Turn to the Gospel according to Mark chapter 9.
I will begin reading in verse 14.
!
And he answered them,
Immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
And Jesus asked the 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.
This is God's word to us.
It was written for his glory and our good.
We would all do well to listen to it,
to believe its promises,
and obey its commands.
Let's pray together.
Father God, we do praise you for this day,
and the opportunity to come together with the congregation,
those whom you have called your own,
and to learn from your word.
And I pray, Father,
that will be the very thing that happens this day,
that all of us will submit ourselves willfully to it,
that we'll be taught by you, our great teacher,
that you will expose the places of our heart,
that we harbor deep sin,
that we harbor faithlessness.
And Father, we pray that you will help our unbelief.
And we pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
We have come a few stories into now the second act of sorts,
kind of a three-act play that Mark writes for us.
So far through the first half of chapter 8,
we've gotten really his lengthy introduction
in which he presents to us story after story after story,
some teaching interspersed,
but primarily stories to say that Jesus is in fact the Son of God.
All of these punctuations of miracles that he performs.
And we've noted he kind of seems to speed us along.
There's a real hastening to the last half of chapter 8,
and chapter 9, and chapter 10.
And this is the second act,
and it's when he begins his journey toward Jerusalem.
We all know what's going to happen when he gets there.
The disciples now have been with Jesus for about two years.
There's about six more months coming,
and he's come to a time in his ministry
where he sets aside largely the public aspect of his ministry,
and he turns his attention fully to the apostles.
They have been with him all this time,
but yet they have so many lessons to learn.
They are getting it, but they don't quite get it.
And so there's a number of lessons that are going to begin happening here.
We first see a blind man healed at Bethsaida,
which is on the western coast of the Sea of Galilee.
Then they move to the area north of the Sea of Galilee,
known as Caesarea Philippi,
where Peter makes the bold proclamation that Jesus is the Christ.
And then there's the immediate rebuke following that,
as he does not understand how it is that Jesus intends
to usher the kingdom of God into place.
And the lesson taught here to the disciples
is the cost of discipleship.
We talked about that two weeks ago.
Then Jesus leads a small band with him,
Peter, James, and John,
up onto a mountain, likely Mount Hermon,
just north of Caesarea Philippi,
and the transfiguration happens.
Jesus comes in his glory.
He gives them a visible manifestation
of what the kingdom of God will look like.
And we see Moses and we see Elijah in fellowship with him there.
And the lesson he's teaching them there
is the surety of the coming kingdom.
This week we're going to see the necessity of faith.
And then in the coming weeks,
the excellence of service,
the seriousness of sin,
the nature of marriage,
the childlikeness of faith,
the difficulty of riches,
and the prominence of humility.
And all of this is capped off in Mark's Gospel
with another blind healing,
the healing of blind Bartimaeus.
All that to say that Jesus himself
is the Lord of spiritual blindness.
It's metaphorical in that way.
And he's bringing about this process of education
with the disciples.
And so we see this fascinating story.
Mark is actually, in this case,
the most lengthy telling of the story
and gives us the most detailed.
Thank you, Mark.
You finally came out of your writing brevity
and you've given us more detail to the story.
And we'll talk a little bit about
Matthew and Luke's account,
some of the things that they add to this.
But we get this very lengthy account.
And for good reason,
because Mark is saying to us,
if you were going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ,
it is going to require faith.
It is necessary to be a disciple.
And he does that so beautifully
under the inspiration of the Spirit in this story.
So notice with me, firstly, the scene.
Verse 14 says,
And when they came to the disciples,
remember they have been up on the mountain.
The they here, the pronoun,
the help that we need with that
is to see that this is Peter
and James and John and Jesus.
When they came back,
when they rejoined this band of brothers,
they saw a crowd around them of scribes.
The scribes being the religious elite of the day,
the mouthpieces, arguing with them.
These scribes seem to follow Jesus around
his entire ministry,
hiding behind walls and bushes,
just popping up all kinds of places
at the most inopportune times.
And here they've ambushed the disciples
and they're having a debate with them.
Likely, it's around an event we're going to look at,
but likely on whether or not Jesus is the Christ
and if they should be following him,
if they should even be his disciples.
And verse 15 says that we see a crowd
and nothing amazing happened.
Jesus didn't do anything amazing,
but they knew who he was.
And so they were amazed
and they ran up and they greeted him.
And he wants to know,
he asks a simple question,
what are you arguing about with them?
Now notice they don't get a response.
He doesn't get a response from the scribes.
He doesn't get a response from the disciples,
but rather he ends up getting a response
from a man in the crowd.
And so it's likely that as Jesus comes back
as the great teacher,
they're ashamed in his presence
about the things they were arguing about.
And here he has a great opportunity
to set all of the argument straight.
But Mark here,
going from the telling of the transfiguration,
and again under inspiration,
but moving into this story
of the healing of this boy,
Mike's a stark juxtaposition
between the mountaintop
and the valley down below.
The scene changes
from unimaginable glory on a mountain
to the den of a crowd in the valley.
From the sweetest of fellowship
to the senselessness of an argument.
From the exaltation of the Son of God
to the suffering of another only child.
And Luke adds that detail for us.
I believe that Mark here
means to show us the stark contrast
between the kingdom of God
and this world.
And the great issue at hand
is the issue of faith.
Notice Jesus' response.
Skipping the man in the crowd,
the father,
as he tells Jesus what's going on for a moment.
But verse 19,
Jesus answers,
finding out that the disciples
are unable to heal the boy,
unable to cast out the spirit.
He answers them,
O faithless generation.
He's speaking to all those there,
including the disciples
who were really the object
of this story.
How long am I to be with you?
How long am I to bear with you?
Bring him to me.
I think that this phrasing
is very similar to the sigh we see
in chapter 7, verse 34.
As he just says,
just get it.
Just get it.
You recall back in chapter 6,
Jesus commissions the twelve apostles
and sends them out two by two
to minister the gospel of God.
He's shown them how to do it
as he's been ministering all these years
and then he sends them out to do it.
Mark 6.13 says,
And they cast out many demons
and anointed with oil
many who were sick
and healed them.
Because,
in verse 7 of chapter 6,
we see the record
that Jesus gave them authority
over the unclean spirit.
So they've been able
to do this thing before,
but now we find them
in a position
where they're unable to do it.
Remember in Mark 4, verse 40,
after Jesus has calmed
the storm of the Sea of Galilee,
these great 10 to 15 foot waves
on this little body of water,
He's spoken
and the waves,
the wind has obeyed Him.
He says to them,
Why are you so afraid?
Have you still no faith?
After Jesus feeds the 5,000,
then later He feeds the 4,000.
The disciples are fretting
because they only remembered
to bring one loaf of bread with them
on this boat journey
back across the Sea of Galilee
in one of the many crossings.
And Jesus asks them,
How many baskets full of broken pieces
did you take up
when I fed the 5,000?
And they responded,
12.
And He said,
How many baskets full of broken pieces
did you take up
when I fed the 4,000?
And they say,
Seven.
So 19 baskets of leftovers.
And so He says to them,
So I fed a multitude abundantly.
And then Mark 8, 21,
Do you not yet understand?
Do you still not have faith?
This section that we're in now,
the last half of 8,
chapter 9,
chapter 10,
before the journey to Jerusalem
really sets off
is punctuated by predictions
of Jesus' coming,
suffering,
death,
and resurrection.
We see three passion predictions
that are always followed
by some faithless misunderstanding
on the part of the disciples.
They have yet to fully understand
the power and provision
in Jesus' presence.
They're there with Him
and they still don't get
His power and provision.
How is it possible
that they would come
to understand these things
and experience these things
when He's absent?
This is what Jesus
is setting them up for
and this is what He's going
to teach them
in this story.
How is it that they're
to function when He's gone?
And here we see
the necessity of faith.
So first, that's the scene.
This is what's happening.
Second, the son's situation.
Verse 17 and 18.
As he asks what they're arguing
about, someone from the crowd
answers 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.
That's foams at the mouth
and he becomes rigid, tense.
So I asked your disciples
to cast it out
and they were not able.
So we see a boy.
We don't know his exact age,
although when asked
how long this has been happening,
he said from childhood,
so he's potentially
a little bit older boy
who is demon-possessed.
And this is the cause
of all of these other symptoms
that we see listed here.
It's the demon possession
that is causing these things.
Now, as a bit of a side note,
I do believe that this type of stuff
still happens in our world today,
although not in the prevalence
that it happened in this day.
It seems that in all of history,
there was a great fervor
to demonic activity
in the days of Jesus.
It's my presumption
this was Satan's attempt
to occupy the people,
to destroy their
God-image-bearing ability
because the Son of God
was on the scene.
So it would be irresponsible
to assume that anyone
with similar symptoms
also has a possession.
This would be a bad hermeneutic.
This would be a bad way
to deal with the Scriptures.
But this certainly is
the cause of this boy's infirmities.
The father says that he's mute,
can't talk.
Jesus later adds
that he is deaf
in verse 25.
The father may not have even known
that the boy couldn't hear
what it is he was saying.
This young boy was living
in complete isolation.
Right?
Had the presence of people around him
but couldn't hear a thing they would say.
No comforting words
could enter into his mind.
And he couldn't express
the anguish that he was in.
In complete and total isolation.
Verse 18.
The father says that the demon
that possesses him
throws him down.
If you have an NASB,
the word used here is slams.
The original Greek is a violent word.
Right?
Not tosses him to the ground
but slams him to the ground.
Luke adds in chapter 9,
verse 39,
and shatters him.
Right?
This is a violent,
this is a pummeling.
This boy is being beat
against the ground
again and again
and again.
Matthew 17, 15
says that he has epilepsy.
And this is a Greek word.
The word we use,
epilepsy,
is a Greek word
which means
to seize,
possess,
or afflict.
In fact,
our common use,
our western use
of the word epilepsy
just refers to a group
of neurological disorders.
It's not a particular one.
It's a group
of neurological disorders.
The cause of which
mostly are unknown
although brain damage
can often be the cause
of epilepsy.
And so it's likely,
we don't know this for sure,
but it's likely
that this demon
has been throwing this boy
so violently
against the ground
that he has sustained
head injury
after head injury
after head injury.
And the other things
that are happening
to him
are a result
of the demon
trying to kill him
by throwing him
into the ground.
We know that the demon
was trying to kill the boy.
The father says
that he's trying
to destroy him.
Verse 22,
it's often cast him
into fire
and into water.
The father believes
that the demon
is trying to destroy him.
There would have been
a lot of open fires
in this day.
They didn't go camping
all the time.
They just lived their lives
and open wells.
This father is
following his son around.
I would imagine
at all moments
and all time
to save him
from being burned alive
or drowned
by this demon.
Now, demons
are created beings.
We don't have time
to get into the theology.
I don't have time
to study it right now.
But they're fallen angels.
We know that
they were created by God.
And therefore,
they fall under
the reign of God.
God permitted
this boy
to be possessed.
He permitted it
to happen.
It's not the causation
of it,
but He permitted it
to happen.
And therefore,
He also reigned
over what was happening
to this boy.
And that's a hard thing
to understand.
I don't know why.
I don't know why
any of us deal
with the things
that we deal with
and why this boy
would have to go
through such a terrible thing.
His father as well,
as a loving dad
witnessing what's
happening to this boy.
We can certainly say
that Jesus was exalted
in this situation
and that may be
the greatest reason
that this thing
is happening
to this boy
and to this father.
But what we can say
for sure is that
as God reigns over this,
God did prevent
the demon
from taking the boy's life.
The demon was doing
everything it possibly could
to take this boy's life.
And God,
by His grace,
was preventing it
from happening.
Whether it be through
simply sustaining
the head injuries
that would come to him
or by his father
scooping him up
out of fire
and out of open wells.
This boy is in a
horrible, horrible state.
This is his only son.
I have two sons.
And I know a lot of you
in the room
don't have children,
but when you have children
and you start to see them
get hurt,
it is absolutely
heartbreaking.
When Cade was finally
able to form tears,
babies can't form tears
really early
if you don't know that.
When he could form tears
and the first time
he got hurt
and he cried,
I cried too.
It was so heartbreaking
to me
that he got hurt.
Gosh,
you want to rescue them
from every pain
in this world.
In fact,
I think Sam
had to take Cade
to the bathroom
when we were singing.
When they came back in,
when they got to the corner,
Cade was holding Judas' hand.
I think he thought
it would be funny
to sling him
around the corner.
And my heart like,
because I was looking at,
thinking Judas' head
was going to get slammed
into the wall
the way this boy
was slammed repeatedly
into the ground,
but this by his brother
rather than a possession
of sorts.
But what I'm trying
to point out to you
is that this boy
is suffering,
but the father
is suffering as well.
The father is suffering
as well.
I am sure that many times
in the life of this father
and this son,
this father has desired
to trade places
with his son.
Please,
let me take the beating.
Spare him.
And Jesus says to him,
verse 19,
bring him to me.
He has immediate compassion.
They're arguing over here.
What are you arguing about?
The father tells them
what they're arguing about
and he says,
bring him to me.
In verse 20,
it says,
and they brought the boy
to him.
And when the spirit saw him,
this is the unclean spirit,
the demon inside the boy,
immediately it convulsed the boy
and he fell on the ground
and rolled about,
foaming at the mouth.
And we see here
a picture of darkness
colliding with light.
The demon sees Jesus
and it knows
what's going to happen.
And it tries to get in
its last punch.
It tries to get in
its last damage
to this child.
Such a picture
of evil incarnate.
This great collision.
Verse 21,
and Jesus asked his father,
how long has this
been happening to him?
And he said,
from childhood.
And then we see
the explanation
of the fire
and the water.
We shouldn't miss
at this point
this question
that Jesus asked the father.
How long has this
been happening
to him?
Jesus doesn't need
to know
as if he's got to work out
the equation
of his power.
Let me dial my power
meter up properly
so that I can
put the right amount
of power
into the situation.
Jesus,
we could argue,
is omniscient.
He already knows.
How long
it's been happening
to him?
But what he does
in this great display
of compassion
is he empathizes
with the father's
suffering.
We've heard about
the son's suffering,
but as I pointed out,
the father has suffered.
And he asks him a question.
How long
has this been happening
to him?
How long?
Let me share
in this story with you
before I do
this mighty,
mighty work.
And then the father
makes this request
at the end of verse 22.
This is the father's request.
But if you can do anything,
have compassion on us
and help us.
And you see here
that the father understands
that Jesus is empathizing
with him.
The Greek word for help
is a much,
much mightier word
in the original language.
Boatheo.
It means to run
to our aid.
Help us with urgency.
We need your help.
That's what he's saying.
Right?
And he includes
that plural pronoun
of compassion on us
and help us,
deliver us
from the torment
of this demon.
Fourth,
notice the response
of Jesus.
And Jesus says to him,
if you can,
all things are possible
for one who believes.
He says to him,
I can and I will
if only you will believe
that I can.
The father's response
is the opposite
of the leper's request
in chapter 1,
verse 40 of Mark.
You remember that?
He said,
if you will,
you can make me clean.
The leper says,
I know you can,
but I just don't know
if you want to.
The father here says,
I think you will,
but I don't know
if you can.
And then Jesus follows
with this axiom statement,
this hinging statement,
all things are possible
for one who believes.
The power of God
is accessed, beloved,
by our faith,
by our belief
in his power,
that he has the ability
to do the things
that he said
he's going to do.
This is what he means
by all things.
He means all things
within the will
of the father.
All those things
that are ordained
by God himself.
I think the word all
quite possibly
may be one of the greatest
misunderstood words
of scripture
for modern evangelicals.
If we take this
at its face value
and say all things
are possible
for one who believes,
every Christian
can do anything
they want to do.
Isn't that fantastic?
What a poor,
poor hermeneutic.
What does he mean?
All things.
He means all things
in the will of the father.
John 14.14 is similar.
If you ask me
anything in my name,
Jesus says,
I will do it.
What does anything include?
Things in his name.
Things that exalt him.
Things that are within
the will of the father.
All things are possible
for the one who believes.
For the one who has faith.
Notice fifth,
the sufficient faith
of the father.
The sufficient faith
of the father.
Immediately the father
of the child cried out,
verse 24,
I believe,
help my unbelief.
And I love this statement.
I love it.
I have just meditated
for hours this week
on this statement.
I believe,
help my unbelief.
It's such a beautifully
humble statement.
And doesn't it so readily
sum up the experience
of our lives?
It does mine.
I think it does yours as well.
I'm always working
to get my heart
to catch up to my head.
I know things,
but I just don't believe them.
I'm in constant ebb
and flow in my faith.
For many years,
I ran Appalachian Outfitters
in town here.
On the Chesity River,
there's a bend in the river.
And on the inside bank,
which is how rivers function,
there's a beach.
And we called it
Big Bend Beach.
I'm sure it's still called that
this day.
And that beach changed
all the time.
Every time there's a little change
in the water fluctuation,
the water level,
more sand would be deposited
or some sand would be carried away.
But there was always a beach there.
The beach always existed.
We always would send people down there
and let them camp on it.
We never wondered
if the beach was going to exist or not.
It always existed,
but it changed.
Many of you are going to go
to the beach this summer.
I'm not.
Praise God I'm not going
to the beach this summer.
Many of you will.
Watch the sand as it comes
and it goes.
There's always sand on the beach.
There's always faith,
but it ebbs and flows.
It waxes and it wanes.
And this is the statement
that he says,
I believe.
Help my unbelief.
Praise God
that he does not require
of us perfect faith.
But rather he requires
of us humble faith,
which is sufficient faith.
I believe.
Help my unbelief.
And we know that his faith
is sufficient
because Jesus responds to it.
The Father has said,
if you can do this,
if you can do it,
and Jesus' response to him is,
if you can,
all things are possible.
The very thing you're requesting
of me is possible
for the one who believes.
The Father responds,
I believe.
Help my unbelief.
And the evidence
that he actually believed,
that he has faith,
is that Jesus heals his son.
Verse 25.
There's a crowd running together.
So it would seem
that the fact that Jesus is there
is gathering a larger crowd.
And so he quickly rebukes.
His public ministry
has largely completed.
Remember?
Like, he's got to get in these days.
He doesn't want to be taken captive,
to be put in charge,
to be a military ruler.
This was the thing
he's trying to avoid
as he's functioning in secrecy.
So he quickly rebukes
the unclean spirit,
says to it,
you mutant deaf spirit,
I command you,
come out of him
and never enter him again.
This boy is delivered
and he's delivered forever
from the power of this demon.
And after crying out
and convulsing him terribly,
it came out again,
giving him one last go,
it came out
and the boy was like a corpse
so that most of them said,
he is dead.
Mark records for us
the faithlessness still
of the crowd.
See that little detail
he includes for us.
Most of them said,
he is dead,
but Jesus took him by the hand
and lifted him up
and he arose.
In verse 27,
he lifted him up.
And this is what Jesus does.
He takes those who are sin sick
and makes them whole again.
He takes those who were dead
and he makes them alive.
And as I reflected on this phrase this week,
he lifted him up.
My mind was taken to Ephesians 2.
So please go there with me.
Amen.
The metaphor of this boy's life,
this real event that happened,
it points to something greater
that has happened in your life
if you have placed your faith in Christ.
Oh, and I pray that you have.
Ephesians chapter 2,
And you were dead
in the trespasses and sins
and once you once walked.
You were dead.
Walking, but dead.
Following the course of this world.
Doing all the things that this world does.
You just go along with the flow.
Following the prince of the power of the air.
You were dead.
You were a worshiper of Satan.
The spirit that is now at work
in the sons of disobedience.
Not that we're demon-possessed
prior to Jesus delivering us.
We're not demon-possessed.
But yet there's a work that's happening in us.
By our nature,
we are enemies of God.
Verse 3,
among whom we all once lived
in the passions of our flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body
and of the mind,
and we're by nature,
there's that word,
children of wrath
like the rest of mankind.
Precious conjunction.
But God,
being rich in mercy
because of the great love
with which He loved us,
even when we were dead
in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved.
He's lifted you up in Christ
and raised us up with Him
and seated us with Him
in the heavenly place in Christ Jesus
so that in the coming ages
He might show the immeasurable riches
of His grace and kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus.
I read past where I wanted to,
but it's so good.
And then verse 8,
for by grace you have been saved
through faith.
Faith has been given to us
as a gift of God.
This boy couldn't deliver himself
from the demon,
but Jesus delivered him.
Praise God
for the sufficient faith
of the Father.
Sixth,
look at the disciples' doubt.
Verse 28,
And when He had entered the house,
presumably a house
that they were staying at
in the area,
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.
Now it would be really,
really dangerous at this point
to try to form some sort of
doctrine about types of demons,
species of demons.
The lesson here ultimately
in this story
is not even about
casting out demons.
It's the lesson of faith
and the power
and how do we access the power
to do the work of God,
more generally speaking.
So it would be wrong
to look at that and go,
What does He mean,
this kind?
What does He mean by that?
He's simply saying
an enemy of God.
An enemy of God,
the demon-possessed person,
can't be exercised
by anything but prayer.
So the question I asked earlier,
how would the disciples
access the power,
presence,
and provision
of Jesus Christ
in His absence?
They would,
as we should,
access it by prayers
of faith.
Prayer is the natural response
of the person of faith.
We believe in the God
who says He will do things
and therefore we ask Him
to do those very things.
How do we know
that I'm right about this?
How do we know
that Jesus isn't trying
to set up a doctrine
of species of demon?
Right?
Matthew,
His explanation
is more explicit.
Matthew 17, 20.
He said to them
in response to their question,
why could we not cast it out?
He says 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 there
and it will move
and nothing will be impossible
for you.
Now again,
Jesus is not teaching them
literally,
you guys are going to start
an excavating company
because you're going to have faith
and it's going to be amazing
because you're going to need
no equipment.
You're just going to go out there
and talk
and things are going to get
moved around.
This isn't what He's saying to them.
He's saying if you even just have
a little faith.
The problem in this situation,
the reason that they couldn't
cast out the demon
is because they had no faith.
They had no faith at all.
They thought that they
could exercise demons
and they didn't go to the source
of the power.
They didn't believe that Jesus
is the Christ
and Jesus is the source
for the ability
to do such things.
They had zero faith.
He says to them,
if you have faith
like a grain of mustard seed
and mustard was the smallest
seed in this region.
Maybe ever.
I don't know.
But very small.
They would have gotten
what He meant by this.
And if you've ever seen
a mustard seed,
it's like a little flake.
It's really easy to like
breathe too hard
and it blows off your hand
and you never find it again.
Tiny.
You just have a little,
right?
It doesn't have to be
perfect faith.
It just has to be
sufficient faith.
Humble faith.
Know that the power
doesn't come from you
but it comes from me.
This is the further
juxtaposition
of the Father's faith
and the disciples' doubt.
He believed
and the disciples
did not.
Habakkuk 2.4
God says by the prophet,
the righteous shall live
by his faith.
Paul cites Habakkuk 2.4
in Romans 1.17
and Galatians 3.11.
Again, the righteous
shall live by faith.
The author of Hebrews
does it as well
in 10.38
but my righteous one
shall live by faith.
It is by faith
that we have
our very being,
our access into
the kingdom of God
and it is by faith
we continue
in this life.
So the application.
What areas of your life
do you lack faith in?
What areas of your life
do you have like
no faith?
You have no faith
if you're not responding
properly to the gospel.
You don't have to have
perfect faith.
You just have to have
sufficient faith.
Faith like a mustard
seed.
Another way to ask
the question would be
in what ways have you
failed to trust God?
Do you trust Him
with your very soul?
Do you trust Him
with your very soul?
Have you placed
believing faith
in Jesus Christ?
John 3.18 says,
whoever believes in Him
is not condemned.
But whoever does not believe
is condemned already
because he has not believed
in the name of the only
Son of God.
Whoever believes
is delivered
from the consequence
of his sin.
But the one who doesn't
has already been condemned.
Do you trust Him
in all the circumstances
of your life?
Romans 8.28,
I hope this is not a promise
that grows old to you.
And we know that
for those who love God,
all things,
all things work together
for good for those
who are called
according to His purpose.
Do you trust Him
in all of the circumstances
of your life?
Matthew 28.20,
behold,
Jesus says,
I am with you always
to the end of the age.
Do you trust Him
with your children,
with your wife or husband,
or future wife or husband?
Do you trust Him
with your finances?
Matthew 6.25-33,
Jesus tells us
not to be anxious
about our life,
what we're going to wear,
what we're going to eat,
all these things.
It's ridiculous
to be worried
about these things.
For the Gentiles
seek after these things,
verse 32,
and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them all.
But seek first
the kingdom of God
and His righteousness
and all these things
will be added to you.
Do you trust Him
in your finances?
Do you trust Him
with your plans?
College students,
the transition of life
right now,
do you trust Him
with your plans?
Proverbs 19.21,
this is many of the plans
in the mind of a man.
You all can relate
to that, can't you?
Many are the plans
in the minds of a man,
but it is the purpose
of the Lord
that will stand.
To give some explanation
to that,
James 4.13-15,
Come now you who say,
today or tomorrow
we will go into such and such town
and spend a year there
and trade and make a profit.
Yet you do not know
what tomorrow will bring.
What is your life?
For you are a mist
that appears for a little time
and then vanishes.
Instead you ought to say
if the Lord wills,
we will live
and do this or that.
If God directs,
I will go.
You can rest
and trust,
have faith
in a plan
for your life.
The disciples
of Jesus Christ,
this is what Mark
is driving us to be.
This is the very point
of this.
Believe that Jesus
is the Christ
and follow Him.
The disciples
of Jesus Christ
will be so
by faith.
Let us cry out together
to God,
I believe.
Help my unbelief.
Let's pray.
Let us pray.