Joel Brooks: Before we open up God's word this morning, I wanna take time to acknowledge, and to pray for our graduating high school seniors. Their names are there listed in your worship guide. We have 9 seniors that will be graduating, and just because I I really I have a graduating high school senior who's not here at this service, hopefully will be at the next one, but because I want to embarrass her, I'm gonna embarrass any of the graduating seniors. If you would come on up here, I don't know if any made it to the 8 o'clock service, but if there are any high school graduating seniors, would you come up here? I didn't think so.
That's okay, because I'm gonna pray for you anyway. So church, if you would pray with me for, for these seniors. Father, we thank you for the, the seniors that are listed there in the worship guide. Thank you for the achievement that they just had, the hard work that they have put in to graduate from high school. We thank You for the next chapter of their life, whatever that is, whether it's more schooling or going into work, would You bless them?
Lord, this is a time when the faith that maybe perhaps was their parents', they really need to own. And so, would you would you call them sweetly and tenderly to yourself? I pray that they would come to firmly know what they believe and whom they believe in. So for the years ahead, would you just plant them on the solid rock of your gospel, Jesus? I pray that they would be lights in a dark world, that they would live lives that do not compromise what your word teaches them to do, and they would hold fast to you, Jesus.
But our confidence is not in how fast they hold to You, but knowing that You hold fast to them. And so, Lord, would you bless them? And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen. Amen.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Mark chapter 9, as we continue our study in the Gospel of Mark. Years ago, I had the privilege of going to Peru and teaching some pastors there, and just kind of this mini conference. And it was high up in the Andes mountains. There was actually this village, and I I gotta read this name right, in Markapomacocha. I never got it right when I was there, and I I certainly did not get it right now.
But this village it actually sits at 16,000 feet, which is ridiculously high, and that's where the conference was, and when I was talking with a number of the people who live there, they said that they actually worked at higher elevations. They would work up at around 19,000 sometimes 20000 feet, they worked in some mines that were up there, they were even able to do some high altitude farming up there, and every day they would make that 3 to 4000 foot climb to go work up there, and then they would come down at night. And so I asked the really dumb question, I said, well, why don't you just live up there? I mean, why why don't you, you know, why are you making this 4,000 foot climb every single day? And they looked at me like the idiot that I was, and they said, you can't live that high.
It's actually beyond what's called the vertical limit, which is 18,000 feet. The moment you go beyond 18,000 feet, your body begins to break down, And so you can only go up there for small amounts of time, and so they would go up there and they would work for a little bit, and then they would actually come and they would sleep and they would they would live at a slightly lower elevation. And I think of that story anytime I have encountered a spiritual high. Anytime I've had this mountaintop experience, I think of the story when I think of Peter, James and John, how they went high up on the mountain to be with Jesus. And they're at those heights, they witnessed his glory.
And their reaction was, can't we just live here? I mean, can't we just stay here? Peter begins suggesting, let's make tents. I know we didn't bring anything with us, but we can make some shelters where we could just linger here for longer, and you can't blame them, they want that spiritual high to last. But that's not the normal Christian life.
The normal Christian life has not lived up on the mountaintop. You can't live there. At some point, you have to come down. Perhaps you've been on a mission trip, or gone to a church camp or retreat, or perhaps you've come to one of our nights of worship that we have here, and you've just wanted it to linger. You just wanted to live there, and and then you realize you can't you can't force it.
You can't forever remain there. At some point, you have to re enter into normal life. And it's hard coming off that type of spiritual high into normal life. The disciples are gonna find that it's very hard. They come down from this mountaintop to rejoin the rest of the disciples, and they're gonna find a world that is full of sin, full of hurt, full of doubt, full of people arguing, confusion.
And what we're gonna learn in this story is, how are we supposed to respond to Jesus when we're no longer on the mountaintop? So if you would read with me Mark chapter 9, I'll begin reading in verse 14. 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 they 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 her 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 around 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 the fire and into the 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 the 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?
Jesus said to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. This is the word of the Lord. It's the word of the Lord. You would pray with me. Father, we do come to you in prayer.
We ask that you would open up hardened hearts and minds that we might hear from you. As always, as we've been praying these last few weeks that we would come to see you more clearly, Jesus. Thank you for the friend that we have in you and that we can come to you in prayer. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Amen. So what are you supposed to do with your doubts? Weeks ago, if you remember, we read about a father coming to Jesus, pleading with Jesus to heal his daughter, who was on the verge of death. And before Jesus could get there, word came back that his daughter had died. Do you remember what Jesus said to that father in that moment?
Fear not, only believe. Fear not, only believe. And then Jesus, he went into that house, he grabbed the lifeless hand of that little girl, and He said those words, talitha cum, which means I say to you little girl arise, and breath entered her body and she rose from the dead. After that sermon, I actually heard from a number of you saying that you were just clinging to those words, Do not fear, only believe. Do not fear, only believe.
One of you sent, me a picture of those words tattooed on an arm. I don't know if it's your arm or a friend's arm, but you wanted to be reminded of that truth. So do not fear, only believe. I remember the the day after I preached that one of our members was diagnosed with cancer and texted me those words from the hospital. Do not fear, only believe.
I know that many of you have been clinging to those words since then. Some of you have had an unexpected illness that you've been diagnosed with. And you've just been battling to believe. Some of you have lost family members or friends. And you've been repeating those words, do not fear, only believe.
Do not fear, only believe. But what happens when you don't believe? What should you do when your doubt grows to a point where it can no longer be ignored, it cannot be suppressed? What do you do when you can no longer just muster up the faith? You know, I just I just gotta have more faith.
I just gotta believe harder, harder, harder. What happens when that fails? What do you to do with those doubts? Well, here in this story, we find one of the most desperate honest prayers in the bible. I believe, help my unbelief.
And far from Jesus being repulsed by such doubts, he he he responds. He runs to to that little teeny grain of faith mixed with a whole lot of doubt. He runs to that with incredible compassion and power. We've already read a number of stories and Mark about Jesus casting out demons. He he has done that a couple times already.
Why do we have another one here? Is Mark just thinking that you've probably missed the other two times that Jesus has healed the you cast out demons? I need to reinforce that idea. That's not what Mark is doing. He's writing this story because he wants us to understand what do we do with our doubts.
What do we do when we doubt that Jesus can actually overcome this evil? Well, we respond the way this father did, I believe, help my unbelief. So if you struggle to obey Jesus's words, do not fear, only believe. This is your response, I believe, help my unbelief. Well, let's walk through the story.
As Jesus is approaching his disciples, he He sees that a big argument was taking place between His disciples and the scribes. This is what religious people do. I have heard it said and it's true that pastors are like manure, spread them out, they do a whole lot of good, put them together, just stinks to high heaven. And these religious people are just they're just all fighting. A large crowd is gathered around to watch them, to watch the action.
When the crowd sees Jesus though, they all run to him, and we read that they were greatly amazed. Now Jesus hasn't done anything to amaze anyone right here, he's just walking down the mountain, so I don't think they're amazed because of what he has done, he's a celebrity by this point. I think it's the amazement of seeing a celebrity walking into their village. I was at O. Henry's one time, and I don't even know his name, but the guy who is the main person in The Walking Dead was N.
O. Henry's. I don't know his name, never watched the episode, but I still got out my phone, took a picture, sent it to some people, amazed that he was there, and I am sure that when Jesus came around from this mountain, if they had had phones, they would have taken pictures, they were tweeting it out, omg, Jesus is here. There was this buzz always around him, but so they're looking at Jesus, but Jesus, he immediately goes to where the crowd already was in that argument that was happening there. He goes, what's all the commotion about?
And before they can even answer, someone from the crowd yells out, teacher, I brought you my son. I brought you my son to to heal, but for my my son's got a a spirit that makes him mute. It's it's trying to destroy him, but your disciples were not able to cast this demon out. And I know when Jesus heard the father yelled at, his heart had to break in that moment. Notice here that the father had only brought his son to the disciples, but who does the father say he brought his son to?
Teacher, I brought my son to you. Jesus wasn't even there. But people make no distinction between Jesus and Jesus's followers. And all his followers could do was just get in religious arguments with other religious people because they were actually powerless to help anyone. In the absence of genuine power, you know what happens?
Bickering. And that's what we see here that bickering will break out and whenever there is a vacuum of power. And so this is a heartbreaking scene here. The disciples, they tried to help this kid, but nothing was working, then a fight breaks out among the scribes and the disciples. I'm sure that the scribes were like, hey, you're doing it all wrong, and the disciples like, hey, we know what we're doing, we've done this a time or 2 before.
I mean, by this point, they think they're pros at it. I mean, they've already been casting out demons in the past, and the scribes like, no, you need to be using this type of holy water, you need to use this kind of incantations, the disciples are they're clapping back saying, no, no, no, no, trust us, you do it this way. All the while, there's a little boy in pain. While the religious people just argue because they're powerless. I see a scene like this, and it makes me wonder how how the world sees Jesus when they can only see him through the lens of his church.
Do you see a Jesus that's, do they see a Jesus that's indifferent to the suffering of the world? Or do they see a Jesus who maybe he's well intentioned, but he lacks the power to actually truly help? Do they see a Jesus that's just likes to argue? What does the world think about Jesus, when the world looks at us? And I'm not please hear me say, I'm not saying the world is not gonna hate us, because the world hated Jesus enough to crucify him.
I'm more concerned as to why would the world hate us. Is it because of what we believe? Is it because we act like arrogant, powerless people who just love to bicker and argue? Verse 19, Jesus responds to this man, How long am I to bear with you? How long am I to bear with you?
Jesus, he sounds like a parent that has been stuck with her children all summer long, and is just waiting, counting down the days for school to start. Or for you teachers now, counting down the days for summer to start. How much longer? Spin this however you want but it certainly seems like Jesus has just about had enough. I don't know if you would call this frustration, exasperation, or just grief.
But it certainly looks like that Jesus is having a hard time coming down from the mountain just like the disciples were. I mean, up on the mountain, face shining, glory, great conversations with Moses, Elijah, and now this. How much longer. He wonders it out loud. He He can't even keep the thought private.
He's saying it out loud, how much longer that to be with these people. But, but although Jesus, he's frustrated here at, at his disciples, frustrated at this whole scene. Notice that his heart is filled, still filled with compassion for that child, and for that father. He tells the father to go and get his child. And when the child is brought before Jesus, we read that the evil spirit in that child recognizes Jesus and immediately begins throwing this child into convulsions.
Jesus asked the dad, how long has this been going on? Which is an unusual thing for Jesus to ask in the midst of this. It it's our first indication that this isn't a normal demon. There might be something a little particular about this demon. The father says this has been happening since childhood.
This demon's been trying to burn him, drown him, do whatever it can to destroy him, because that's the goal of evil. Destruction. I don't care how small that evil is in your life, you need to know its aim, its aim is to destroy you. It might start small, but it is gonna grow, it's not gonna keep it's not gonna stop until it has reached its goal or it has been cast out. The father then says, if you could do anything, have compassion on him, help us.
And Jesus immediately claps back, if you can. If you can. And this is unusual for Jesus to have such a strong emotional reaction to something like this, but he wants this person to know, hey, just because my disciples lack If you can. And then he quickly corrects this Father's theology. He says, hey, your problem is not in my ability or in my willingness, your problem is that you don't believe in me.
Don't put this on me, the problem is you and your lack of faith, so let me ask you, do you believe I have the power to heal your son? So Jesus puts it right back on him, do you believe I have the power to heal your son? This man cries out as a strong emotional cry. He does not whimper this, he yells it. I believe, help my unbelief.
Has there ever been a more honest prayer than this one? A more honest or desperate prayer than this. I believe help my unbelief. We are all a walking contradiction, aren't we? I mean there are moments where we have this strong unwavering faith, we hold on to, even when when all of the evidence is against us believing what we believe.
It's it screams as foolish for us to believe those things. We we can have this unwavering strong faith, and yet then there are times when the evidence of God's provision and His presence could not be more clear, and yet we doubt. There are times that we are filled with this unspeakable joy, and we have a peace, even in the midst of immense suffering, and then there are times we can just receive an ambiguous text from a friend, and it sends us spiraling into anxiety. There's times that we firmly believe in the resurrection to come and the life to come, and then there are times that we are scared to die. What are we supposed to do with these contradictions?
Ignore them? Just try to muster up faith. No. We we take them to Jesus. We tell Jesus that we believe, and then we ask him to help our unbelief.
Maybe we tell him that we can't even we can't even say that, maybe we could just say, Jesus, we want to believe. Or Jesus, we want to want to believe. Would he help my unbelief? I mean Jesus knows our doubts, so so why not just be honest with him? This summer, we're about to spend 8 weeks going through the Psalms.
That's gonna be our our summer series, and it might surprise some of you to know that as a pastor, I didn't really like the Psalms. I know everybody else just raves about them, But honestly, I just found them a little boring. Too repetitive? I mean, you think some of our songs are repetitive? How many times can you sing, his steadfast love endures forever?
I mean, it is just endless repeat in the Psalms. My Bible just fell apart up here. Not where the Psalms were though. Now, I would read through the Psalms and I would think, you know, they're just too emotional, and honestly too whiny for me. There's just so much complaining that goes on in the Psalms.
But can I tell you what? Then doubt hit me. And I've talked about this, I've been open and honest with you about this before, doubts they came in uninvited, a a love for the Psalms. Yes, the Psalms, they're they're full of repetitive celebrity celebratory praise, but they're also full of prayers of people struggling to believe, just struggling. I mean, you're also gonna find the psalmist wondering, God, I believe that you're good, but but I don't see it.
Where are you? Why haven't you done anything about this situation that I'm in? It's it's full of prayers that are essentially crying out, I believe, and would you please help my unbelief? And God wanted those prayers to be in the center of his Bible. And when you read through these prayers, what you find is God begins moving you from fear to faith, from doubt to praise.
These Psalms teach us that we're supposed to go to the Lord with our doubts. Going to the Lord with your doubts is actually an act of faith. By going to Jesus with his doubts, this father in the stories showing faith, yes, he's struggling to believe, but he's not sitting at home with his child, He came to Jesus. He brought his child to Jesus. Basically, he came to Jesus with the entire mess of his life.
All of his doubt, all of his confusion, all of his suffering, his pain, his inability as a father to help his child, all of that. All of it is like, here it is, and I'm struggling to believe. Help me. Help me. Perhaps you find yourself in the same place.
God, I believe that you are good, So why can't I have a baby? Why can't I find a spouse? God, I believe your bible is your true word. Yet, I find some parts of it really hard to accept. God, I believe that you want me to be healed.
So why am I still sick? God, I believe that you are sovereign, yet things seem to be out of control. God, I believe that you have a plan for my life, yet why do I feel like I'm just aimlessly wandering through it? God, I believe that you have forgiven me. So why am I still consumed with shame?
God, I believe would you help my unbelief. I mean, this morning, you might be sitting here full of those types of doubts. But you know what? You're sitting here. You're sitting here with those doubts.
You're not at home just watching YouTube videos trying to suppress the depression or the anxiety or the doubts. You've come here. That shows at least some degree of faith. And you have heard me preach this a 1000 times, and I'll preach it a 1000 times more. It is not the amount of faith that saves you, it's the object of your faith.
It's not how strong you're holding on to Jesus, it's how strong Jesus is holding on to you. There was this old super glue commercial. Most of you probably were not alive during this time, but it was of a, it was of a construction worker with a hard hat. Any of you remember this? They put one drop of superglue, just one drop, and stuck it on an iron beam above the head.
Let it dry, and then the person put his head in it, and then the iron beam was raised up, and he just lifts off the ground. One little drop probably didn't work, but it was a it was a commercial. They had to sell it. But that stuck in my head, one little drop creates a bond that would lift lift him. It's faith.
Just 1 just one little mustard seed, one one little drop. That's all that's required for Jesus to save you because his grip on you is far greater than your grip on him. This man went to Jesus with a little faith he had, and it was enough. Now, Jesus could have responded to this man, no, you gotta clean up your entire life, you gotta your sins, you gotta get everything in order, and then I'll deal with you, instead he just hears that man say, I've got none of what you require, None of it. Help me.
Jesus said, that's enough. He responds with compassion and power, and he heals his son. He commands this evil spirit to leave and never come back, and the evil spirit obeys. The exorcism though is is pretty violent though. The boy begins screaming, he's convulsing, then he just goes dead.
People actually thinks he's a corpse. His his body is so still. It actually looks like Jesus has killed the boy instead of healing him. Can you imagine how the father felt then? He actually does go to Jesus with all his mess, and it seems like things just got worse.
But the boy was not dead. Jesus took him by the hand and he arose. And what Jesus is doing here is actually giving him a a picture of what even the smallest faith in him will do. He gives him a picture of the resurrection to come. Even that smallest little faith will raise us.
There are so many similarities between this story and the story of when Jesus healed Jarius's daughter. You know, when he when he went to the girl, and he he grabbed her hand, and she rose? And I I love the similarities in those stories, because I think the stories are wed together. In one story Jesus teaches us that we are to fear not, only believe, and then here he teaches us, what do we do when we don't? I believe, help my unbelief.
Those those two stories, they belong together. After Jesus casts out this demon, the disciples and they come up to Jesus, and they say, hey, we got a question we need to ask you, but not hear what other people can hear us, because it's kind of embarrassing, since they got Jesus privately. Why couldn't we do that? I mean, we we did all the things we did before, why why couldn't we cast out this demon? And Jesus said, this kind cannot be driven out by anything other than prayer.
So apparently, there's different degrees of demons. Some are stronger than others, which is pretty fascinating. But don't miss the main point here. The disciples were trying to cast out a demon without praying. They were trying to cast out a demon without praying.
They thought this was old hat that they had become pros at this. I mean, they've done it before in Mark when Jesus sent them out. Easy peasy, they thought. I mean, I I could see them, you know, getting out there and they're like, okay, you know, let's just do this. Be gone.
Okay? Be really gone. Oh, you know, what are get get the holy oil? What what do you have? Be gone.
And then the other scribes are cut they're they're cutting in saying, oh, no no. You're supposed to do it this way. You're supposed to do it this way. Do you know what you can actually do without prayer? A lot.
You can do a whole lot without prayer. You can be good at your job. You can have a pretty good marriage. You can sing at church. You can live a good moral life, you can even preach a really good sermon without prayer.
Some of you here are actually an amazing testament to all that you can accomplish in life without prayer. But there are always will be some evils that you'll be powerless against. Some of you right now are in the grips of an evil that is trying to destroy your life, and you are putting on a good show but it is eating you up from the inside. You won't be able to keep it private for long. That evil seeks to destroy you.
And you cannot get rid of evil by just trying harder. You can't get rid of evil by just getting all religious. That's what the disciples were trying to do. I mean this boy's in pain, he's bound to an evil that's trying to destroy him, and all they're doing is just arguing with one another, because that's what religious people do. They argue with one another when nothing else will work.
They were probably recommending books to one another. Hey, have you read exorcisms by John Smith? Well, I found that to be quite verbose. I have been reading, you know, casting out evil by Joe Schmo. You know, that's that's what they do.
You throw books at one another when you're powerless. Powerless. My old preach old preaching professor, he would often warn his students. He said, when you when you leave this place with your fancy degree, don't go out and spend all of your time talking about the whats and the whys, and the hows when it is the who that matters. It's the who.
Preach Jesus. Jesus is all that matters. And prayer is how we go to him. I have Gosh, I've been in ministry 25 years, I have been in enough ministry meetings, nonprofit meetings, church meetings, to know that so much of our time, and Lord forgive me for for this is on me, so much of my time has been spent in the how, and the why, and the what, instead of seeking the who. And the arrogance in that.
There's only one thing that matters, Jesus. Jesus, will you show up and cast out this evil? Jesus, I'm powerless, but I know you're not. There is no power over evil apart from Christ. If you could defeat evil on your own, then Jesus would have never had to come to this world.
That's the truth, if you've been strong enough on your own to overcome even the smallest evil, Jesus would have never had to come, but you're powerless against evil, that's why he came. The disciples here, they thought they were strong enough to take it on. They said they didn't even ask God for help. There was only one person in this entire story who acknowledged his weakness, and that was the father. Father, he just that's all he just oh, here's that's all I could bring to you is weakness.
Help me. Jesus said, that's enough. The disciples were filled with pride. The father had none. I believe, help my unbelief.
You know, you actually do not need more discipline in order to pray more. You just need to be poor in spirit. If you're poor in spirit, you cannot help but pray. You just need to know your need, you just need to know your weakness, and then you cannot help pray. And if you don't know that, then ask God to show you.
And what you will find is that when you come to Jesus with all your brokenness, with all your doubts, you will find a Jesus more than willing to meet you there. Pray with me. Jesus, we believe. Would you help our unbelief? We believe, but then the things that we see happening around us, the things that we experience seem to contradict what we believe and we begin to doubt.
Would you help us? Thank you that you don't depend on us to muster up more faith. You don't depend on us to get our life together. You just want us to come to you with all that we are, and you will meet us there. That's our hope, Jesus.
We pray this in your name.