Removing the Mountain
Intro:
1. How many want to see their loved ones saved.
2. How many want to see your marriage restored or even get better.
3. How many want to see obsacles removed in their lives.
4. How many want to see miracles.
5. How many want to see healings in your body and others.
6. How many want to get your house in order.
7. How many want to see your finances get restored with even extra to give to the Lord.
-Then we need to know how Jesus would want us to prayer.
-Theres always a lot of how to questions on prayer.
Mark 11:22-24
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered.
“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
I want to give you 2 requirement that the Lord needs from each of us to be able to remove mountains.
I. The first requirement to removing mountains in pray is having faith in God.
Four significant facts.
1. The first fact is The object of faith is God Himself.
A. The critical words are “in God”.
1. Jesus did not say, “Have faith,” but “Have faith in God.”
2. Faith has to have an object.
3. Faith has no value by itself; only the object (God) has value.
4. The Bible never says to have faith in faith, yet this is the experience of many.
5. Too often, a great difficulty or problem arises, and the believer feels he has to arouse his faith.
6. He feels that if he can just stir up enough faith, he will whip the problem.
7. But in reality he has had faith in faith.
8. His mind, his attention, and his heart have been focused upon faith—not upon God.
9. A man’s faith is not going to remove the mountain. God is going to remove the mountain.
10. Practically everyone who came to Jesus had weak faith.
11. Only a few had strong faith, yet God saved them and granted their requests.
ILL: In Matthew 14 when Jesus was walking on the water and Peter ask him if he could come out to him.
Then the waves started to stir and it Scared Peter. He began to sink, but Jesus was there to save him.
Matthew 14:31
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
B. Faith requires knowing the object.
1. The more one knows the object of faith, the more one believes in the object
ILL: Consider two men who want to go out on a frozen lake to fish. One man is told to go ahead and cross the lake. He is assured by his friend that the ice will hold him up. Yet, when he begins to step out on the ice, he cautiously and tremblingly takes step after step—usually until he can stand it no more and returns. But the other man walks out courageously and boldly, cuts a hole in the ice, and sits down and begins to fish.
Note three important questions.
Þ What supported the man sitting out on the ice? Not his faith, but the ice—the object of his faith.
Þ Who had the strongest faith? Of course the man out on the ice. The one with the weak faith is the man who slowly inched his way back.
Þ What made the difference between the faith of the two? One thing. One man knew the ice and the other man did not know the ice.
2. Second fact about faith Is its purpose.
A. The purpose of faith is to remove mountains.
1. The Jews clearly understood what Jesus meant by “removing mountains.” The phrase was a Jewish meaning “to remove difficulties”
Jesus’ teaching says,
“Have faith in God...and then say unto this mountain, Be thou removed.”
2. Mountains represent the immovable, the impossible. It is something almost too steep to climb, almost too high to cross, almost too awesome to see beyond.
B. This is the reason Jesus discussed prayer and communion along with faith.
1. One learns to have faith in God as He prays and communes with God.
2. And the more he prays and communes with God the more he will know God;
1. And experience the removal of mountains that slow his progress through life.
3. A third fact is The way to possess faith
A. The way is prayer.
1. Jesus explicitly says, “does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.”
-There are two crucial points in this promise.
1. Not doubting at all.
a. This means never having a thought whether a thing can be done or not.
b. Realistically, only God Himself can know if a thing will happen or not.
c. But what Christ is after is that we grow in belief and trust.
d. He wants us to believe that all things are possible through Christ who strengthens us.
2. Believing in God’s authority.
a. Note the words “says”
b. The power of Christ came from the authority of God.
c. All He had to do was say, that is, speak the word and it was done.
d. That is the very point He was making to us.
e. If we believe, doubting not, then we stand in the authority of God.
4.The fourth fact Is the result of faith
A. A man who prays having faith, truly
“having faith in God... it will be done for him”
1. The mountains which confront him will be removed, effectively and quickly.
Matthew 21:22
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
The Second requirement is (I’ll give it to you tonight)
II. The second requirement is Expectancy
Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
A. A man must believe and expect the answer to his prayer.
1. He must be confident and assured, must anticipate and look for the answer.
2. The exact words of Jesus’ promise are interesting
Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
3. Expectancy involves all of man’s being.
4. The spirit of expectancy...
· involves a mans emotions: he desires.
· involves a mans will: he asks.
· involves a mans spirit: he believes.
James 1:6
6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
A. In the Bible times, the “sea” is considered the dwelling place of evil spirits.
1. We see this illustrated when Jesus casts the evil spirits into the pigs and they run into the sea.
2. God has given us authority.
3. The other word for power means ‘authority’.
Authority is for overcoming.
4. Jesus said, “All authority is given unto me…” Matt 28:18-19
And “I give you authority … over all the power of the enemy.” Luke 10:19
B. Our authority is basically over Satan and his evil forces. Satan is defeated. He is under Jesus’ feet, while we are at Jesus’ side.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
1. Why, if we have power over Satan, do we struggle with him?
2. God could, of course, do away with Satan, but He uses him to perfect us.
3. Prayer is on-the-job training for co-rulership with Christ.
4. Jesus battled with Satan all his earthly existence. So do we.
Conclusion:
So as God removes the mountains in our lives, He throws them back to where they came from.
