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Faced With the Impossible (Mark 9:14-29)
17 Plays5 months ago
I remember being so inspired when I first watched the Christian movie a few years ago entitled, Facing the Giants. It was produced by two brothers, Alex and Stephen Kendrick. In the film a head football coach was faced with a six-year losing record with his team. He discovers a group within the local school board secretly planning to fire him. He faced his failures as a coach with surrender to the Lord and was willing to trust Him for the outcome whatever it would be.
Mark 9:22-24 portrays a father who was faced with an impossible situation with his son that he could not resolve. So, he turns to the Lord’s disciples for help. Unfortunately, they also were unable to make a difference with this discouraged dad. Where can he turn? Mark 9:14-29 gives the whole story with an uplifting ending for every father who is facing something in his life this Father’s Day that is beyond his ability to fix. Let’s listen in to what happened in this father’s life and consider what can happen in your life.
Reality of the Impossible, 9:17-18
Responses to the Impossible, 9:14-24
Reasons for the Impossible, 9:14-20
Resolution of the Impossible, 9:19-27
Resources for the Impossible, 9:19, 23, 25, 29
In closing, let me making a suggestion to you for the end of the summer and the beginning of the school year. Dad, please consider taking your family to see the latest Kendrick brothers film entitled, The Forge. It is set to be released August 23, 2024. The theme this time is mentoring. May it light a fire in your heart to mentor your children.
Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
A Father's Struggle: A Mark Account
00:00:43
Speaker
Hey, welcome back to Growing in Grace. I'm glad you stopped by. We always enjoy the time together in the Word. I want to share with you today from Mark 9, verses 14 to 29. It's an account of a father who was having a very difficult situation that he personally had with his son.
00:01:05
Speaker
He was dealing with something similar to epilepsy. Perhaps it was epilepsy. But I think it was a little something more because it sort of hints at perhaps demonic oppression here. And so anyway, let me read this passage. And I was thinking about fathers.
00:01:24
Speaker
and how I'm so appreciative of the great examples that I see around me in our church of dads. I see how much they love their kids, how much they love their wives, and they love the Lord. And so what a blessing it is. But I know that no matter how godly
00:01:43
Speaker
that a man is, he still could face something in his life that's simply daunting and impossible. So I would like for us to read through this passage first, and then we'll get started. It says in Mark 9, verse 14, and when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.
00:02:09
Speaker
And immediately, all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, what are you arguing about?
00:02:21
Speaker
And someone from the crowd answered, teacher, I brought my son to you, for he is a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able.
00:02:43
Speaker
And he answered them, O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me. And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy. And he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked his father, how long has this been happening to him?
00:03:09
Speaker
And he said, from childhood, and it is often cast him into fire and into water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, if you can,
00:03:25
Speaker
All things are possible for one who believes. Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, I believe, help my unbelief. And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, you mute and deaf spirit, I command you come out of him and never enter him again.
00:03:50
Speaker
And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out. And the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, he's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out?
Facing Impossible Challenges in Faith
00:04:12
Speaker
And he said to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer, and some translations add, and fasting.
00:04:22
Speaker
faced with the impossible. That's what this father was faced with here in this passage. There was something in his life that he could not fix. What is it about being a dad or being a husband, even if you don't have children? Being a husband and a dad, something comes with the package that we like to fix things.
00:04:44
Speaker
But some things in life we can't fix. And so it's almost as though we're facing a giant in our life, like David faced Goliath.
00:04:54
Speaker
You know, I saw a movie one time called Facing the Giants. It was an amazing film, Christian film, about using faith whenever you come against problems that you can't resolve, trusting the Lord and turning it over to Him. There was a coach in the movie who had had a six-year losing streak with his football team called the Shiloh Eagles.
00:05:19
Speaker
But he discovers there was a group of men in the school board that were planning to fire him. So it was quickly moving into the realm of, oh my goodness, this thing is looking like a terrible situation. Well, this man that was in our passage today, he definitely was facing something far worse because this was related to his son.
00:05:42
Speaker
He didn't know what to do. It seemed like the son's situation in his life was so impossible for this dad. It makes me think, first of all, of the reality of the impossible. Even as born-again Christians, we need to accept and admit the reality that we're gonna face impossible things for our strength and our ability in this life. You see, this passage is not a myth.
00:06:11
Speaker
It took place in the real world. These disciples, at least three of them, had been up on the mountain with Jesus when he was transfigured. But suddenly they go from the glory to the gory. They go from awesome to awful, from oh yeah to oh no, from a glimpse of the divine to a glimpse of the demonic.
00:06:31
Speaker
This is not a pep talk on positive thinking. This is a case study of reality when we face an impossible situation in our lives. Is God relevant or not? Will God help us or not? Will God ever allow a challenge or a trial into our lives that we as men cannot handle?
00:06:55
Speaker
Well, I think these verses would tell us, yes, he does. There is a situation. You know, this impossibility was real for the young boy. Boy, it's just incredible when you look through here in verse 18, it says that the demon would seize him, throw him down. He would foam at the mouth. He would grind his teeth. He would become rigid.
00:07:16
Speaker
And so this was not make believe, this was real life stuff in this boy's life. The dad even said of a little later, he said sometimes that the demon cast him into fire or into water and what he's trying to do is he's trying to destroy him. Can you imagine how frightening that would be as a dad to see something harming your son like that and you can't fix it.
00:07:42
Speaker
It was also impossible for that dad, but also it was impossible for the nine disciples that were waiting in the valley for Jesus and the three disciples to come back down from the mountaintop. You know, this father says, I went to your disciples. Ask them, would you please cast this out? And he says to Jesus, they were not able.
00:08:05
Speaker
Wow, that would be shameful, wouldn't it? You know, the man is saying these guys couldn't do it. Later, when they're in the house, after this incredible deliverance and miracle happens when Jesus came and took care of it himself, the disciples asked Jesus privately, why could we not cast it out? You see what I'm trying to say? It was real.
00:08:29
Speaker
There was a crowd of people that day all around them, and no one said, this is make-believe. They all knew this is a very real life situation. I think sometimes we feel like God can't help in the real world, but He can. And that's why I think passages like this are in there. But I think the issue is not the reality of the impossible, but our response to the impossible.
Dysfunctional Responses vs. Faith
00:08:55
Speaker
You know, if God is not going to prevent Christians or non-Christians from facing impossible situations, then He must be focused on how we respond to that impossibility.
00:09:08
Speaker
In life, what would you say your default setting is when you face something you can't fix? I mean, you try and you can't. Will you spend some more money to see if money can fix it? Or what about education or maybe a change in career, maybe a change in relationships?
00:09:26
Speaker
I really want to encourage you to look at this passage carefully because I think we see modeled some of the dysfunctional ways of responding to impossible situations. For example,
00:09:41
Speaker
The multitude, they sort of disengage from it. You know, they're like, well, we can't fix it either. So they just start arguing. They get in dispute with the scribes in verse 14. The disciples, meanwhile, they're discouraged by it. Whenever they get alone with Jesus, like I said earlier, what do they say? Why couldn't we do this? Like they were really perplexed.
00:10:05
Speaker
I wonder if anybody was perplexed and disappointed it would be that father. Yeah, he's saying, look, I brought them to your men and your men couldn't fix the problem that I had. But then once he's talking to Jesus about it and says, you know, if you can, you know, and Jesus comes back at him and says, if you can, all things are possible for one who believes. And immediately the father of the child, it says, cried out and said, I believe, help my unbelief.
00:10:35
Speaker
You ever been there, Dad? Have you ever faced something in your life and it's just been there so long, you just simply give up. You don't think God can fix it. You don't think anybody can fix it. You're just trying to adjust to living with that impossible situation.
00:10:51
Speaker
Of course, there's no doubt that the response of the sun was perhaps the hardest one of all because he was driven by this demon. He was being slowly destroyed by this demon. All of these terrible things were happening to him where he would have seizures or fall rigid and he would foam at the mouth and terrible things.
00:11:13
Speaker
But if we think about it, what's the reason for the impossible?
The Source of Impossible Situations
00:11:17
Speaker
Why do these kind of things happen anyway? Why can't we just have every single day that everything is on a lower shelf, where we as humans can just reach right there, right across from us, and just take the answer to whatever it is? Why is it that we have these kind of situations that are there?
00:11:37
Speaker
Well, I know we ask why a lot of times, but maybe we need to ask the why question in a different way. For example, how about asking this, why can't this problem be resolved? Why is this problem permitted to enter into my life?
00:11:57
Speaker
As I was studying this passage, getting ready for the podcast, I couldn't help but think, you know, one reason why we can't resolve some things in this world is because we live in a fallen world due to sin. You know, it was sin that caused these disciples not to be able to cast out the demon.
00:12:19
Speaker
Jesus turns to them and says, oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.
00:12:29
Speaker
And so sometimes the things we're facing in life, it's just a broken world. There's a lot of sin and sin causes problems. But I noticed another thing. Once we get down to, oh, it's not epilepsy. Oh, it's not just something physical. What's going on here is a dark force. You know, there's wickedness and wickedness is forceful in our world. This young guy was being just,
00:12:56
Speaker
tossed all around by the demon. The demon was trying to destroy him. Have you ever seen that happen in a young person's life or maybe in an older man's life or a middle-aged man or a young adult man? Have you ever seen someone destroying his life with alcohol or with drugs or perhaps with pleasure or with maybe laziness? And it's just like he's just slowly letting the wicked force just completely wear him down.
00:13:26
Speaker
I wonder sometimes if we forgot that maybe a reason for the impossible is so that God could work out a solution.
00:13:33
Speaker
You know, that happened in John. There was a man who was born blind, and John 9, 1 through 5, some people were saying, who sinned? Who caused this guy to be born blind? And Jesus said, you don't get it. Nobody sinned and caused this man to be born blind. He was born blind so that the works of God might be made evident in his life.
00:13:57
Speaker
What if God allows a challenge in our lives so that He can come in and resolve the challenge? What about a fourth possibility? Yes, the world is fallen. Yes, wickedness is forceful. Maybe it's the work of the Father, the will of the Father to leave it there.
00:14:16
Speaker
But there's one other possibility. What if you have a challenge in your life, something that seems impossible? Because it's going to be a witness to those around you, maybe to your family, maybe to friends, but somebody in your life needs to see the true and the living God at work.
00:14:38
Speaker
And that is what that problem has been left there in your life. You know, this father says, you know, he's had this problem since he was a child. So let's move then from talking about the reality of it, talking about the responses to it and the reasons for it. And let's look at the possible resolution of the impossible.
The Power of Belief
00:15:00
Speaker
I mean, what is the way that an impossible situation can be solved?
00:15:06
Speaker
Well, if you don't learn anything else, I encourage you to really think carefully about what Jesus says in verse 23. In verse 23, he says, all things are possible for one who believes. All things are possible with God. That's what he's basically saying. The resolution of the impossible is whenever we, as limited human beings, whenever we cry out to God and we give it over to him,
00:15:36
Speaker
You know, there's a book that I read many years ago called Prayer, Life's Limitless Reach. You know, I think prayer is a limitless reach because God can reach anybody, God can do anything. One thing I think we need to clarify though, we need to make sure that we're not confusing an answer from God with the ability of God. You see, if you don't believe, if I don't believe,
00:16:06
Speaker
that God is able, that's a big problem. But if God doesn't give me the answer that I'm looking for, that may be a big problem in my life. It may be a big issue for me, but that's not the biggest problem there is. Believing that God is not able, that's huge. And so that's one thing that I want you to say, wait a minute, this passage demonstrates how when something is difficult for one man,
00:16:34
Speaker
When something is difficult for nine disciples, when something is difficult for a whole crowd of people, it doesn't mean that it's impossible for God. And so what I want you to see is the limitless ability of the Son of God in this passage. You see, Jesus was not limited by the past experiences.
00:16:56
Speaker
You know, like I said earlier, this dad answers Jesus when he says, how long has this been happening? And he says, from childhood. I wonder if they had gone to a lot of doctors. Perhaps they had gone to other, you know, priests or to scribes or to different godly men and women saying, please pray for him. I don't know what's wrong with my son.
00:17:18
Speaker
But yet, all of these past experiences were not effective. Jesus was not limited by past experiences, neither was He limited by earthly efforts. You know, the Father says, you know what? Your men were not able to fix my son. They could not heal my son. They could not cast the demon out of my son.
00:17:39
Speaker
Well, just because his men were not able to didn't mean that Jesus, as the Son of God, was unable to. And so he's not limited by past experiences. He's not limited by earthly efforts. He's also not limited by human era. You know, verse 19, where those disciples said, you know what?
00:18:00
Speaker
We just couldn't believe. Jesus cuts right through it. He said, the problem is you didn't trust me. You didn't trust the Father. You didn't think God could do this. And so human error is not something that limits God from being able to work.
00:18:16
Speaker
But Jesus was also not limited by influences of evil. I mean, there's no doubt, you know, Jesus saw the unclean spirit here and he says, you mute and deaf spirit, I command you come out of him and never enter him again.
00:18:33
Speaker
And so just the fact that there's evil forces and so forth, that doesn't limit Jesus. There's something I wanna ask you to do. Whenever you think of Jesus, I want you to think of whatever impossible situation you're facing, okay, impossible. And I want you to think of his answer to your situation right now. Think about it in your life. What is it you're facing that's just totally,
00:19:01
Speaker
You're unable to fix this. What would the Lord's answer to you be? I want to give you something that maybe you've never noticed it before, but the first two letters are the letters I am. What if you made that the contraction I'm? What if Jesus' answer to your problematic situation, to your impossible situation, what if his answer is I'm possible?
00:19:29
Speaker
I know that others have tried and it was impossible, but that was for them. I know that this has been looked into, but that was for that situation. I'm possible. When you think of Jesus, think of Him as answering that dilemma. I'm possible. And that will give you encouragement and comfort to go to Him and to lay your burdens down at the Lord's feet.
00:19:56
Speaker
You know, I think we need to think in terms of how do I do that? What are the resources for the impossible?
Faith, Prayer, and Fasting in Action
00:20:03
Speaker
Of course, the main thing is take it to Jesus. That's what he said, right? When he said, bring him to me in verse 19, he said, how long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.
00:20:17
Speaker
bring whatever situation you cannot resolve, bring it to the Lord. That's the way to see the problem resolved. But I couldn't help but think about something I heard long ago, and I looked it up to make sure this was right. And so, as far as I can tell, I got everything, all my facts in order here.
00:20:40
Speaker
But there was a great painter. I think he was from Italy, a great Italian painter named Raphael. Do you know that Raphael, his last painting that he ever painted was the Transfiguration. That's the title of the painting, the Transfiguration. But he started it, but one of his students had to finish it because he had his easel propped up right there beside his bed.
00:21:06
Speaker
And so when he passed away, it wasn't quite finished. So many people believe that, yes, he got a lot of it finished, but he wasn't able to quite finish it. But if you look sometime at Raphael's painting entitled The Transfiguration, you'll see that there's two major scenes. There's the scene at the top and the scene at the bottom.
00:21:29
Speaker
The scene at the top is the first part of Mark chapter 9, Mark 9, verses 1 through 13. We didn't read those verses, but those verses are about the transfiguration. And Peter and James and John are on top of a mountain, and Jesus just, he just lets his glory completely shine when he's up there on top of that mountain. And beside him,
00:21:54
Speaker
He has Moses and Elijah that it says in Mark chapter 9, verses 1 through 13, that Moses and Elijah were there talking with them. And Peter and James and John couldn't believe what they were seeing. And so that's the top part of Raphael's
00:22:12
Speaker
painting. It's just so bright and it looks so beautiful. But at the bottom part of the painting, all of the color schemes become darker and darker because at the bottom is what happened when they came down from the mountain.
00:22:28
Speaker
And they entered into the valley. And in the valley is where the nine disciples were, arguing with the crowd and hearing this father say, no one has helped my son. And so there they are all together.
00:22:45
Speaker
But in that painting, down at the bottom, you'll see that the boy is like looking up at Jesus, even though he couldn't have seen him on the Mount of Transfiguration. But in the painting, Raphael made it where this young lad, his eyes are fixed on Jesus above.
00:23:05
Speaker
And the father, he's not looking at Jesus. He's just arguing with the other disciples. But one of those nine disciples down there in the valley, one of them was pointing. And he's pointing in the direction of the mountain. He's pointing in the direction of Jesus.
00:23:23
Speaker
in glory on top of the mountain. And so I couldn't help but believe, you know, there's something there that only Jesus is the way to solve most of the problems, if not all of the problems in our lives. I'm not saying if you trust Christ, you'll never have another problem. That's why I'm saying most of the problems.
00:23:43
Speaker
I think sometimes, like I said earlier, he allows problems to come into our lives for higher reasons than we can understand. But when it's there, there's three resources that help us when we face the impossible. The first resource is the position of faith.
00:24:02
Speaker
the position of faith. I see this mentioned in verse 19. Whenever the nine disciples could not help the young boy, what does the Lord say? Oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me. But then you look in verse 23 and you see that he says,
00:24:27
Speaker
If you can, all things are possible for one who believes. So definitely we must begin to approach our problems and our difficulties in life from a posture or a position of faith, knowing that this is something that God in his ability is able to resolve. He may not choose to answer this, but he can answer this. The second one is,
00:24:53
Speaker
The answer, in other words, not the position or the posture of faith, but prayer to the Father. Pray to the Lord. Whenever the disciples said, why could we not cast it out? Here's what Jesus told them.
00:25:08
Speaker
This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." I wonder if those disciples were just trying to say, you know, be gone, demon, or something like that, but they weren't actually praying and asking for the Father's power to help, you know, displace and dispossess this demon that was in there.
00:25:31
Speaker
I think we really miss out when we're not talking to God about our problems in life. Some people want to take it to social media, and they'll ask everybody under the sun. They'll spend millions of dollars trying to resolve all the problems, but they've not actually prayed about the problem to the one who can help with that problem.
00:25:52
Speaker
But then some translations at the very end, it says, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting. It's what some translations add to that last part. So I would say our three resources are these.
00:26:09
Speaker
our position, our posture of faith, our prayer to the Father, and the priority that comes with fasting. When we say to God, I'm so serious about you resolving this problem and helping me with this problem in my life, that Lord, I'm willing to miss a meal. I'm willing to miss two meals. I'm willing to miss a whole string of meals.
00:26:33
Speaker
If that's what it takes, would you be willing to do that? I think that that's why Jesus was able to do this and those disciples could not. But do you know what the greatest impossibility we'll ever face in our life is?
00:26:48
Speaker
sin. Sin, I think that sin keeps us cut off from God's family. It keeps us cut off from God's power, keeps us cut off from God's heaven. But Acts 4.12 shoots straight about the impossibility of salvation in any other way other than through Jesus. Here's what it says. Acts chapter 4 verse 12, nor is there salvation
00:27:16
Speaker
any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." I'm telling you, Jesus, He would tell you, He would tell me about the sin problem. I'm possible. I'm possible.
00:27:34
Speaker
Turn it over to him, cast your cares upon him, and he will sustain you. Thank you so much for being with us today and growing in grace. Let me close with a word of prayer. Lord, I pray that this passage has encouraged some of the dads on this upcoming Father's Day. Maybe when they listen to this podcast, it's not even gonna be Father's Day. Maybe it'll be another day, just a regular day. Or perhaps someone was listening today
00:28:02
Speaker
And they're not a dad, but somehow this passage connected with what they're facing in their lives. Maybe they've got a child. Maybe they're a mom and they have a child that's just really having difficulties. Or maybe they're a grandparent.
00:28:18
Speaker
and their grandson or granddaughter is having difficulties. Or maybe it's not about siblings or kids or families at all. It's something else. Would you please, Lord, help my friends to turn it over to Jesus to trust you and to pray to you, knowing that you can do all things. Thank you so much, Lord Jesus, for your ability. We'll trust you about the answer.
00:28:43
Speaker
But there's no doubting about it. We know that all things are possible to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, God bless you. Hope you have a great day today. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milan Street, Columbus, Texas.