Service opens with a drama with a story about the importance of a childhood Bible and how it reminded her of a faith that over time she had lost...
Introduction: I had a Bible similar to the one Lisa described. It zipped up and had a colorful scene on the cover of something in the Promised Land. Every so many pages there were pictures of Bible stories. There was Daniel in the Lions Den, there was Jonah being swallowed by the big fish, there was a picture of David standing over a dead Goliath and then in the New Testament there were pictures of Jesus with children, or a shepherd with sheep. But I was very little when that was my Bible. It seemed easier to believe and be inspired by those pictures when I was little than it does now.
I wonder why that is? Is it just because when we’re small we are more impressionable? Is your faith more of a cherished childhood memory or something that still inspires you and moves you to action today?
Maybe your faith is more like your childhood memories of Christmas? Quaint, a little naïve? I distinctly remember Christmas Eve growing up. It was the most amazing night of the whole year. I was completely unable to sleep that night. I remember lying awake at night and each second that ticked by seemed to last an hour. I remember crawling out of bed at 2 in the morning to try to sneak downstairs and having the hard wood floors creak beneath my steps and my mom or dad telling me to get back into bed. It was just a magical time. I remember putting out milk and cookies and writing a note to Santa and being amazed in the morning when there were just a few crumbs left on the plate that we had put out the night before.
But as I grew older I became more cynical. I want you to watch a brief clip from the Polar Express, which follows the story of a boy who was losing his faith in the magic of Christmas.
Play Clip fromt he Polar express where boy looks through newspaper clippings and an encyclopedia to see if Santa is true.
You remember those kinds of questions? How can Santa get everywhere in one night? How can he hold all of those presents on his sleigh? Do reindeer really fly?
How did we lose our childhood faith and optimism? Does that come automatically from the passing of time, or said another way, from AGE? That same thing happens with our faith sometimes.
Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14
Faith like a child. Jesus was teaching his disciples that it was people who have faith like a child that are going to inherit the kingdom of God! What does that mean exactly?
When it comes to childhood fantasies and dreams we can all probably remember times when reality started creeping in. I remember when my kids figured out that the tooth fairy was me, because I completely forgot about the tooth being under the pillow until Sarah came to me with that annoyed look on her face. I tried explaining that there was a rift in the tooth fairy union and that all the fairies were on strike but that didn’t go over too well.
Similar episodes erode our child like faith too. I want you to turn in your Bible to Mark 9:14-29.
Before we start reading let me set the scene for you a little. Peter, James, John and Jesus are coming down the mountain. It was there that they saw Jesus “transfigured” which basically means that he changed in front of the disciples revealing to them some of his deity, his glory and so forth. They were coming back down the mountain when we start this passage.
Read verses 14-18. Okay, we know have seen all the characters that there are in this story. Each of them have lost their childlike faith and we can see how as we read this story.
First there are the religious leaders in verse 14. Jesus regularly came down on these guys, primarily because their faith was just an external system of rules and regulations. They were more interested in their image than they were about becoming the people that God was calling them to be.
On another occasion Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and he said this: "How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs--beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.” Matthew 23:27
1. Religion without Relationship.
That is a SURE way to lose childlike faith. Going through the motions, maintaining the status quo. Trying to maintain an image that doesn’t reflect reality.
Maybe some of you grew up in homes where your perception of Christianity was an extremely long list of rules. Parents, one of the biggest challenges we have with our kids is instilling right and wrong into them without loading them down with legalism and squeezing the childlike faith right out of them.
Another set of characters in this story is the disciples; in this case there were 9 disciples because 3 of them had been at the top of the mountain for the transfiguration party. We’re told from the story that the religious leaders were arguing with the disciples. When Jesus asked them what they were arguing about the third character in the story speaks up and tells his story; that is the dad of the boy, but we’ll get to him in a minute. For now, just note what he says, in essence, they (the disciples and the religious leaders) are arguing about their inability to heal this guy’s son.
The religious leaders were probably telling them that they had no authority or ability to heal this boy and the disciples were apparently giving it their best shot in order to prove the religious leaders wrong but the father says, with a little exasperation in his voice, “I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” (Mark 9:18)
2. Risks without Results. Failure can rob us of our childlike faith. The disciples here were trying to be a force for good. They were trying to bring their relationship with Jesus to bear on something great; the healing of a young man and the result was complete and utter humiliation!
Each blunder that we make, each piece of wrong advice that we give out, each attempt to share our faith with family or friends that goes terribly wrong chips another block our of our childlike faith.
We need to learn that failure is an event, not a person. God doesn’t look down at us expecting to see a string of successes. He looks wanting to see growth. Sometimes we grow through failure, and we must remember that failure is an event – it is not who we are. Don’t allow your failures to strip away your faith.
The last character in this story is the dad. We will look at him for the remainder of the sermon because in him not only do we see another cause of losing childlike faith but we also see in him childlike faith defined.
Some of you have probably known the heartache that comes from having a child who is sick or injured and the powerlessness that comes from that.
My son Derek was accident prone. We’ve taken a few trips to the hospital. Once we went when he was bounced off the teeter-totter and landed on his chin and received about 5 stitches. Then there was the time that he broke his arm in two places falling off of his bike. But, as a parent, by far the hardest part with him was watching helplessly as he had one ear infection after another. His fevers would spike extremely high and he would lie on the couch all lethargic with his face all flush. There was seemingly nothing anyone could do for him.
I remember countless times kneeling by his bed and praying for his healing, pleading the name of Jesus on his behalf, begging God to give me the problems and take them from him only to have silence in return. My requests were: refused without reason.
3. Refusal without Reason. In other words, disappointment. Each unanswered prayer stole just a little more of my faith. It almost seems trivial now, years after the events but at the time it was sucking the life out of me.
Some of you have had similar incidents. Some with your children, others of you have lost spouses to illness and still others of you have fought against sickness recently and it has drained the life and the childlike faith right out of you! I know that when you plead and work and strain for an answer to some problem and the response is silence that it can sap the faith right out of you!
That’s how we find this father. The child can’t talk. He probably has cuts all over him and his clothes are raggy. On top of that how can a child like this have friends? This situation has probably cut this family off from the community; no one wants to be near them. Look at verse 18 again. It sounds an awful lot like a seizure doesn’t it?
Jesus says to bring the boy to him and then we read in verse in verse 20, “20So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.”
I can only imagine being the father at that point in time. The desperation that he must have felt. Maybe the humiliation that he was feeling. All eyes were on him. But also the disappointment that he must have been feeling. Here he was, surrounded by the folks whom he had no doubt already gone to for help. He had likely tried the traditional route first, going to the religious leaders at the local temple only to have them come up empty handed. Based on other interactions in the Bible they may have even blamed him for his son’s medical and spiritual problems.
Word at this time was probably spreading about the disciples and Jesus’ ministry too. He’d already fed the multitude and performed numerous healings. So, he finds the 9 disciples and they likely acted as if they’d done this kind of thing before. I would imagine that at this point the father is getting excited, one step closer to a cure! But he was disappointed again!
So, when this dad sees Jesus he is probably at a low ebb of where his faith is. He’s a skeptic. He’s beyond cautious. When Jesus asks him how long this has been going on you can almost hear the despondency in his voice when he says, “Since he was very small.” (Verse 21) Can you hear the resignation in his voice?
Jesus hears it too, he even heard it in the question that the father asks next, “The evil spirit often makes him fall into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us. Do something if you can." (verse 22)
He has gone to Jesus because he is at the end of his rope. He’s tried everything else, but he’s been disappointed so many times that he is cautious about letting his hope build up again; he doesn’t think he can take being let down one more time!
Jesus responds by putting this father back on track to a childlike faith.
23"What do you mean, `If I can’?" Jesus asked. "Anything is possible if a person believes."
This is the first principle in developing childlike faith.
PRINCIPLE #1:
Childlike faith believes that God has the power to do anything.
A faith that is childlike is a faith that recognizes that accomplishing impossible feats in not about OUR ability or OUR strength…it’s about GOD’S ability and HIS strength!
What struggle do you have in your life right now that you are incapable of doing? What challenge is in front of you that is bigger than your capacity to handle. What is so big in your life that only God can handle it? Jesus is speaking to you this morning and he is saying, “Anything is possible if a person believes!”
Phil 4:13 says, “For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.” How much can you do? EVERYthing!
So, Jesus tries to put the dad on the right track. The man responds to Jesus in this classic verse, verse 24, and in his response we see the second principle of childlike faith. The Bible says,
“The father instantly replied, "I do believe, but help me not to doubt!"
PRINCIPLE #2:
A person with childlike faith admits unbelief…and asks for help.
Childlike faith isn’t perfect faith. There is room for doubt, but the doubt doesn’t win – belief prevails! God doesn’t expect perfection but he does expect honesty and transparency. When was the last time you asked someone about a struggle that they were facing and they said, “I know God will provide” when deep inside you know that they wanted to say, “I’m struggling with all of this.”
Don’t think that you will disappoint God with a prayer that says, “God, I know that it is impossible to please you without faith, I have faith but I need you to bolster it. He will answer that kind of prayer!
PRINCIPLE #3:
A person with childlike faith watches as God does the impossible.
(Read Verses 25-27)
Amazing ending to the story. Interestingly, we don’t see the dad again. I don’t know his response but I would imagine that his faith got a little stronger that day. If you ever want to get to a place where your faith is strengthened you must follow this process. When confronted with the impossible you must believe that God can accomplish anything, you must admit your wavering and doubts and then you will see God accomplish the impossible.
Why did Jesus heal this boy? Ultimately, God works in order to bring glory to Himself, but it sure looks as though it had something to do with the father’s imperfect childlike faith, doesn’t it?
Would God have healed the boy if the father had not shown childlike faith? Only God knows the answer to that for sure, but… we read the story of Jesus healing two blind men in Matthew 9. The blind men come to Jesus and ask Jesus to heal them. Jesus asks them, do you believe that I can heal you? They reply by saying that they do. Jesus heals them and then says to them, "Because of your faith, it will happen. 30And suddenly they could see!"
That seems to indicate that God works in our lives according to our faith, could it be God is barely visible in your life because your faith in Him is barely visible?
So, how do you develop childlike faith? You believe that God can do anything. You admit it when you doubt. You watch Him accomplish the impossible.
There is one last ingredient though and that is found in the concluding verses of Mark 9 when the disciples go to Jesus and say, “Hey, how’d you do that, why couldn’t we do that? Jesus says, prayer. The key is prayer.
Principle 4 Connect to God regularly.
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5)
Maybe you are expecting God to do great things in your life but if you were honest you’d have to admit that in your order of priorities; God is pretty low on your list. You don’t spend the time necessary to develop your faith.
Why don’t you take a moment right now to pray. Be like the boy in the movie and despite your doubts, despite your questions, pursue God! Don’t allow your past to rob you of what God wants to accomplish in your present!
