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[0:00] In 1999, when God called us to Illinois, and do not think of Chicago, Illinois, think of the middle of the cornfield, Illinois, to be pastor of a little church, I had no idea what was ahead of me.

[0:24] During those four years, I battled for genuine Christianity and met resistance. I fought against traditional superficiality and was ignored.

[0:39] I was unable to conquer the demonic influence that was in that church, and I failed to persuade the leaders to do what was right.

[0:51] For four and a half years there, I left feeling defeated, disillusioned, and depressed.

[1:02] A depression which kept going for 12 years. Failure. When we experience it, it can leave us defeated, disappointed, disillusioned, discouraged, even despairing, and depressed.

[1:21] And any other D word you can add to that. We experience failure in our relationships, at work, with our goals, our hopes and dreams that are shattered.

[1:33] But when we experience failure in serving Christ, it stings a bit more. As a pastor, I have failed my Savior in more ways than I can count.

[1:54] Mark chapter 9, Jesus is talking to His disciples and to a desperate father who both are experiencing failure.

[2:06] The disciples are inadequate. They're unable to do something. They're disillusioned.

[2:18] They're frustrated. Perhaps defeated. And Jesus gives a remedy both to this desperate father and to these inadequate disciples of not only how to look at their failure, but how to overcome failure.

[2:39] So remember that as we began in Mark chapter 9, we saw Jesus up on a mountain. Jesus and three disciples that He took with Him, James, John, and Peter, they were able to go up on the mountain, see Jesus transfigured before them, see Him in His glory, and hear the voice.

[2:59] The voice that said, this is my Son, my beloved one. Listen to Him. And then remember as they came down the mountain, we saw that Jesus charged His three disciples to tell no one what they saw until after Jesus had risen from the dead.

[3:21] That's when they'll understand. That's when the pieces will come together. That's when they will know how to preach about Jesus and explain what they have seen. Now, they've come to the bottom of the mountain, and they come to the other nine disciples.

[3:40] And while three were off up on the mountain high, experiencing glory, the other nine, not so much. Not so much. In fact, they've had a hard experience.

[3:54] A disillusioning experience. As Jesus returns to them, we see in verse 14, they see a great crowd is gathered, and the scribes are arguing.

[4:07] The scribes are always causing trouble. These religious leaders who were against Jesus, trying to discredit Him. And perhaps because the disciples, these nine disciples, had been unable to cast out this demon, perhaps that's what the scribes were arguing about.

[4:27] See? See? These guys are nothing. That's what Jesus comes into and responds to.

[4:39] So Mark takes us from the mountain high to the valley low. God gives us mountaintop experiences, and God blesses us for that. That is wonderful.

[4:49] They're short little glimpses. They're not our regular life. Because someday we come back down from the mountain, we come back from the rest, we come back from the Sabbath, and we have regular life again, and we deal with regular problems and frustrations and trials.

[5:08] And that's what the other nine disciples are doing. So Jesus teaches hope in this valley of failure to this desperate father and his inadequate disciples.

[5:20] What I want to do with this text as I see it breaking down into two parts. One is seeing the problem, analyzing the problem as it is laid out for us, how the disciples are inadequate.

[5:34] And then second part of the section from verse 23 on, Jesus gives the remedy to overcome this problem of failure.

[5:46] So I'm going to call it two remedies because the first part is part of the remedy. And that is to recognize our inadequacies. To admit that we are inadequate.

[5:59] To confess and acknowledge that we are weak. The first step in any recovery from addiction is to recognize the problem. To admit the problem.

[6:10] Jesus is doing that. They see the problem and we see it at the end of this section where they say to Jesus, why couldn't we do it? What's our problem?

[6:22] What did we miss? Why are we inadequate? Okay, so recognize the weakness. Recognize the inadequacy. So we see it in three ways here.

[6:32] In verses 14 to 22, we see first of all, even when Jesus returns, watch what happens in verse 15. Immediately, as soon as Jesus shows up, immediately all the crowd, when they saw Jesus, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him.

[6:58] Now put yourself in the sandals of the other nine. How do you feel? Oh, Jesus is here. Thank God Jesus is here.

[7:11] These lousy disciples, all they do is disappoint us. The church always gets it wrong. Give me Jesus. Right? I mean, it's interesting.

[7:24] Usually in Mark, after Jesus does the miracles, that's when the crowd's amazed. Here in this story, it's the reverse. Before he's done anything, he's just shown up.

[7:36] Now they're amazed. So it's, what are they amazed about? They're struck. They're amazed. They're blown away. Here he is.

[7:47] They're alarmed. Why? Because they didn't expect him. They didn't expect him. And I think it's an amazement of relief, of hope.

[8:03] Oh, good. Jesus is here. He can fix this. What these silly disciples can't do, he can do it. So what I want you to recognize here is the nine are overshadowed by Jesus.

[8:21] That's a good thing. I don't think they felt bad about that. I don't think they're like, okay, how come he gets all the attention? I think they're like, I think they're the same. Yes, good.

[8:32] Fix it. We can't fix it. But just notice that, that should always be true. That Jesus should always overshadow his disciples. He should always overshadow us.

[8:46] He does what the church can't do. Right? We're the representatives of Jesus. We're called to do these things. We're called to do impossible things. Yet, we fail at.

[9:05] And we want him to show up. Because he doesn't fail at it. And so, so our lesson here is that only Jesus can satisfy what the church cannot.

[9:17] And that's not a bad thing. That's not against the church. That's just reality. But what we can do is we can point to Jesus. We can say, hey, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know how to bring a miracle into your life and fix that problem.

[9:31] But I know somebody who can. I can introduce you to him. I know he's transformed my life. And then, secondly, we see not only when he returns, are they recognized as, you know, he's a step above, and they're a step below, or several steps below.

[9:54] Then we see the revelation of the problem. Verse 16 to 18. Jesus says, what are the arguing about? Verse 16. And someone in the crowd answered, which happens to be the desperate father.

[10:11] He answers the problem. Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit, a spirit, a demon, that makes him mute.

[10:21] And it seizes him and throws him to the ground and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So, so, here's the problem.

[10:32] So then I asked your disciples to cast it out and they're not able. They're inadequate. They're weak. They're not strong enough.

[10:43] And notice this kind of demon. Remember, Jesus said in verse 29, this kind. Why couldn't we cast it out?

[10:54] This kind. This kind. This is not your normal demon. This kind, see, is only expelled by prayer.

[11:04] So, we're going to get to that. But he's talking about his kind. That's kind of, it's another level. It reminds us a bit in Mark chapter 5 of the legion, right?

[11:17] Where, where the guy's just tormented. He's got a legion of demons and nobody can control him, right? He's breaking chains. He's like, torturing himself. Okay, another level.

[11:29] So, Jesus says, that's why, guys, I'm not going to beat up on you. This is, this is something else. And you needed to fail at this so you could learn. Notice this kind of demon.

[11:44] It's violent. Verse 18. He seizes him or assaults him, overtakes him, and he throws him to the ground.

[11:58] Now we see in verse 20, when they brought the boy to Jesus, and when the spirit saw Jesus, remember when demons see Jesus, they react, right?

[12:09] When they hear Jesus, they react. They reveal themselves, they manifest themselves in a violent way. They cry out, they disturb, they fight back.

[12:19] And so immediately, when the spirit saw Jesus coming, they knew the days were numbered. He knew he was in trouble. So he fights. He throws the boy to the ground.

[12:30] He convulses him. Literally tears him apart. It's violent action. The boy falls to the ground and rolls about and foaming at his mouth. Look down to verse 22.

[12:41] The man describes what else this demon did. It often casts him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. It's a destructive demon.

[12:52] And it's malevolent because from childhood, from childhood, come on now. That struck us before.

[13:04] Remember the woman? The woman whose little child was tormented by a demon. It's like, okay, if you don't think Satan is malevolent, look what he does to children.

[13:16] Okay? That stirs me a little bit. And I know it stirred Jesus. So, Jesus comes.

[13:33] When Jesus comes, he brings the kingdom. When Jesus brings the kingdom, what is his goal? It is to set captives free. And demons know that. Every time Jesus comes and he's preaching the gospel, the demons reveal themselves, he casts them out.

[13:50] He's setting people free. It's part of his kingdom work. And then finally, we see Jesus react with a rebuke of unbelief in verse 19.

[14:08] This father describes what happened and how his disciples were unable to cast it out. And verse 19, Jesus answered, them, O faithless generation, how long, how long am I to be with you?

[14:22] How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me. Faithless generation. What's a faithless generation? It's a generation that is unbelieving.

[14:35] It's a generation that has no faith. It is a generation, in fact, that is not just unbelieving, but disbelieving. It is hard-hearted. So who is Jesus saying this to?

[14:47] Is he saying it to the father? Because the father has answered, right? What are you arguing about? Well, I brought my son and your disciples couldn't cast out the demon. But he's not saying it to the father because it says, verse 19, he said, to them, not to him.

[15:01] So who is he talking to? Is he talking to the disciples? Are they big because they failed? Is he talking to the disciples? Oh, you didn't have enough faith? Well, in Matthew, he does bring that up to him.

[15:13] But he doesn't say they have no faith. In Matthew, he says to the disciples in the same story, you have little faith. So he's not talking about the disciples here.

[15:25] He's talking to the crowd. Well, the crowd's there. They're excited. Jesus is there. They must have some faith, even if it's superficial.

[15:35] So who is he talking to? Well, there's one other group that's there. The scribes. The scribes.

[15:47] And they're the ones that Jesus addressed back in verse 16 when he asked them, what are you arguing about with them? Because it was the scribes who were arguing with the crowd and with the disciples.

[16:01] So he's looking at the scribes when he comes and picks them out and says, what are you arguing with them about? And then after the father describes what happened, Jesus looks back at these scribes and says, oh, you faithless generation.

[16:17] You don't have much more time. We know Jesus has already passed his third year of ministry. He's on his way to Jerusalem. He will die by the next Passover.

[16:29] How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? You disbelieving, hard-hearted people. That's who he's talking to. He's not hammering on the disciples because they have little faith.

[16:42] He will tell them they have little faith, but he's not going to shame them. He's going to encourage them. So what I want you to grasp here, not only is it important that we recognize and admit, confess our weaknesses and inadequacies, recognize that, but when we fail, God is not disappointed in you.

[17:09] It's theologically impossible for God to be disappointed. So stop using that shame language.

[17:22] Yes. He's not disappointed. He knows you're already going to fail. He knows you're rubbed by dust. He's a sovereign master.

[17:37] Is he grieved? Yes. Yes. He grieves. Yes. Yes. He feels it, yes. He's not disappointed. He seeks our growth when we fail.

[17:51] He seeks our restoration when we fail. Let me show it to you in the example of Peter. Luke 22 describes this scene. Jesus says to Peter, excuse me, in the upper room while they're eating, he says, Simon, Simon, calls him by his original name.

[18:12] Simon, Simon, his man name, not the Jesus name that Jesus gave to him. Remember, he's Simon, I'll call you Peter. He calls him back by his regular name. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat.

[18:30] That's a wake-up call for Peter, I imagine. Excuse me, what? Who? Oh. Oh. Oh. But, I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail.

[18:48] And when you have turned again, strengthen your brother. There's a lot in that. Peter, how'd Peter respond to that?

[18:59] Lord, I'm ready to go to prison and die for you. I'm so loyal, I'll never, no way. Bring Satan on.

[19:11] I don't think he said that, but he's pretty confident in himself. And we love him for that because in his mind, he cannot conceive of ever denying Jesus, of ever failing him.

[19:23] Because he loves Jesus, he wills, we see in the garden, stand up for Jesus, take out his knife, right? He's ready to take on the soldiers.

[19:37] Just when they sneak up from behind and it's a little girl. He wasn't ready. That's not fair. Right?

[19:48] So, so Peter's, I'm ready, I, no Lord, I can't do it. Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not even crow today until you deny three times that you know me.

[20:01] So, what I want you to notice from this little episode in Luke is, how did Jesus pray for Peter? When Jesus knows that Satan is demanded to have him and to sift him, how did Jesus pray for Peter?

[20:19] He did not pray, notice, that Peter would be successful. He did not pray that Peter would overcome.

[20:31] He prayed that his faith will not fail in the midst of his fall. Do you see that? He's not disappointed in Peter, he's just letting him know, Peter, you're going to fall.

[20:49] And of course you're going to fall, because Satan's coming. He knows you're important, he's going to sift you. And so I pray that your faith will not fail.

[21:02] And when you have turned again, because I'm very confident you will turn again. You will repent from this. You will be broken from this. And it will wake you up to how weak you are.

[21:15] You are. Mr. Confident Peter, I love your spirit, brother, but I know your flesh.

[21:27] After we fall, we better know how to strengthen others.

[21:40] Because we have recognized in ourselves our own brokenness, our own weakness, our own inadequacies. See, Jesus says, I'm going to take you through this, you're going to go through the sifter, and you're going to get broken, broken, broken, humbled, humbled, humbled.

[21:58] But I know that from coming out of that failure, you're going to know better how to strengthen your brothers. You're going to be able to say, I get you, James and John.

[22:11] I know you love Jesus too. But there's, Satan works sneaky. He comes where you don't see him coming.

[22:21] He knows where you're weak. He waits until you're really, really tired. And all you want to do is warm your hands by the fire. And you don't have your sword out.

[22:35] Are you with me? I mean, we recognize that's, valleys of failure are good for us. They humble us.

[22:48] Now, I know we don't want valleys of failure. I hate my valleys of failure. But they're good because they humble me. They awaken me. They awaken us to our weakness, our vulnerabilities.

[23:02] You say, how many valleys of failure do I have to go through before I get it? I don't know. The Lord knows that. Pray that you get it more often.

[23:15] These valleys of failure are God's instrument to teach us that apart from Jesus we are unable and powerless. So, the first thing Jesus shows us or we see through Mark here is that we need to recognize our inadequacies.

[23:32] But we need more, don't we? You know, how do we overcome the inadequacy? How do we overcome our weakness? Well, he gives a second remedy beginning of verse 23.

[23:47] Believing God for the impossible is the remedy. Oh, that's good. That's easy to say. Believing God for the impossible. What does he say in verse 23? Jesus said, all things are possible for the one who believes.

[23:59] Is he talking about the power of positive thinking? Norman Vincent Peale? Robert Shuler? Is he talking about that kind of superficial fake gospel?

[24:12] No. I'm not talking about human possibility thinking. Very important that we understand Jesus, what he's saying within the context in which he's speaking it.

[24:26] Something like that. Guys, did I get it? All right, I don't want to try to say it again. See, he's talking about doing the impossible. What's the impossible?

[24:38] Well, the things we're called to do, like save the lost. You know? Cleanse the lepers. Walk in a manner worthy.

[24:50] Are we able to do that? No. So he makes the lame to walk. We're the lame walking. He makes the lame. He can make us able to walk by his spirit, by his grace.

[25:07] Right? We're called to love our enemies. That's easy, right? No, he calls us to do what's impossible for us naturally to do. That's the kind of stuff he's talking about.

[25:21] Believing God for the impossible. So we see three things here in verses 23 and 29. First, we see Jesus' promise in verse 23. And it starts with his reaction to the Father in verse 22.

[25:40] Where the Father says at the end of verse 22, if you can do anything, Jesus, if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

[25:51] And Jesus' immediate reaction is, if you can, who are you talking to here? That Father doesn't know. He doesn't know. All he knows is what he's heard.

[26:01] And he's already seen Jesus' disciples are failures. So he's uncertain. He's a little bit uncertain if you can. Okay? Jesus just challenges him.

[26:13] If you can, who's able? And then he gives this promise. all things are possible for the one who is believing.

[26:26] The word possible there means ability or power. All things are able. All things are empowered by the one who believes.

[26:38] I like that translation. All things become empowered. They're not empowered by themselves, but they become empowered by the believing one. So who's that?

[26:52] Who's the believing one? What does that mean? We throw around this word faith, trust, belief. What does it mean? Well, there's two main ideas in the word belief or faith.

[27:06] One is a cognitive. One is thinking. In other words, part of belief is being convinced, being persuaded of God's ability.

[27:22] See, do I believe? Am I convinced that God is able to do the impossible? Am I convinced and persuaded that God is able to heal my relationship?

[27:35] that God is able to make me walk in a manner worthy, to love my enemy, or to love my wife?

[27:47] See, am I convinced? So on that level, on a thinking level, am I convinced and persuaded? And then, it also means on another level, the action of it. So am I convinced on one level?

[28:00] On the second level, do I act on that? Do I rely on him? Do I trust him? Do I put my trust in his lap?

[28:13] I trust you. That's believing. The believing one who's persuaded, who's relying. Trust.

[28:24] And look at the man's reaction. I love this. It's okay for you to adopt it with me as a prayer. verse 24.

[28:35] Jesus says, all things are possible to the one who believes. Immediately, immediately, the father of the child cried out. Now, now he's impassioned. Now he's more desperate.

[28:47] He's crying out. In other words, it's a word that means kind of being too loud. You know, because Jesus is trying to meet him in private. He's, I believe!

[28:58] You know, it's too loud, right? I do believe. Help my unbelief. Can you relate to that? I mean, I do believe, but I recognize my belief has a mixture of unbelief in it.

[29:16] I know my faith is not big enough. I know my faith is not long enough. So help me. I love that confession. Help me become more convinced of your power on one level.

[29:30] Help me to be more reliant on your ability on the other level. See, both ways. I want my believing to grow both ways.

[29:41] Because maybe I'm not relying because I'm not as much convinced. Right? Or maybe I've been relying on myself so long I'm not sure how to rely on you.

[29:53] That prayer says a lot. So then, what do we believe? So here's the context in which Jesus tells him all things are possible to one who believes.

[30:07] He's not talking about the power of positive thinking. He's not talking about being a glass half full person. He's talking about believing in the power of Jesus because what he does next is demonstrate that he is powerful enough to do what we can't do.

[30:30] So verse 25, he says, bring the boy. He saw the crowd running. He rebuked the unclean spirit. Says to it, you mute and deaf spirit, I command you. Come out and stay out.

[30:43] So he rebukes the demon. He commands the demon. And it's emphatic in the Greek because Mark translated it as I myself command you.

[30:58] This isn't Andrew. This isn't Bartholomew. Not that he's picking on these guys. He's saying, you spirit, you recognize who I am.

[31:12] I am commanding you. And he gives them a double order. Get out and stay out.

[31:25] You are not allowed to come back. Spoken like one who has authority to say so. You're out and you ain't coming back.

[31:38] Simple. And of course, we see the demon does obey, but he's reluctant. He's going to fight on his way out. He's going to torment the boy a little bit more before he obeys.

[31:51] And then notice in verse 26, the language. After crying out and convulsing terribly, the spirit came out and the boy was like a corpse so that most of them said he's dead.

[32:06] Notice the language here. He's dead. And then Jesus took him by the hand and what? Lifted him up. Literally raised him up and he was arisen.

[32:19] Resurrection. Dead? Now he's alive. Same wording that he used in chapter 5 with the little 12-year-old girl, the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue, you know, where he got there too late and she was dead and he took her by the hand and raised her up and presented her alive.

[32:41] Resurrection language. Did the boy really die? No, I don't think so. In fact, the boy had been tormented and was wiped out.

[32:54] Appeared dead as Mark writes. Jesus raises him up. So the question for you is, do you believe Jesus can do that? If you haven't, let me ask you, if you haven't seen it, do you believe he can do that?

[33:15] Are you convinced he has that kind of power? Do you believe that Jesus is able to set free captives who are addicted?

[33:32] Who are captive to their sin? Who are overrun by their sin? Who are being beat up?

[33:47] Tormented? By demons? Do you believe he can cause blind people to see?

[33:58] And the blind people I'm talking about are people, they can see light and shadow, but they cannot see the truth of the gospel. Do you believe Jesus can cause those blind people to see?

[34:09] those who can't hear to hear? Those who can't walk in a manner worthy to walk? Do you believe that?

[34:22] Are you convinced of it? And then, if you're convinced, do you rely? Pray that for your loved ones, for your friends, for your enemies. Pray that for your enemies.

[34:35] That'll get them if they're saved. I'm kidding. Right? Bless. Bless. So, then, how do we rely?

[34:52] So what do we believe? We believe that Jesus is powerful enough to do this. How do we rely? How do we do that part of believing? It's one thing, I believe, I'm convinced, I know, he can do all that.

[35:03] How do I actually act on that? How do I apply that? How do I rely on that kind of power?

[35:15] See? Prayer. Prayer. It's the same prayer that the father, desperate father has.

[35:26] I believe, help! Help, because my belief's like puny. But I, but I, yeah, help.

[35:38] And then, it's exactly what Jesus tells the disciples in verse 28 and 29. The disciples, now when they're alone, they're in the house, right? And that's always where Jesus is instructing the disciples, right?

[35:48] He's out preaching to the crowds, and then afterwards they go into a house or they go in private somewhere, and they ask him all the questions like, we didn't get that, we didn't get that, we didn't get that. You know, so explain that stuff to us.

[35:59] And so he explains and he teaches, and so they ask him the big question, how come we fail? Because we've done it before.

[36:10] Remember back in chapter 6 of Mark? He had sent them out to preach, and he gave them authority to cast out demons, and they came back and they said, Jesus, you can't believe we cast out demons.

[36:23] Yeah, yeah. So it's not like they hadn't been successful at it before. So they're not getting it. How come we couldn't do it? Did we not have the right technique?

[36:36] Did we forget to say some special words? We forget something? Yeah, you forgot something, boys. You did forget something. See, don't rest on your past success because you did it before you were gifted to do it.

[36:52] Don't rest. You're always dependent. Even if I've given you a gift to do something, don't depend on the gift. Depend on me. You're always dependent.

[37:04] See, it's not about you. You're the instrument. You're just the channel that I'm using. I love you, but you're not the ticket. It's prayer.

[37:17] He says to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything. No incantation, no technique, no right words, no mumbo-jumbo, nothing.

[37:34] But prayer. Prayer. Prayer engages your faith. Prayer empowers your faith.

[37:48] Prayer activates your faith. See, your faith is not passive. Your faith is engaged as you begin to speak to the Father because that's an act of faith. I believe.

[38:00] Help. Give me the words. Help me trust you in this moment because, whew, how do you do that?

[38:11] Scripture urges us to be devoted to prayer, to be constant in prayer, to be steadfast in prayer, to pray without ceasing, to pray by the Spirit.

[38:27] Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Right? All through the Scriptures. Urging us. Why? It's really important. It's the key.

[38:37] It's not just something to check off a list. Now, do I have set times where I pray and I go through a list? Yes. Yes.

[38:49] But then there's, I meet Joe. Or I go to work and I encounter that. Okay, Lord, help.

[39:01] We're constant in prayer. We're in conversation with God. Prayer's not just a checklist. It flows from a relationship of continual dependence upon the Lord Jesus.

[39:15] In James chapter 5, in verses 13 to 18, James makes an emphasis on prayer. In fact, he uses the word for prayer six times, eight times in six verses.

[39:30] And in the context of James 5, he's talking about praying in trial, in battle, in difficulty. Okay? So, listen to what James says in James 5, 13.

[39:43] He says, Is anyone among you suffering? What should you do? Let him pray. Okay. Is anyone among you cheerful? Anybody?

[39:57] Let him sing praise. Cool. God's given you things to be cheerful about. Praise Him. Is anyone among you sick? Now, this word doesn't just mean physical sickness.

[40:10] It often means physical sickness. It means to be weak, without strength. You could be without strength emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically.

[40:23] If you're in any of those conditions, he says, this is what you do. Call for the elders of the church. You ever thought of that, by the way? I'm putting a plug in, because we just talked about this, Rick and Don and I.

[40:40] We would love to have more meetings with people and pray for you. So, take advantage. We're going to hunt you out, otherwise, but that's the ministry of the church.

[40:55] That's what the elders are doing. And some recent times lately have caused us to think, we need to do more of that. So, call for the elders of the church.

[41:07] Let them pray over Him, anointing with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith, see, prayer is connected to faith. The prayer of faith will save the one who's sick, and the Lord will, well, here's resurrection language again, the Lord will raise him up.

[41:21] And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another. Why? So that you may be healed. Huh.

[41:31] There's a connection between confession, praying, and healing. The prayer of a righteous person, watch this, the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

[41:44] See, that's what I mean in this text, in Mark, where Jesus says, all things are possible. All things are powered by the one who believes.

[41:55] Prayer empowers. Our faith, that releases power, those who are convinced that God is able and are relying upon it. And then he gives an example.

[42:09] Elijah, Elijah, Elijah. We've talked about Elijah recently. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. By the way, James is saying that so that we get the idea that Elijah wasn't a superstar.

[42:22] He wasn't like, you know, put him up on a pedestal. He was a man just like us. Because remember, Jezebel came along. What was Elijah like? Scared, running, right? Vulnerable, inadequate.

[42:35] So, so he just talked about the prayer of a righteous man. He's going to point to a righteous man, Elijah, who was far from perfect. Okay? Who had his struggles and vulnerability.

[42:48] He's just like us. Elijah was a man like us and he prayed fervently, literally, he prayed with prayer that it might not rain and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

[42:59] Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. So what's his point about prayer? Prayer is our lifeline. Prayer is our link.

[43:11] Prayer is how we activate our faith, enlarge our faith, empower our faith. Prayer is what makes the inadequate adequate. So can we apply any of this?

[43:25] How do we believe God for the impossible? I mean, I know scripture says it, but how do we believe God for the impossible? Because come on, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers?

[43:40] That's my work. Yeah. How do I believe God for the impossible? Talk with Him. Read, read, read about Him so you become more and more convinced how able He is.

[43:56] Pour out your heart to Him. Spend time with Him. Confess your weaknesses to Him. Ask for help. Help my unbelief.

[44:09] I want you to understand, it's not about the size of your faith. A mustard seed is tiny. And Jesus said, if you had a faith of a mustard seed, if you had tiny faith, what can you do?

[44:24] You can move mountains with tiny faith. See, it's not about the size. It's not about how much faith you have in size. It's about how long your faith is.

[44:35] Remember Peter walked on the water? Right? He walked out on the water? That's pretty good faith, I think. And then he looked at the wind and the waves, and then he started sinking, and Jesus said to him, you of...

[44:51] little faith. Short, short, short. It lasted three steps, and then there you go. Come on, Peter, you can do better. See, little faith is about how long.

[45:04] How long does it last? So, keep asking. Keep asking, keep asking, keep asking, and then wait.

[45:17] Then keep seeking, keep seeking, keep seeking, and then wait. Then keep knocking. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, wait. Knock, knock, knock, knock. Every parable Jesus tells about prayer is about all night long, coming back, coming back, coming back, not quick fixes, not about having big faith, but having about long faith.

[45:45] Believe that he is able. And may we all confess together, Lord, I believe. Help. My unbelief.

[45:57] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray, oh Lord, that your word will fall upon good soil today. We pray that you would encourage those who have failed.

[46:11] We pray that you will lift them up as you want to do and restore them and encourage them, teach them. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[46:21] Amen. Amen. Amen.! Oh. Oh.