“Don’t Stop Believing”
Mark 9: 14-27
October 23, 2011
Intro: A preacher was watching a little girl standing outside the preschool Sunday school classroom between Sunday school and worship, waiting for her parents to come and pick her up for "big church." The pastor noticed that she clutched a big storybook under her arm with the title "Jonah and the Whale."
-Feeling mischievous, he knelt beside the girl and asked, "What's that you have in your hand?" "This is my storybook about Jonah and the whale," she answered. "Tell me something," he continued, "do you believe that story about Jonah and the whale?"
-The girl said, "Why, of course I believe it!" The pastor inquired further, "You really believe a man can be swallowed up by a big whale, stay inside him all that time, and come out okay?" She declared, "Yes! This story is in the Bible, and we talked about it in Sunday school today."
-Giving the girl a hard time he then asked, “Can you prove to me this story is true?" She thought for a moment and then said, "Well, when I get to heaven, I'll ask Jonah." Finally the pastor asked, "What if Jonah's not in heaven?" The girl put her hands on her hips and said in a defiant voice, "Then YOU can ask him!"
-You’ve got to love little kids! You especially have to love them when it comes to faith, to belief that God is TRUE to His Word. They haven’t been jaded by the world yet and they have an innocent trust-like nature.
-Unfortunately, as we get older our instinct to TRUST gets overwhelmed by being let down so many times. And when it comes to matters of faith we can have a difficult time TRUSTING that God is true; that He genuinely loves us and has our best interest in mind.
-Today we’re continuing our series “Classic Rock” and our focus is going to be on “Don’t Stop Believing.” My fear is that as we have distanced ourselves from belief that we are like the Journey song says, people who are on a train ride “going anywhere.”
Sermon Idea: Today in our passage of Scripture we’re going to see a group of people who were on the verge of not believing. They had lost hope b/c of the circumstances they were in. But Jesus came along and gave them a message that we can still use today. And that message is “Don’t stop believing.”
TEXT: MARK 9: 14-27
Bckgrd: Jesus and His followers always had a difficult time w/the religious leaders of the day. When He came along they saw Him as a threat to their way of life, as someone who was trying to pull people away from their religion. But Jesus had come to give them freedom. He’d come to give them life.
-The problem was, and still is, that this world is rough! We face disappointments, busted relationships, the loss of people we love. We live in a world of great uncertainty. And so the belief that we have a God who loves and cares for us can be hard to grasp when put in the light of our present reality.
-In our text, a man has a son who’s demon possessed. His son was overwhelmed w/the presence of evil in his life and the dad was desperate for help; he was desperate for deliverance. But his biggest obstacle in seeing it was the belief factor.
-I know there are people here who face the same thing. They want freedom but they don’t know where to find it. It’s here Jesus shares w/us some reasons we need to hang on to belief in Him. So what are the reasons? The 1st reason we should believe in Jesus is b/c:
DIV. 1: UNBELIEF HAS NO POWER (vv. 14-19)
Exp: As I said earlier, the man in our text had a son who was overwhelmed by evil. He was possessed by an evil spirit and it was robbing him of life. According to our text it had robbed him of his speech, it caused him to be thrown into something like seizures and foam at the mouth.
A.It was absolutely terrible. So he did the best thing he knew to do which was bring the boy to Jesus’ disciples. Now why would he do that? Well, b/c the disciples were associated w/Jesus who’d already demonstrated that He could heal people.
1. In the preceding chapters you can read where Jesus fed a multitude of people, where he’d healed a deaf man, a blind man and had raised a girl from the dead. There were enough things that had happened that had caused the father to have hope for his son.
a. But when he brought his son to the disciples they couldn’t drive the demon out! Now I’m not sure why that happened. I can take a few guesses though. It could be that the disciples had seen Jesus perform so many miracles that they didn’t even think @ bringing their situation before God. They just decided to act in their own power.
b. And anytime we act in our own power outside of God’s, then we’re destined to have NO power! It could be the disciples were intimidated by their surroundings and they started having doubts @ what they could do. We’re told in our text that a large crowd had gathered around and the religious leaders were there.
2. The religious leaders were always looking for a slip up on the part of Jesus and His followers to build their case against Jesus being a false religious leader. It could be they wanted to impress those men so much that they again took matters into their own hands and acted under their own power.
a. Jesus ultimately gives us a glimpse into what was going on in v. 20 when He said, “O unbelieving generation how long shall I stay w/you? How long shall I put up w/you? Bring the boy to Me.”
b. That is the key to this point. He called them an unbelieving generation. This verse jumped off the pages at me. When there’s unbelief there’s absolutely NO power! Unbelief is a refusal to tap into a power source that is there and waiting for us. And the result is no gas is getting into the engine.
ILLUS: Let me give you an example. During the depression this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn't able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy.
-Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.
-At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.
-And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he'd been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn't know the oil was there even though he owned it.
B. Can you better understand the frustration of Jesus after that story? Here He is, God in flesh, proving Himself over and over again, and yet people still battle w/unbelief; w/a refusal to TRUST God and believe in Him.
1. Think @ your life right now. What fears do you have? What is it that’s troubling you at your very core? What is it that’s holding you in bondage; that’s keeping you from being what you desire to be? Ultimately, what’s holding us back is a lack of belief; a lack of trust in Jesus.
a. What exactly does Jesus bring to the table? Look at Eph. 3: 20, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work w/in us.”
Reit: The 1st reason we should believe in Jesus is b/c unbelief has no power! Another reason we should believe in Jesus is b/c:
DIV. 2: BELIEF CARRIES W/IT POWER (vv. 20-23)
Exp: What was going on in our text? There was a boy who was flopping around on the ground and the disciples, the men who knew Jesus better than anyone, couldn’t make him stop! I can imagine how intimidating that must have been. It was a real crisis of faith for them. Here’s what I believe. They allowed what they SAW to dictate their response.
A.And that’s a pretty familiar scenario to me. I’m ashamed to tell you this as a pastor but there’ve been times when I’ve talked to married couples in dire straits in their marriage and thought, “There ain’t no way that marriage is going to survive.” In my mind I’ve totally divorced the power of God from the situation. Why? B/c I’ve allowed what I’ve seen to determine the outcome.
1. You do the same thing! You allow what you see to be the deciding factor in how something is going to turn out. I really believe that’s what was going on in our text. This boy was out of control and the disciples and those around them wrote it off as hopeless.
a. That’s why I love v. 20 where Jesus said, “Bring the boy to Me.” Jesus didn’t allow the looks of a situation to dictate what was going to happen. He wanted the boy to be brought to Him b/c He wanted to demonstrate, yet again, what He was capable of.
b. What happened to the boy when He came to Jesus? He fell to the ground and started foaming at the mouth. That’s a reminder to me that just b/c we bring some things to the Lord doesn’t mean that things are going to instantly get better. You know why? B/c the devil’s going to fight to have a grip on your life for as long as he can.
2. He’s not going to be passive when it comes to fighting to keep you from God. So when you turn things over to God, when you call out to God and ask Him for deliverance and it doesn’t automatically get better, hang in there! Satan’s in his death throes in your life. He’s kicking and thrashing giving it one more go that you’ll fold and fall into disbelief.
ILLUS: I’ve experienced this in my life. Over 10 years ago Emily and I felt a call to come to Blythewood to start VillageChurch. There was a strong belief on our part that God was calling us to be a part of a work here. And I believe as we came here Satan did whatever he could to dishearten us; to cause us to fold and go back where we were.
-Getting started wasn’t easy for us. I remember in the summer months of our first year when we’d have such a small crowd thoughts started creeping into my mind that I’d made a mistake; that we weren’t making any headway in the community. When our well went dry and we had to dig a $7,000 well I thought “I’m going to go bankrupt!”
-When our pipes burst under our house and our septic tank backwashed into our dryer and flooded our living room, I thought, “God’s trying to kill us!” But looking back on it I have no doubt it was Satan in his death throes in our lives. He was giving it one last ditch effort to make us abort our obedience to God’s leadership in our lives.
a. Let me tell you something. There was only one thing that held us together during that time. It was our unshakeable conviction that this is what God had called us to do and we didn’t know what else to do other than trust that God was going to be faithful to what He called us to do. I hung on to His promise to me in the Scripture that He’d meet us here in Blythewood. Was it easy? Nope! Was it worthwhile?
b. I can honestly tell you, “Yes.” But what I’ve discovered is that God is faithful and worth trusting in! I promise you there is great power that comes w/belief in Jesus! And even when you don’t see it, He does! Heb. 11: 1-2, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”
Reit: Believe in Jesus b/c unbelief has no power. Believe in Jesus b/c belief carries w/it power. And finally, believe in Jesus b/c:
DIV. 3: JESUS RESPONDS TO BELIEF (vv. 23-27)
Exp: The father was obviously at his wits end and he told Jesus, “If you can do anything, please do!” I like Jesus’ response. He said, “If you can?” It’s like Jesus is saying “Do you know who you’re talking to? Of course I can!” Jesus said in Matt. 19: 26, “with God all things are possible.”
A. And here Jesus said that all things are possible for him who BELIEVES. Can you see the importance of belief in this verse? Think @ that for a second. All things are possible…for him who believes. Belief is a major factor in seeing the power of God.
1. And when God sees faith, He responds to it. Heb. 11: 6 tells us, “And w/o faith it is impossible to please God, b/c anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him out.”
a. After Jesus said this the man said “I BELIEVE.” It’s interesting to me that that was the key to everything. Things started happening when the man put his faith and trust in Jesus. Jesus immediately rebuked the evil spirit and told him to get out of the boy.
b. Remember the evil spirit defiantly kept a grip on the boy when the disciples approached him. But when Jesus intervened the evil spirit couldn’t handle the power of Jesus. We’re told the spirit shrieked and convulsed. This was a demonstration that Jesus had authority over the evil spirit.
2. It is crazy for us not to put our faith in Jesus! Jesus has authority over ALL things. Jesus said in Matt. 28: 19, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” You know what that ought to tell us? That regardless of what we’re facing, regardless of our obstacles, Jesus is stronger and more powerful than them.
a. Remember when the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee and a huge storm was threatening to knock their boat over? They called out to Jesus for help and He got up and told the wind and the waves to stop…and THEY DID!
b. The disciples said in Mark 4: 41, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!” That’s pretty impressive. Do you desire to see God move in your life? Do you desire to experience the presence and power of God? Let me tell you something. The ignition factor is BELIEF. Jesus responds to a person’s trust in Him.
ILLUS: There is a great moment in the movie Jurassic Park, when world-class paleontologist Allen Grant, who has devoted his life to the study of dinosaurs, suddenly comes face-to-face with real, live prehistoric creatures. He falls to the ground, dumbstruck. The reason is obvious. It is one thing to piece together an informed but nonetheless imperfect image of dinosaurs by picking through fossils and bones. But to encounter an actual dinosaur—well, there can be no comparison.
-For many people, spirituality amounts to picking through the artifacts of faith that survive from long ago and far away. In Bible days, humans saw God, heard his voice, and experienced his awesome, at times terrible, power. But that was then.
-Today that doesn’t really happen! For most people Christianity is @ digging thru the Bible for artifacts. We pick up little fossils @ our faith but it has no power for us b/c we simply see it as history, of something that was for long ago. But can you imagine what it’d be like if we saw God as someone who was real. As someone you could see, touch and feel? Let me tell you something, if that happened then there’d be no comparison. We’d be encountering a living God as opposed to a God simply on pages.
B. Do you want God to move from the pages of a book to reality in your life? Then BELIEVE. Why? B/c He responds to belief. In our text the boy was basically dead. He had no life of his own. But when the father believed, the boy came to life again.
1. In so many ways people have no life. We’re just going thru the motions or we’re searching for something that will instill hope in us only to be disappointed time and time again. What’s needed? A belief, a faith, a confidence that Jesus is real and that you’re willing to place your hope in Him.
Conclusion: My fear is that we’ve become so sophisticated, so technologically savvy that we don’t leave any room in our minds for faith in God. But it’s my hope this Scripture will prompt you “Don’t stop believing.” My hope is it will open your eyes to the fact that God’s bigger than we are.
-So why should we believe? B/c unbelief has no power. B/c belief carries w/it power. And finally, b/c Jesus responds to belief. Today, some of you need to reach out to God and tell Him that you’re going to place your trust and faith in Him today. If you’re ready to do that, pray this prayer after me: Dear Jesus, I am placing my faith and trust in you. I ask you to forgive me of my sins b/c I believe you have power over sin. I ask you to be my Lord and Savior who will redeem me and rescue me and provide a place for me in heaven.
-If you prayed that prayer, open your bulletin and fill out the section on the right side. Check the line that says you committed your life to Christ, then take it to the Welcome Table after the service and give it to Beki and she’ll provide you w/a workbook called “Survival Kit” that will help explain what it means to be a Xian.
