, but when I grew up going to church, people told me stuff like, well, God, when you pray, there are three answers, there's yes, there's no, and then there's maybe. Who's ever heard somebody say that before? Have you ever heard somebody say that before? I've heard so many people say that. But then I hear Jesus, and Jesus says, if you ask, you will receive. If you seek, you will find. If you knock, the door will be open. So, I guess nobody ever lets Jesus know about this, yes, no, or maybe stuff, because Jesus is over here saying, everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and everyone who knocks, the door will be open to him. Jesus is saying, All things are possible to the one who believes. Whatever you ask, if you believe, you will receive it. It will be yours. What does Jesus mean when he says these things? He doesn't mean well, there could be three options, yes, nowhere, maybe. So, we’ve got to learn what Jesus really means. And sometimes, it's helpful to understand what Jesus means, that you could pray with such a way of faith, knowing you will receive it even as you're asking God to do it.
Well, go with me to James 4. Let me show you two things that that does not mean. Okay? Let's start with what it does not mean. And James, chapter 4 in verses 2 and 3, James, he's going on kind of a rant about how people are wanting it both ways. They’ve got one foot in with the world and one foot in with God. You think you can be a friend of the world and a friend of God? And he's just going off. And in the middle of him going off here in James 4, he drops a couple of very helpful truths about prayer. I want to make sure you know both of these truths. Look at the end of verse 2, you might have heard this one before. “You do not have because you do not” what everybody? “You have not because you ask not. Who's ever heard that before? Have you heard that before? How about verse 3? “You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your” what, everybody? “Your passions, your desires.” Is there a wrong way to pray? We assume that, basically, God's up there, and he's so desperate for prayer these days that anybody who prays, they get an Orange County participation trophy just for showing up at the meeting, like God's so desperate for us to pray these days that just because you gave him a few minutes, oh, he's so thankful that you talked to him. That's not how it is. No, the reason a lot of people pray is because they need something, or even because they want something. Something's not going the way they were hoping in their life, and now they're coming to God like God, this isn't working out. Why don't you do what I think you should do? Why is my will not happening? And when you really break down, as I try to ask people who are mad at God because he didn't answer their prayer, well, why did you pray that? Well, I prayed that because I just thought that shouldn't be what happens, or I didn't want that to happen to my loved one, or I wanted more time with my family members. And it's like, oh, that sounds like you're the center of the universe, and God should do what you think should happen. That's not prayer. That's wrong. Prayer is what James is saying.
There are two ways you can really mess up prayer. One is, don't pray. A lot of people mess it up that way. The other way is, when you pray, make it about what your desires are, what your needs are, what your wants are. Don't make it about how it would be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. Make it about your will being done. And those prayers are wrong. They're not going to be answered. And so, what I did is I saw people asking for things for themselves, and I came over here and I said, so I'm not going to do any of that faith-prayer kind of stuff. And wow, I wasted time in my life not really learning how to pray.
Point number three: I want you to “Make prayer a practice.” Make prayer a practice. I want you to learn how to pray. The disciples saw Jesus going off by himself and praying so much that they began to ask him, Lord, teach us how to pray. And when he taught them, he said, let's flip the script. It's not about you and your desires, it's about God and his glory, his kingdom, his will, and you got to learn to pray based on what's true about God and what God has said in his word, and not just making your prayers all about what you want to happen in life. Make your prayers based on God and his promises. That's what Jesus would teach his disciples. Have you really learned how to pray that way? Have you learned how to have faith that leads you to pray clearly? By the end of Mark, Jesus is going to say to his disciples, you couldn't watch and pray for one hour. And if you bring up praying for an hour today, people are like, whoa, that's hardcore. That's not hardcore. That's normal. So, when do you go in the secret place and really ask God to do what you believe God can do. And when do you get together with brothers and sisters and really ask God to do what you believe God can do? Or is it always in the moment? Is it always in response? Is it always to this what-if scenario, and God, if you can do something about it.
Have you really learned the way to pray? And the reason it says there, make prayer a practice is it's really interesting how people want to learn how to pray, like in one sermon, teach me the secret so I can go do it. But in anything else in life, we know the only way you're going to get good at something is through repetition, is through sweat, is through hard work, right? The doctors who practice medicine, yeah, they had to go to school for that. They have to give a lot of their whole life to that. Yeah, even the people that are professional athletes, the people that are going to be in the Olympics, oh, yeah. Think about how much they had to work and how much practice they had to do, but me, I want to just go in there for ten minutes and crank this out; like, that's not going to work. If you want to learn how to pray, guess what you're going to have to do? You're going to have to get there in a room by yourself, put everything away and really start talking to God. You're going to have to sit down with a couple of brothers or sisters that you think know God, that do have faith in God, and start praying with them and start absorbing how they talk to God. You're going to have to start searching in the Scriptures for what does it teach you about prayer?
And so, I want to really encourage you to be a person who doesn't frustrate Jesus, because you don't have this “If you can” kind of faith, you have real faith that leads to prayer. I want to encourage you, when Jesus comes back, he's already said in Luke 18:8, “When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth?” I want to encourage you that when Jesus comes back and he's looking for faithful people that you would be one of the people that Jesus would find. It doesn't matter if you think you have faith. It doesn't matter if you have more faith compared to other people. Does Jesus think you have faith? And the way that your faith will be shown that you believe Jesus can is you'll ask him to do it in prayer.
And so, if you open up your bulletin, if everybody could grab their bulletin right now, I want to show you what we're planning to do this week. We want everybody at this church to pray this week. We don't want you to hear about prayer. I hope those disciples didn't think, yeah, I should have prayed, and then just went home and kept doing their same stuff. I wonder if they were like, yeah, I need to go pray. And so, there's a clear application. If you want to have faith, it looks like prayer. And so, you can see every night, starting tomorrow night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, the next four nights, we're having a prayer meeting right here in this room. We actually have a prayer meeting every Monday night at seven o'clock. And this week, we're inviting the entire church please come and pray with us tomorrow night. If you're able to, please come back here and pray tomorrow night. And then if you have a Fellowship Group normally on Tuesday night or Wednesday night or Thursday night, the night you would normally go to your Fellowship Group this week, come with your group, and we'll all come in here, and we'll all pray together. And you could come all four nights, or if you could only come one night, whatever it is you're able to do. But we want to learn how to pray, and then we want to pray together. What are we asking God to do in 2026? What do you know for sure based on who God is and what God has said. God, I know you can do this, and I'm asking you to do it right now. And we're going to go every night, we're going to pick something that we know God is all about, that we know God has said, and we're going to learn how to pray that way. So, it'll be the same every night that we're learning how to pray together, but it'll be a little bit of a different idea that we're going to talk about all throughout the week. You can see every morning we're going to read a Psalm. And if you're reading the Psalms with us, there's a video to go up every morning at 7am and then every evening, at 7pm we're going to be praying together. And I really want to encourage you not just to hear what Jesus said, but what are you going to do about it when you know that Jesus is bothered by people who don't have faith. When you know that Jesus is offended by “If you can” kind of prayers, and Jesus is just telling his disciples you weren't able to cast it out because you assumed that you would be able to because you already did it, you didn't pray. How could we hear all of that and not think, wow, I want to go pray. I want to learn how to pray. Like all things are possible to the one who believes. Because I believe that Jesus can. Let's pray about that right now.
Father, we come before you and in the name of your Son, Jesus. We want to confess our prayerlessness. We want to confess that we have showed up at many things assuming we would be able to do it. We want to confess that we have many mountains and obstacles in our lives that are still there because we have not prayed about them. And so, Father, please forgive us when you have proven yourself so faithful when you have kept every one of your promises, when you are the one who woke us up this morning and your mercy has been new every day of our life, when you're the one who sent your Son to die for all of our sins and to rise again to give us a new life, when you're the one whose glory is declared in every Sunrise and we can see your Splendor in every sunset. And yet still we wonder if you can. Please forgive us for being a no-faith generation. Please forgive us for being once again disciples of little faith. And Father, on behalf of our church, on behalf of all our brothers and sisters, I come to you on this day and I ask that you would teach us how to pray. Like all things are possible to the one who believes. God, we've maybe not had because we haven't asked, and then maybe we've not had because we asked, and it was all selfish. It was all for our own passions and desires. In fact, maybe we've heard so many people pray for themselves, or people pray in their hypocrisy, that we've been turned away from prayer itself. But Father, I pray that it would be true of us that you would find us in the secret place. I pray that it would be true of us that when we get together, we pray together. God, if there's anybody here who feels like they don't know how to pray to you by themselves, don't let that keep going in their life in 2026. If there's anybody here who feels like I can't pray out loud in front of other people, don't let that keep going in their life in 2026. Don't let it be acceptable for us to have little faith. Let us hear what Jesus said that we don't pray. You couldn't cast the demon out because you didn't pray. Let us hear what James said that we have not because we asked not. And the reason when we prayed that one time and we didn't get answered is because it was about us, not about you. So, God, please forgive us for blaming you for our problem, which is we don't come to you in faith, we don't come to you in prayer. And please teach us your everlasting way. Let us be people who know your ways, because we believe that you can, and we ask you to act, and then we see it happen in real life. So, God, we pray that in this year 2026, that mountains will be moved. We pray that demons will tremble in the name of Jesus. We pray that people's lives will be changed from sin and that they will learn a way of faith. And the reason we're going to see you do those things is we're going to ask you to do them, and when we ask you to do them, we'll believe that you are able. We'll believe that you can. Lord, we believe, but help our unbelief. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.