Pastor Babij asks the crucial question of this passage, “Why do the disciples fail to cast out a demon from an epileptic boy?” In Jesus’ subsequent healing of the boy, Jesus teaches the disciples about the power of prayer in building and sustaining faith against the prevalence of unbelief.
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okay let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to the gospel of Mark and we’re going to be looking at chapter n Gospel of Mark chapter 9 verse 14- let’s pray Lord again this morning as we come before you become Humble Hearts Desiring Lord that you may speak to us from your word but we know Lord that’s what we need the most we need your word we need a word from you and I pray Lord as we look at what’s being done here and being taught here in this part of the scripture that you would really press it upon our hearts that Lord the conclusion that’s made in this text would be something we all take to heart this morning and I pray that we would use it in a greater Effectiveness today than we ever have before and I just thank you for what you’ll do in Christ’s name amen okay before we actually look at the text I just want to bring you where we are today from last time and uh the title of my message today is weak faith and able savior I don’t know if you have ever experienced weak Faith but I think we all have to some extent at some time or another and so it’s relevant for us this morning to see what goes on in this text this morning to learn the principles that we can rate relate to our own life Jesus J was again teaching his inner core of disciples uh to use their eyes and to use their ears in order to learn so that a stumbling block to their faith could be removed and that namely that stumbling block was the necessity that the Messiah should suffer death they weren’t getting that we’ve been seeing that all along so Jesus says I want you to use use your eyes to see my glory and it says in verse number one of the Mark chapter n until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power and of course what happened there in verse number one and throughout the first part of chapter nine is an event that never happened before and that was the event of the Transfiguration where J Jesus was transfigured before them he was uh changed like into the glory of God and they were able to see it so the Transfiguration served and serves today as the visible type of the eschatological Kingdom that will come the end time Kingdom that will come and when they saw the glory of God and the cloud enveloped them they became terrified see it says in verse number seven and the cloud formed and overshadowed them now this cloud of course is representative of the shikina glory in the Old Testament that symbolized not only the glory of God but the presence of God they realized quickly they were in the presence of God but they didn’t die now how how could that be well they they didn’t die is because Jesus is the only person that can take us into the presence of God and live for us to live there’s no one else who could do that so that was a picture of that and then Jesus wanted his disciples to hear and we find that in verse number seven because a voice came out of heaven and the voice was the voice of the father and the father said to his disciples those those three disciples this is my beloved Son listen to him of course remember that was part of what Jesus what the father said in the baptism so the L the father endorsed the first half of jesus’ ministry and now the the father is endorsing the second half of jesus’ ministry so the command to keep listening to Jesus because it’s no longer Moses and Elijah who are God’s authoritative spokesmen but Jesus is the authoritative spokesman of God so continually listen to him and what Jesus said about his impending sufferings and cross bearing was NE necessary before the kingdom of God would come in power in glory in the future so the Mount of transfiguration is a pivotal point in the M Ministry of the son of man and it’s also pivotable for uh in the the maturity in the lives of the maturity of the disciples and even our own maturity to understand this so we see the Transfiguration was broadcast by all the writers of scripture we see that all over the place and then of course God’s timing is not in line with the current expectations of the day when this was taking place Jesus charges his disciples to say nothing about this incredible experience that they had encountered and why did he tell them not to say anything well they just saw a messiah who was shown to have Glory power and might which of course would have synced up with the religious and political and Messianic expectations of the first century uh and so the Lord says no it’s not time to tell them it’s not time to let that information out but there is going to be a time that you can talk about it so he kind of G gave them a Silence of provision and he says in verse number nine of Mark chapter 9 and they were coming down from the mountain and he gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen until the son of man rose from the dead and of course this statement assumes that if someone comes out of the Dead that they must first have to die and so and of course after they die they would be resurrected Jesus says you can’t say anything until the son of man comes out of the out out of dead out of the Dead all right right so what they don’t see Jesus clarifies the restoration of what will come will come in two stages the first stage will be a spiritual restoration where he says in verse number 12 and he said to them Elijah does come first and restores all things and yet how is it written of the son of man that he will suffer many things and be treated with contempt so in other words Jesus would lead the people of God out of bond the bondage of sin in a new Exodus through his death so he had to die and he was trying to bring that home to his disciples uh and the people that were listening to him however if anyone is going to be forgiven if anyone’s sins are going to be wiped away there must be a sacrifice prepared so that the sins could be paid for and washed away and for that to happen there must be one who suffers as a substitute sacrifice and of course the Lord tells about this what’s going to happen before this final restoration by three events or three things three actually um images of suffering and he said in verse number 12 that the son of man will suffer and then that is an illusion to Isaiah 53 where it said because he will pour himself to death and was numbered with the transgressor transgressors yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors so in other words the Old Testament servant of Yahweh would have to suffer which of course is Jesus Christ and then the Forerunner would have to suffer verse number 13 of Mark chapter 9 but I say to you that Elijah has indeed come and they did to him whatever they wished just as it is written of him now of course Jesus says Elijah has come and they treated him as they wanted they imprisoned him and they put him to death yes the religious and the political establishment treated Elijah of course John the Baptist is who Jesus is referring to they treated him with suspicion they treated him with contempt and they beheaded him of course he was beheaded at the hands of Herod so if they had done that to the Forerunner of the one who was going to come before Messiah what do you think they’re going to do to Messiah when he comes they’re going to do the same thing they are going to persecute him they are going to deliver him over to the religious leaders and they are going to crucify him unto death so from our text Elijah will initiate the first stage which will introduce the suffering Messiah and then will lead to the second stage which is the Conquering Messiah and he will restore all things so Triumph will come through suffering and it was Elijah in the spirit of John the Baptist that initiates the final restoration and the final restoration that’s coming because we know that from scripture there’s going to be a glory and a Majesty yet to come when Jesus comes the second time and so the son of man will come in final Victory and if you look back to Acts chapter I mean acts Mark chapter 8:38 all right just one chapter again notice what it says there in Mark 8:38 for whoever is ashamed of me in my words in this adulterous and sinful generation the son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father with the Holy Angel so when God the Father sends Christ back his son into this world he will send send them back into this world to make it right again Messiah is to lead the whole universe from bondage to Paradise so we saw that suffering leads to glory and suffering must come first now that’s all introduction and so we lead into uh we come into verse number 14 and we see that we go from a Mountaintop experience to real life all right Mountaintop to real life now most of us live in real life right we don’t have many Mountaintop experiences in our Christian walk we do have some but we don’t have many so what we find is that here in our text is a real from The Mountaintop to the valley experience that the inner core of his disciples that’s Peter James and John they experienced this great spiritual high but now it’s time to descend the mountain and get back to the realities of life well when Jesus and his disciples are coming down the mountain to the base of the mountain they are quickly confronted with the realities of life in fact they’re they’re you know what they’re confronted with soon as they get down to the end arguing disciples and scribes a clamoring crowd and disciples who have completely failed while Jesus was on the Mountaintop that’s what they come to all right now that to me that’s not a a great thing to com to but let’s look at it verse 14 Mark chapter n here’s the arguing scribes it says when they came back to the disciples that the nine disciples were left there on the base of the mountain they saw a large crowd around him and some scribes arguing with them so the scribes are arguing with the disciples the scribes were uh arguing about some matter that came up surrounding the disciples and the matter was that the nine disciples had been quite unable to deal with a father who brought his boy to them for help the disciples could not help him so in a way that gave some fuel to the scribes to argue with them but the next thing if you notice it says in verse 15 it says immediately when the entire crowd saw him they were amazed and began running up to greet him now again the whole picture of the clamoring crowds remember the crowds didn’t always run after Jesus for the right reasons they ran after reasons for all kinds of things and usually it wasn’t the right things so this time it says here they were amazed and ran after Jesus now what’s interesting is they’re usually amazed after the event happens in this case they’re amazed before anything happens they’re amazed Just to See Jesus and the reason why that’s so important is because the Greek word year here used is is so strong it means they had a trembling astonishment when they saw Jesus so what what was the crowd amazed about well there’s many uh things we could say about that now some people say that jesus’ countenance was still radiating the glory of God like when Moses came down the mountain now that could be that’s still a possibility but the only problem is it seems to cancel out what Jesus said to the disciples about being silent right but it doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen that that is a possibility it could also be that the crowd was just glad to see Jesus the teacher because he could solve the compat the combative cross-examination of the scribes against the disciples if anybody has the answer Jesus has the answer and so they uh he sudden sudden appearance provides hope to them that could be and then of course the crowd is always looking for Jesus and usually like like I said for the wrong reasons when he shows up Suddenly they Rush rushed toward him as if he was famous he was famous but they treated him as somebody who was like a rock star who just stepped out of their limo and they Rush up to him because they wanted to be around him want to be near him like some famous person and though all those all those things are possible with the crowds because the crowds are unpredictable about what they’re thinking and and yet they knew there was something about Jesus they wanted to be near him they wanted to be around him they wanted to listen to him and then we come to the place in verse 17 and 18 about the failing disciples it says this in verse 17 and he asked them what are you discussing with them Jesus is saying well I hear all this arguing I hear this combative language going on uh why don’t you direct the attention towards me and I’ll be able to help you so when Jesus asks that question a man from the crowd pipes up verse number 17 notice it says and one of the crowd answered him teacher I brought you my son possessed with the spirit which makes him mute Verse 18 and whenever it seizes him it slams him to the ground and he Foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and stiffens out and then notice in the end of Verse 18 I told your disciples to cast it out and they could not do it so you see the matter in hot dispute by the religious authorities was that the nine disciples had been quite unable to deal with the father who had brought his boy to them for help so our text pointed out that the boy was an epileptic and had an evil spirit the Disciples of Jesus could not drive out this evil spirit and provide hope for the father and relief for the son so in other words the helplessness of the disciples gave the scribes the foot in the door opportunity to engross them in argument and they took it of course here’s a failure that was exploited by them the disciples seemed to have lost their Master’s power and utterly failed now that becomes the issue of the whole passage why is it that the disciples who have been walking with Jesus for over two years soon as Jesus leaves for a short period of time and comes back they have no more power because remember they did have the power if you go back to Mark chap 6 verse 7 and 13 you’ll notice this in verse 7 it says and he summoned the 12 and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over the unclean spirits and then notice verse 13 of Mark chapter 6 and they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them so in other words they had the authority they had the success that came with the authority but see the problem is this the disciples were now depending on their own sufficiency and past success now that means this that it doesn’t matter how much past success you’ve had something has to keep going on in your life to continue to be sex uh to to be be continue to be successful in your Christian walk something has to happen something has to take place all the time which makes you dependent on the Lord and sufficient in your Christian walk so here the disciples are finding out that spiritual victories in the past are no guarantee of present victories in the present of successes in the present all right so the disciples are trying to minister in a self centered type of unbelief of a self-centered type of hard-heartedness so what Jesus Does He points out the spiritual malady not only on the disciples but in the day and notice what he says here here becomes a SE here comes a section that’s describing faith in different ways and notice the exasperation that is on the Heart of Jesus because of what took place in verse number 19 of verse 9 it says and he answered them and says oh unbelieving generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I put up with you bring him to me see Jesus is exasperated by the unbelief of the generation and also the he includes the hard heartedness of his own disciples this is a rebuke of his own disciples and I believe Jesus is is definitely referring to the unbelieving generation as a whole as the as the crowd is gathered and his disciples that that’s what he’s exasperated about he’s had enough of unbelief it can’t go on and the reason why is because unbelief will kill your Christian walk and your ministry it will kill it so it can’t go on so what does Jesus do in Mark 20 He commands the boy to be brought to him it says in Mark Mark 20 they brought the boy to him when he saw him immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion and falling to the ground he began rolling around and foaming at them out what a scene that is you can see that the demons are not willing to relinquish control easily or quickly the boy convulses Foams at the mount nashes his teeth and has some kind of paralytic rigidity that happens to his body stiffens out but it’s interesting that Jesus does recognize that demons are real there’s they’re not figment of one’s imagination they are not a fantasy they are real beings and they have real power so Jesus recognized them and he also recognizes that demons desire to inflict pain and misery and finally death and we see demons are capable of inflicting physical suffering and exploiting weaknesses such as the physical weakness of epilep epilepsy that Satan’s goal ultimately is to prevent Faith he doesn’t want Faith to get a footh hole in your life because you know what happens when you have faith it dispels unbelief it dispels a hard heart it gives you a soft heart towards the things of God Satan don’t want you to have that what he wants is he wants to keep you in bondage and he wants to ultimately destroy a person for eternity that’s what he wants that is his goal that is that’s his motive of operation he still has that motive of operation however doubts and unbelief did not determine jesus’ willingness and ab ability to act and here’s lives the difficulty the one I have faith in I also must believe that he’s willing and able do I have faith in Jesus to the point where I know that he is willing to help and he is able to help even if I conclude that the help I’m asking for is impossible it cannot happen I have searched it in my mind I have researched it in the culture I have exhausted every Avenue I can think of in my mind about whether this thing could take place and I’ve concluded it’s impossible it cannot happen so Faith does have difficulty to it and we see the difficulty come up in verse number 21 and 2 look at it says and he asked his father how long has this been happening to him and he said from childhood it has often thrown him both Into the Fire and into the water to destroy him but notice what he says in verse 22 but if you can if you can do anything take pity on us and help us I want you to notice what he says there if you can can has to do with ability right you you you remember the little boy in class who raises his hand to go to the bathroom and to the English class and he says to the teacher yes Johnny I see your hand can I go to the boy’s room the teacher would respond no you may not right the little boy should have asked may I go to the bathroom and the teacher would respond to him Johnny yes you may in other words the boy was always able to go to the bathroom but he just didn’t have the permission to go see that’s the English I don’t know if that’s ever happened to you but I’ve heard that happen and I probably committed that crime myself in English class so you must have the right grammar for permission see so the boy always had the ability to go and we all know from scripture that Jesus has the ability to do whatever needs to happen even if it’s impossible but the man in verse number 22 says if you can he’s doubting jesus’ ability but he does appeal to jesus’ compassion see the father tells his story and appeals to Jesus to have pity on him and to have pity on his son and remember pity is a feeling feelings that are kindled when one sees the desperate need in another person and he even experiences within himself the sense of Sorrow to want to help the person so the man appeals to compassion The Compassion of Jesus and of course compassion metaphorically means being moved deeply within to have a gut-wrenching emotion about what you’re seeing and I don’t know if anybody would not have a gut wrenching it uh feeling in their gut when they saw this boy being convulsed and laying on the ground and stiffening out and foaming at the mouth that’s horrifying to be able to experience anything like that but we know the Lord up until this to this point has had a habit of having compassion on people and even people who didn’t deserve compassion he’s had a compassion on so in other words the father has doubts about jesus’ ability can he really give the kind of help that I myself and my son need can Jesus really do that and of course again if you can do anything take pity on us and help us now why did the father doubt Jesus further well think for a moment about the man’s situation the man lived in the realm of hopelessness he considered his son’s case unpromising the child was subject to attacks of epilepsy to extreme uncontrolled fits he is deaf he is dumb and so that no intelligent of expression of feeling could come from his son to his father he could not communicate with the son at all his ears were closed his mouth was bound so the father concluded that it was impossible for a son to be restored to health and normaly but the problem is not Jesus unwillingness the problem is not jesus’ inability to express compass passion on the man and to bring healing to the boy the problem is human unbelief that’s the problem that’s always the problem in respect to real Faith do I really really really believe this but thank the Lord Faith does have hope and that’s exactly what the man needed at the moment and what does Jesus provide to him he provides hope to him and notice what he says in verse 23 he repeats to him he repeats back to him the words look what he says and it’s a question and Jesus said to them him if you can if you can and then he says this notice verse 23 all things are possible to him who what believes wait a minute all things are possible to him who believes see if you can the way Jesus said it expressed an exasperation on jesus’ part and a rebuke of the father’s frail Faith now I am not saying In this passage nor does this passage say that the father had no faith the father had a weak Faith he had a fragile faith in the emergency before us the main thing was that the father should believe Christ to be both able and willing to cast out the devil of his of his son now up until that point he did believe but think of it for a moment have you ever asked questions like can God really be trusted if I believe Jesus died di in my place and rose again can I really trust that for my eternal salvation that at the point of death I would be assured of that or that you would say does God really love us because it seems some of the things going on in my life it doesn’t seem like God loves me or can God really take care of my problem that I have in my life can God really be for us because sometimes I think that God’s against us will God really do what he says from the word of God will he really do those things all of us at one time or another another have expressed some kind of question like that now in that question and in those questions we do Express a certain amount of unbelief but it doesn’t mean that we completely are unbelieving it means that our faith needs to be strengthened somewhere and the right one to strengthen that faith is the Lord himself so what happens at this particular point in this text in this narrative is that and believe me this passage of scripture you know it this is the kind of passage of scripture we need to print out and put on our wall because I want you to notice verse 24 immediately the boy’s father cried out and said I do believe help my unbelief you ever feel that way I feel that way more than once more than twice see the father of the boy once trusted in jesus’ disciples but they failed him he didn’t no longer believed in himself he could couldn’t help him his son he couldn’t drive out the evil spirit he no longer believed in medicine or in medicine men or in Physicians for I’m sure that he tried all the resources available to him in that day all he was left with was Jesus all he was left with was Jesus so in his fragile and weak Faith he he believed that Jesus was able and willing to save him and heal his son now you probably missed this so I’m going to bring it to your attention maybe again like I say this these are one of those scriptures that we need to frame and put on our wall and look at it every single day I do believe but help my unbelief now why is that well it’s because unbelief will often exist side by side with real Faith the father admits that he has some faith yet he also admits there’s a huge area where he lacks faith you know once we become true Disciples of Christ we become a aware of our spiritual weakness quite I would say quickly and maybe the reason for that is because we we have a a deeper sense of our own sin and once you get a deeper sense of your own sin it exposes your Frailty it exposes your own weaknesses and you may think to yourself something like this excuse me I try to pray but it’s not worth calling it prayer I make commitments to serve the Lord more diligently this year than last one month into it I forget all about it and I have not put into practice that which I resolved to implement and I think to myself man I’m a hypocrite it cannot be that I am a saved person now along with that thought is another frame of thought thinking I think wait a minute if peace comes to me through the word of Christ I need not be suspicious of it I may doubt myself I may be in despair I may but I must not doubt my Lord if he said trust in me believe in me and you will be saved if I believe in him it is no presumption to know that I am saved if if he has declared me justified by his blood if I have believed in Jesus I am justified from all my sins if I believe in Jesus I have no right to say I I hope I’m saved for that implies a doubt of God’s declaration that the believer is saved and why I said that is because when we think in our mind those two things are going on matter of fact almost all the time and as you grow in your faith it seems like the side of taking What God Says from the word of God becomes Paramount it takes over those doubts it takes over that slipping into Quick unbelief so at the same time doubts are amongst the worst enemies of our souls and I think that’s what Grieves the Lord here he is saying really don’t allow doubts to take a comfort able place in your thinking instead you you and I should treat doubts as adversaries as enemies we should fight with them we should slay them fight them and pray to God to help you to kill them and bury them doubting and unbelief are to be despised and confessed before God as Sin so again in verse number 24 I want you to notice this notice what the man says immediately the boy father cried out and says I do believe notice what he says help my unbelief now that’s pretty significant and this is the reason why the father doesn’t pray Lord I believe help my child nor does he pray Lord I believe cast out my the demon from my boy he doesn’t pray that he prays help my unbelief the man immediately perceives that his own unbelief was harder to overcome than the devil it was harder to overcome than to heal his spiritually diseased or his his son that was had his issues but it was harder to under overcome than his own spiritually diseased Soul that’s incredible to think that in scripture every think that way Lord help my unbelief it’s not it’s not my son’s problem it’s not the crowd’s problem it’s not the disciples it’s my problem I’m the one not believing so that needs the work so through his faith through his weak weak faith it enabled him to realize that the Messiah who stood before him was the Lord and it led him to the place of complete Reliance on him even though his faith was weak in other words we don’t need a lot of faith in Christ to get the work of Christ done we just need a little Mustard Seed of Faith but if it’s all unbelief nothing will get done and unbelief if we let it stay there it will permeate everything and Destroy things cut things off and deaden everything around us we don’t want that we want the Lord to be working in our life so the faith of this father was was true and saving and why is that firstly because it was personal faith he he trusted now in the ability and willingness of Jesus and secondly it was a faith that triumphed over difficulties yes I know I live in this impossible realm I’ve tried everything for my son and Lord I find out that it’s my own unbelief that’s holding everything back so what does Jesus do he gives us the understanding that Faith Faith’s Triumph is always found in jesus’ ability no matter how weak or fragile our faith is in verse 25 jesus’ ability willingness compassion and power to Forever end this Terror and slavery in order to answer the Father’s prayer and set the captive free is evident in verse number 25 when Jesus saw the crowd it says the crowd when when Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly Gathering he rebuked the unclean Spirit saying to it you deaf and dumb spirit I command you come out of him and do not enter him again now if that does not show Authority and not only Authority he he says listen leave him and don’t come back do never trespass in this area again you stay far from that that boy and then of course in verse 26 and 27 after crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions it came out and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said he’s dead but Jesus took him by the hand and raised him and he got up now I don’t know if you you noticed that but there seems to be a play on words here in the last part of verse number 27 it says Jesus took him by the hand and raised him and he got up while the people perceived he was dead you know that is that’s Resurrection language see from spiritual death to spiritual life that’s what we’re seeing in these passages that this resur Resurrection language it points even forward to jesus’ own Resurrection where then of course he gives the proclamation in at the in verse number 31 where he says for he was teaching his disciples and telling them the son of man to be delivered delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him and when he has been killed he will rise three days later so Jesus wants to keep in the minds of the disciples and the crowd about Resurrection too not not only about unbelief not only about weak Faith but about what we’re to have faith in and whom we’re to have faith in and that faith is going to be in the ability and the willingness of Jesus so in all that all that what’s the cause of the failure and what what is its solution well Jesus Cuts right to the chase verse 28 look what it says when he came into the house his disciples began questioning him privately why could we not drive it out this is burning in their craw why couldn’t we do it now if you notice the question is is why the question is why didn’t we have the ability to cast out the demon what happened to our power now this does show that the disciples are concerned more about what they could not accomplish than their loss of power and their loss of power than the real cause of the failure they said why couldn’t we do this anymore we’ve been doing this all along now we can’t do it anymore why they wanted their power back see Jesus tells his disciples the real cause of their failure here’s the real cause look at verse 29 and he said to them this kind cannot come out but but cannot come out come out by anything but what prayer Jesus is not saying that some Demon exorcism require prayer but others do not he’s not saying that he is saying that whenever whenever we we take to the spiritual Battlefield if we go in our own strength if we go in our own Pride if we go in our own self-sufficiency we have lost the battle before it begins and where do we lose it at prayer why don’t you have a strong faith because you don’t pray why don’t you have success in your spiritual walk because you don’t pray why don’t the impossible things take place in your life because you don’t pray see you have to come to grips that you have more unbelief going on in your life than you have faith and the cure to that is prayer and what’s the hardest thing the hardest thing to do in your Christian Life what’s the hardest thing prayer and who’s right there to fight you against prayer Satan is your adversary and right there to prevent you from prayer you know you’re too tired and the list of excuses go on see unbelief carries a danger with it that really can severely handicap all believers leaving them with a powerless and ineffective life Jesus is saying to his disciples if you want to maintain your influence if you want to maintain your power as a Christian to overcome sin and even to say no to sin if you want to overcome the enemy of your soul if you want to stand against the currents of the culture that flood upon you if you want to overcome the weaknesses of your own faith you must pray and if you don’t there’s no power and there’s no Effectiveness that’s the bottom line that’s the bottom line and if Satan can keep us there then nothing will happen nothing impossible will happen so without a complete dependence on Jesus the able one the Willing one you can have no power at all prayer and Faith testify that spiritual power is not in one’s self but in God alone and what does prayer actually communicate that we’re willing to come to the one who is sufficient and lay all our burdens our cares our supplications our requests before him because we know he hears us and he we know he’s going to answer us according to his will so see the solution to the failure of weak faith is a deep more consistent prayer life oh you heard that before didn’t you you all know that I know that it’s it’s one of the most common things in the Christian Life prayer but yet why don’t we do it as much as we should why don’t we have enough time for it why don’t we meet together in diners and in living rooms and in our cars with someone else and pray about everything and pray let’s pray impossible things this man had to pray for an impossible thing and he got it this is not beyond the realm of what God can do God can do anything anybody who believes nothing’s impossible isn’t that what he said so prayer maintains Effectiveness and power continual contact with Jesus Through the Holy Spirit maintains Effectiveness and Power in life and Ministry and it could be it could be you don’t see great things in your personal life and in your church life because you lack prayer that’s the bottom line so along with one verse to have on your wall as a plaque why don’t you include the last verse verse 28 also why don’t you include verse number 29 excuse me this kind can this kind cannot come out by anything but prayer put that on your wall too so let’s pray against unbelief let’s pray the Lord’s the Lord would help you and I in the area that I cannot have faith but need it let’s pray that the Lord of All Things the Lord that who can accomplish all things and things that are impossible that I would always believe that he is able and willing so I just want to ask you something is there a situation right now in your life right now that you have been working on that you have been thinking about that you’ve been doing everything possible and nothing has changed pray about that until it changes pray about it until the Lord intervenes because God is sufficient and he will accomplish everything that he needs to through his people to get the work of God done you pray for a a person in your family who’s not a Believer that’s impossible that person will never believe no it’s possible I’ve said that about my father and he became a Christian after 25 years there’s times that I I remember sitting on my mother’s back porch when I desired to go further to Seminary and I was reading a catalog and you know I was deep into Ministry already and I says I looked that thing I read the calag and I threw it on the ground I I’ll never be able to do that this is impossible well I went there and I went further than I ever wanted to go see what that proved to me is is that God God does the impossible things things that you could never think could work out he does all right and the only thing preventing you from going to that prayer is unbelief that’s it I say forget all that go right to it and ask God for the things that you think could never happen and believe me you’re going to be surprised and you’re not only going to be surprised you’re going to be encouraged and not only are you going to be encouraged but you are going to see Effectiveness and power return to your life to do everything God wants you to do so I pray that this scripture would lay heavy upon your minds and that you would not forget it and that you would implement the very very simple but difficult conclusion that if you want Effectiveness and power in your Christian walk you must pray you can’t get away from it let’s pray Lord this morning I I so much thank you for this passage of scripture I know Lord that contained in it are many things that we all can relate to there’s nothing in this passage that we couldn’t put oursel in that situation and and yet Lord this morning maybe the major thing that’s on our mind and on our heart is that if as we examine our own life we must conclude Lord that we are not necessarily people of prayer not serious prayer not prayer that really seeks out who you are and what you’re able and willing to do in our life so I pray Lord help us to remove the obstacles help us to clear away the the doubt and the the remaining unbelief and Lord even our weak faith move our weak Faith to become strong stronger and stronger and stronger and Lord those areas that I cannot have faith for some reason but I need it Lord enable me to have faith where I never had it before and I pray Lord as you grow Us in faith that the doubts would would be dispelled the unbelief would go by the wayside and that our trust in our able and willing savior would increase I pray that for us and I ask you to answer us according to your will and I pray this in all of it in the precious name of Jesus Christ amen let’s Stand Together