I want to talk this morning from this subject at the crossroads of hope and despair.
The seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation, the theologian Arthur Professor and Augustinian
Friar and German priest named Martin Luther. Martin Luther called doubt the monster of
uncertainty. Luther says that doubt is the gospel of despair. While Alfred Lord Tennyson
wrote, there lives more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds. According to the book in our
study for this week and for these next several weeks, Getting Through the Tough Stuff by Dr.
Charles Swindall, Daniel Taylor in the chapter on doubt commenting about this matter of doubting
does not choose the term doubting Christians, but refers to people with questions as reflective
Christians. Those who grapple not only with unanswered questions, but with unquestioned answers.
Listen to that one more time. He talks about people who are not doubters, but reflective. They
are thinking because the Christian religion is a thinking religion. When we come to God,
we don't leave our brains outside. It's a thinking religion. We don't we don't just deal with unanswered
questions, but we have to grapple with unquestioned answers. A see in in anchor captured this thought
succinctly, commenting on Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska in her vice presidential run with Senator
John McCain. The CNN anchor says it is not that she doesn't know the answers. She doesn't understand
the question. And sadly, beloved, if you do not ask your questions, you will end up believing
somebody else's answers. Simply put, many Christians are guilty of credulity. Credulity is
believing without examination. We inherited our religion from our parents. We borrowed
religion from our friends. We come to church because it is socially acceptable and expedient,
and it's a good place to hook up with a man or woman. And to God's chagrin, we are in
possession of an unexamined faith because we come to Jesus with the wrong questions. Brothers and
sisters, we have been taught and wrongly, I suggest, we have been taught not to question God. But
what kind of God would he be if he were intimidated by questions raised by my little finite,
infinitesimal mind? And we are in good biblical company when we ask God some questions. Abraham
asked him, why would you destroy the righteous with the wicked? Rebecca asked him, how long?
Moses asked him, why would you bring your people out and then not be able to bring them in? David
asked him, why do the heathen rage and the wicked imagine a vain thing? Job said, if I knew where
I could find him, I would rise and ask him some questions. Jeremiah asked, is there no bomb in
Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then it's not the health of the daughter of my people
recovered? Jesus asked him, why has thou forsaken me? And there's somebody in here this morning who
is a serious Christian, but you've got some serious questions. Why am I going through what I'm going
through and folk who don't even love your name never even have a bad day? Brothers and sisters,
hear me, a faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted. And if you are a serious
believer, there are some days when you don't understand what God is doing. You don't know what God
is up to in your life. You don't know why God is allowing some things to happen. That's why you
got to have more than saving faith. You've got to have charismatic faith. Let me see if I can help
you right there. The Charismatics have beat us Baptist at this kind of faith. Charismatics just
believe that God can do anything, no matter how crazy it sounds, no matter how wild it looks,
no matter how many people are denying it's never going to happen. Charismatic faith is saying,
I don't know how he's going to fix it. I just believe he will. Charismatic faith says it may
not look like I'm going to come through this, but you wait until the battle is over. Charismatics
just start shouting before they get the answer, because if God does not give me an answer, he's
the answer. I wish I had some Charismatics in here this morning who are on the other side of
your situation and you don't know how God worked it out. You just shouted before you got the
victory. Now to you little weak 90-pound Christians, to you little anemic Christians who just
saying Jesus loved me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. I need some of us here who have
grown in our faith, who've gotten away from now I lay me down to sleep. I pray to Lord my soul to
keep it. No, no, no, your prayer is Lord, here I am. My back is up against the wall. I've done all
I know how to do with that child. I have tried and I prayed and I prayed and I've tried. I've done
everything my supervisor has told me to do and they're still trying to fire me. God, I need you
to build a fence around me so that when my enemy thinks that he has me trapped, I got charismatic
faith. Faith that can move mountain. We owe to Mark's Gospel the fullest account
of the pathetic incident of the healing of the demon possessed boy. Mark's Gospel alone gives us
the conversation between our Lord and the afflicted child's father. But before a homiletical
unfolding and an exegetical presentation, that is, I think, a very evident and intentional contrast
between verses one through thirteen and our parikope presently. Between the transfiguration on
Mount Tabor and the healing of the young boy. There's a difference between the calm serenity of
the mountain and the hell-tortured misery in the valley. There's a contrast between the conversation
with the sainted, perfected dead, Moses and Elijah and the conversation with their unworthy
successors. Jesus had just been displayed in the resplendent glory he knew with his father in
eternity past. He spoke with Moses and Elijah and he heard the voice of his father say, this is my
beloved son, hear him. Only to come down to a demon possessed boy and agonizing father, the
sneering faces of the scribes and the impotence of the disciples who should have been able to do in
his absence what he empowered them to do in his presence. I need to say to us, Lily Grove, enjoy
these mountaintop experiences on Sunday morning. Have a good time worshiping every time you come
to church here because if you would live godly in Christ Jesus, a valley is in your future.
Because if you notice it's when we have a good time in worship that when you go to work Monday,
all hell breaks loose. I wish I had somebody to help me. Or even before Monday, sometimes when
you get out of church in the parking lot or sometimes before you walk out of the church with
these hellish people you got to worship with because all the hell is not in hell. Some of the
hell is in your family. Some of the hell is in your coworkers. Some of the hell is on your pew.
And sometimes before you can get undressed from Sunday worship, there's a valley in your path.
So enjoy yourself, give God glory, praise him, shout hallelujah, raise your hands, hear the prayer,
hear the choir, shout on the sermon. But know this, in this world you will have tribulation.
But I've got some good news for you. Be of good cheer. Jesus said I have overcome the world.
And we are more, more, more than conquerors through him that loved us. Walk with me around the text.
Look with me at a sad father. A sad father. This father brings his boy to the church
because he's heard about Jesus. The word has gotten out that he's a healer. The word has gotten out
that he turned water in the wine. The word has gotten out that the crowd was in the desert place
and there was nowhere to buy any bread. And he took a little boy's lunch of two fish and five loaves
and fed 5,000 men not counting women and children. The word got out that it was a man in the tombs
cutting himself with stones. He didn't have any clothes on. He was a wild man. He was a
gathering demoniac and he met Jesus. And the next time they saw him, he had clothes on and he was
in his right mind. So this man figured if he brought his boy to Jesus, Jesus could heal him.
But when the man got there, Jesus was not present. But the ones who should have known how to do it
because of their association with Jesus, he brought him to Jesus' disciples and they could not.
And I don't know because I'm not in your personal business like that, but I don't know how many
parents are in here this morning who are burdened with a child who just won't act the way you raised.
A boy who's strung out on some substance. A girl who thinks she's a woman before her time.
You are struggling trying to raise children against the sensitivity of all that was going on
on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter. You are trying to get your children to see that these
people are not your role models, but they still want to be homosexual. They still want to be gay.
They still want to go out and do what they want to do. You have raised them in the fear of God.
You watched them from babies sleeping in their crib. You fed them. You have clothed them. You have
lived right before them and they've broken your heart. You brought them to church. You made them
go to Sunday school, but things have gone left. And like this father, we understand the heartbreak
of watching your child demon possessed. They have a demonic spirit that makes them talk back,
makes them disobey. It's the devil that has turned them into this gothic clothing that they're wearing.
It's demonic to walk out of your house looking like a fool, talking like an idiot. It is demonic
to disrespect your teacher and the principal and the guidance counselor. It's demonic for your
parents to raise you right and you want to do what you want to do. There's some parents in here
like myself who've had some days to question whether or not you picked up the wrong baby at the hospital.
I need two or three parents here who has wanted to go to the Bureau of Vital Statistics
and ask them, can I see that fool's birth certificate? He looks like me. She talks like me,
but it can't be the baby that I gave birth to because the devil and the influence of Satan
turns parents, men and women sad. But they brought him or he brought him to the right place.
He brought him to Jesus. Jesus was on the mountain being transfigured and his disciples,
nine of them, well, now you mean nine preachers can't hear one bar? Nine of them because the other
three are on the mount, on the mount of transfiguration. Nine of them are in the valley and Jesus is
where with him and these boys, this parent brings this bar to where Jesus was and brings into Jesus
disciples and the sad word is they could not. So with this sad father, we see a sobering failure.
The church failed.
God and beloved, the church is not this beauty. It's not budgets. It's not parking lots.
It's not ministry. It's not programming. It's not singing. The church is the power of God
and every church on every street, on every corner that stands up with a steeple and
advertises itself as a church is saying to the world, if you come in here, we got power.
If you come in here, you can find God. If you come in here, you can find restoration
and when they come in here and don't find it, that's false advertising.
If you claim to be one thing and people come here and don't get it,
that's false advertising.
They soberly failed because like many of us, they did not recognize that the only power they had
was reflective from Jesus and they should have been able to do in his absence what they could
do in his presence because Jesus has empowered them to cast out devils.
But they forgot about Jesus and started trying to cast them out in his own power.
You can't cast out devils with midnight basketball.
You can't cast out devils with a feeding program. You can't cast out devils with
boy scouts and girl scouts. You cast out devils with prayer and fasting. Fast over your children.
Fast over your problems. Fast over your depression. Fast over your misery.
Fast over your heartbreak because God moves when you deny yourself.
If any man would come after me, let him deny himself.
Take up a cross and follow me. My brothers and sisters, I want to move quickly from this
sad father and this sobering failure to a satanic fiend. This kind of devil
is torturing this young boy. He's so tortured. He's so twisted that the devil has him mute.
He's sick and he can't tell his daddy what's wrong with him.
He's twisted and he can't even hear when his father speaks to him because the devil not only
has him dumb from speaking, but the devil has him deaf. And when the devil gets hold
to our children, we can talk till we're blue in the face. They don't hear a word we say
because they are possessed by a named devil.
And then that man brings him to Jesus and this devil is convulsing him, twisting him,
flipping him on the ground. He's gnashing his teeth. He's foaming at the mouth.
We would call it medically an epileptic seizure.
But the devil does not seize him and convulse him and twist him and render him unable to speak
and to hear until somebody comes around. You notice how your children don't act the food till you've
got company? And they don't have to be old to do that. They can be two, three, five years old,
run out the room naked, grabbing food off the table like you don't even feed them.
Somebody ought to help me talk here. If you parent children, you know what I'm talking about.
They don't want to go to bed. Then you put them to bed. You got to read them another story.
Then you read them another story and they don't want to go to bed. Then they come getting to bed
with you. And if you don't let them in, they'll sleep by the door all night long.
You know, just demon possessed, just wild. And this child acts up so, but when he gets
him to Jesus, I want somebody to hear this. The demon knows who Jesus is.
Because the scripture says, when the demon saw him,
he really started acting the food. He really started convulsing him and flipping him and
making him foam at the mouth. And when Jesus saw that flipping and violent term of the devil,
he asked the father, how long has he been like that?
And the father said he's been like that from a child. He says the devil has flipped him and
violently thrown him in the fire and thrown him in the water and tried to drown him.
When he couldn't drown him, he tried to set him on fire. He's tried to kill him. He said,
Lord, I brought him to your disciples and they couldn't do anything. Here's the sermon.
He says to Jesus, if you can do anything,
he says to Jesus,
the prince of peace, the bright morning star, the son of God without sin
and the son of man with power, he says to the one who created the heavens and the earth,
he says to the one who's alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last,
he says to Jesus, if you can do anything, Jesus said,
say that again. I just got through walking on water.
I just got through taking a lunch and feeding 25,000 people and you talking about if I can do
anything? You got your if in the wrong place. The real question is if you can believe.
Because if you can believe, all things are possible. Is there anybody here this morning?
No, all things are possible if you believe.
And then the father, the father says to Jesus, Lord, I believe,
but I need you to help my unbelief. Lord, I believe, but all I have is weak faith.
Lord, I believe, I've seen what you've done for somebody else, but I need you to do something for
me. And so I'm just trying to mix what I heard with what I believe. And my belief is not that
strong. My faith is not that strong. I don't know any Bible verses. Matter of fact, I don't even have
a Bible. I don't know anything about prayer and devotion. I've never been to a service where the
choir sings. I don't know anything about faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
I don't know anything about Jehovah El Shaddai. I don't know anything about Jehovah Shalom or Jehovah
Nise or Jehovah Sid Canoe. I'm just trying to mix what I heard with what I'm trying to believe.
So I'm going to ask you, Lord, if you can do anything, have pity on us. Jesus said,
you if is in the wrong place, let's reorder your thinking. If you can believe, I can make it happen.
And He said, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. You're going to help me close this
little lesson, won't you? And then Jesus said something that makes me shout every time I read it.
Jesus said, bring Him to me. My boys did the best they could, but bring Him to me.
The mission did the best they could, bring Him to me. The men's ministry are trying all they can
to make Him a man, but bring Him to me. I wish I had somebody to help me. If your child
won't act right, I've got some way you can bring it. If your girl won't stop being a fool, I've got
some way you can bring her. If that boy's drug habit seems to be something you can't pray your
way out of, I know somebody who can handle drug addicted men, because there are some used to be
drug addicts in here this morning, but somebody brought them to Jesus. There's some used to be
wild girls in here this morning, but now there are strong Christian women in here today,
because somebody had the good sense to bring them to Jesus. I wish I had help to close here.
There are some folk here used to be wild and in the streets when you were younger,
but your mama kept on praying for you. You had a praying grandmother. You had a praying
Sunday school teacher. You had a praying aunt or uncle. Somebody raised you in the fear and the
admonition of God, and mama is going to be with the Lord now, but you still remember mama's prayers
for you. You still remember somebody asked God to bless your life, and you're sitting in this
church this morning saved because somebody brought you to Jesus. Jesus said bring him to me,
and when they brought the boy to Jesus, I wish I had somebody to help me close here. Jesus didn't
speak to the father. Jesus didn't speak to the sick boy. Jesus spoke to the demon in the boy,
and Jesus said to that demon, you know who I am. You know what I have power to do. Here is what I
want you to do. Come out of that boy and never go back in him again. And when the demon heard that,
he twisted the boy one more time. He violently shook him one more time and left the boy like
he was dead. And then Jesus did something else. He said bring him to me, but when the boy looked
like he was dead, Jesus took him by the hand and did what only Jesus knows how to do. He raised
him up. Is there anybody here? Came to Jesus and he raised you up. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
come on to me and rest. Lay down weary one, lay down thy head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as
I was weary, worn and sad, but I found in him, I wish I had a witness here, I found in him a resting
place and he has made me glad. Won't he do it? Won't he do it? Won't he raise you up? Won't he put
your feet on solid ground? Won't he make the devil leave you alone? Is there anybody here?
Know you've been delivered. Is there anybody here? No God has raised you up. Is there anybody here?
Glad God kept you so that you don't go back to the same things you used to do.
You saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost. Won't he save you? Won't he raise you? Won't he keep
you? Won't he deliver you? You're going to help me preach this, won't you? I want you to use your
preaching voice. I want you to look at somebody now and repeat these words after me. Use your
preaching voice. Put some music in your voice. Tell your neighbor, living, he loved me.
He saved me. He carried my sins for me. Rising, rising, rising. He justified.
Freed me. Freed me. Freed me. I am free. I am free. Whom the Son has set free.
He is free indeed. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on, use your preaching voice.
Ah, no, he's alright.
He walks with me. He talks with me. He tells me I have his own. Won't he pick you up? Won't
he turn it around? Won't he make it alright? Tell him thank you. Thank you for deliverance.
Thank you for the answer. Thank you for the victory. Thank you. I know he's alright.
When it was over. When it was over. When the exorcism was over.
The disciples waited till they got behind closed doors.
And he asked Jesus, how come we couldn't do that? Jesus said, you want to know?
This kind of devil can only come out through prayer and fasting.
It may not happen right away, but keep praying. Keep trusting God.
Keep believing that he can do anything and watch God work a miracle.