INTRODUCTION

Welcome again to everyone here today. Today we are in the second week of a study on some of the miracles Jesus performed in scripture and as we begin today let me just say that I absolutely believe that God is a God who still does miracles. Last week, we spent some time in the conclusion of the service praying for some miracles in people’s lives. You know what? I’d love to hear some stories about what miracles God has done or is doing in your life. If you have a story you could share with me will you write it down and give it to me sometime? You can email me at hpc@gohpc.net or you can just write a note and drop it in my mailbox.I want to tell you a story that impacted me. We all know that children can come up with the darndest things sometimes can’t they? With my family there is hardly a day goes by where something doesn’t happen that either brings tears to Kerryanne and I or laughter! Anyway, something that happened back when Zachary first started school that I’ll never forget. It’s our custom when our kids come home from school to ask them how their day went. Most times we’re really paying attention to what they are saying but sometimes we’re a bit distracted by other things. Well this day we asked Zachary and as we stumbled in the house listened to Zachary go through the seemingly random highlights of his day…the lunches his friends ate, the books they read, the new friends he made - all of a sudden Zachary said - “oh and guess what?” “what Zachary?” “We were playing kickball and one of my friends fell down and got hurt.” “Oh?” “Yeah, he’s okay though, I went up to Him and put my hand on Him and prayed for Him - he’s all better now.”

Heading into the living room while Zachary was telling his story I almost missed it in one of those “distracted” moments but then I clued into what my son had just told me. “Wait a minute…did you just say you prayed for your friend?” Zachary said, “yeah, he was hurt so I went up to Him and put my hand on His head and prayed to God and said - Dear God help my friend feel better?” “Out loud?” “yeah - why not Dad?” Right! Who was I to question the faith of this little boy in the playground believing that God will heal a friend who gets hurt! The kind of real genuine faith of a four-year-old child who just believes that if God says it’s possible, it is! I learned an important lesson that day.

I want that kind of faith, the faith of a child. Jesus said a little bit of faith can move mountains. A lot of times, the mountains seem to move my faith instead of the other way around, but let’s define faith as we look at miracles today.

Hebrews 11: 1 gives us a great definition of faith:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Sure and certain. Faith is sure and certain. Why is it though, that my faith is often unsure and uncertain? Don’t get me wrong. I believe in God absolutely. I believe that God can do all things. Honestly though, I just have an easier time believing that God will do it for you than the fact that God will do it for me! I don’t know why that is, okay? Let’s say you’ve got some person that is wild - off the charts, a crazy person who doesn’t know God, and you say to me, “Darren, can we pray that God will reach this person?” I’m like, “Yeah, let’s pray. I know He will,” and I believe He will. Okay? But if I’ve got that person in my family, and they are wild and you’re saying let’s pray for him. I’ll say, “Dude, you have no idea how bad this person is. Even God can’t reach them.” Okay? Someone is sick in your family. I’m like, “Man let’s pray that God would heal them.” Someone is sick that I love, I’m thinking - “Oh, man, they’re going to die.” I just seem to have an easier time believing for other than I do for myself.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope that you do, let’s open them up to Mark 9, and we are going to examine the life of a guy who had a kind of faith that is a “sort of” kind of faith. He kind of believed, but not really all the way. I can relate to some of his faith struggles.

Let me start by giving you some of the context of this story. There was this little kid with an evil spirit, and the disciples tried to cure this kid. They tried to do the miracle, and they messed it up! They couldn’t do it, and so all the Pharisees and all the religious people saw this as a chance to attack Jesus and His disciples which led to a kind of argument going on. People were badgering back and forth, and that’s when Jesus walked up on the scene. Let’s start with verse 16 of Mark 9. Jesus walks into the argument, and He says, “Hey guys, what are you arguing about?”

17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
Mark 9:17-18 (NIV)

Let’s stop right there for a moment. Imagine the pain of being a parent and watching your child go through that, but let’s be honest. When you go through stuff, it hurts, but when someone you love goes through stuff, it hurts in a different kind of way, and I would say, even more intense. A lot of you right now, you’ve got some stuff that’s causing you pain in your own life, and it’s tough. There are others who love you, and they are watching you go through it, and they hurt in a different and very real way. I’ll explain it like this.

One of the most painful seasons of my life was the sudden death of my father just over three years ago. It was one of those things that you can never prepare for and happens so suddenly that you don’t fully understand what’s happening until it’s too late. My Dad started showing some weird symptoms of being paranoid and reclusive in October of that year just after thanksgiving and for the longest time we just assumed He was going through a bit of a nervous breakdown. Even the doctor was prescribing him some medications to treat Him for that. Then in early December he got so bad that on one of the frequent visits to the hospital they admitted him and the doctor’s began to suspect that he had something much more serious than a nervous breakdown. In the space of two weeks my Dad went from someone with what we thought was a recoverable mental illness to someone with a rare and fatal disease. My dad was always the strong one in my family. Whenever there was a crisis or something needed to be done you could count on Dad doing what needed to be done or providing the wisdom and directly for what we should do. The disease my Dad was diagnosed with is called Creutzfeld Jakobs disease and it’s so rare that they still don’t know exactly what causes it and have no way of treating it. Basically what this disease does is turn the brain into sponge. Gradually, the various areas of the brain cease to work and eventually the person dies. My dad was experiencing the symptoms of this disease for nearly 2 months but in the 2 weeks that we knew what he had the symptoms progressed even faster and there was little over a week that we were able to communicate with him.

We prayed. We prayed a lot. And I remember my church family praying for my Dad too. There were many times where I was at the place where I’m like, “God, what’s going on here?” Okay? You can raise the dead. You can heal blind eyes. You can do miracles - why don’t you take care of my Dad? Why? I want to believe, but You are making it hard for me right now. Why don’t’ You do what I think You should do?” Okay?

The father in the story recorded in Mark is probably going through some very similar things. He’s been watching his boy grow up in agony, and he is crying out, “Nothing’s working.” He probably took him to doctors. He took him to specialists. He took him to the disciples of Jesus. He’s like, “none of this is working, okay?”

Jesus jumps into the conversation in verse 19 and says,

19 “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” 20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. 21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him…
Mark 9:19-22 (NIV)

Imagine that - the father is watching his son, when this evil spirit tries to get the kid to go into a fire or drown in water. Now watch what this father says next,

…But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
Mark 9:22 (NIV)

If. There’s the key word. If You can do anything. If. Take pity on us. If You can. That’s where many of you are right now. You’ve got so big in your life, and all of the experts have told you nothing is going to happen, and you are saying, “God, if You can. You might be able to, but I’m not sure.” If.

Now, others of you, you are like, “No, man, I know God can. My ‘if’ is this…I know He can, but the question is, I wonder if He will.” He can, but why hasn’t He? If you can do anything Lord… It’s a sort of, kind of thing. I think You might be able to, but I’m not sure. I’ve seen You do other things, but I don’t know if You’ll do it for me. If You can.” Jesus replies back in verse 23 with a question. He says, almost sounding hurt, He says, “If You can?…

“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
Mark 9:23 (NIV)

How much is possible? Would you say it out loud? He says, “Everything.” One more time, how much is possible? “Everything!” Everything is possible for him who believes.

Pause there for a moment. Everything is possible for him who believes. Everything is possible. Okay? So, right now, you’ve got this major deal. Your marriage is in big, big trouble - you don’t think it will ever work. Do you think it is possible that God in His love and sovereign power could actually heal your marriage and make it better than new? Absolutely He can. Your kid that you love is going the wrong way fast, and you’ve tried everything you can to bring the kid back, and you love them, and they are making dangerous decisions, and you are thinking, “What’s going to happen? Can God bring them back?” No doubt about it. Every doctor says six months or less and somebody is going to die. Could God heal that person? Unquestionably. If we really believe that everything is possible - okay?

So this dad in this story is wigging out. He’s thinking maybe like some of you are right now, “If there was one thing that could be different, it would be my son. God, heal him. I’d trade places with him. Anything. This is the one thing.” Some of you right now, you have a one thing that is very real to you, and I don’t know what it is, but “If this one thing could be different, God, if it is possible, just touch me in this one area God. Just do this one thing, God. Just heal this one relationship, God. Just give me hope. Just this one area, if You can, please do.” And Jesus said, “It is all possible if you believe.” Now watch how this dad responds.

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed… Mark 9:24a (NIV)

He did what? He exclaimed - I’m going to tell you something about that word in a minute. What did he exclaim? He exclaimed, “I do believe, sort of.” Do you see it? He said,

“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24b (NIV)

“I do believe, but not completely. Help me overcome my unbelief. I want to believe wholeheartedly, and sometimes I do, but then things haven’t been working out, so it is kind of difficult for me to do. I want to believe, and I did last week, but I don’t have so much faith right now. I want to believe, but I’m just not sure that I can.”

I want you to feel the passion that is coming out of this desperate father. The word “exclaim” comes from a Greek word. I tis the word kradzo. Everybody say “drad’-zo”. This word means to croak as a raven. “Awkk,” or something like that. I don’t know fi that is a raven, but that is kind of what I would imagine it, okay? It means to scream. If you are taking notes, it means to call aloud or to shriek. Can you all of a sudden, see the passion in this dad? From deep within, he has this passion screaming out of him, “I do believe, but I still have doubts. I want to believe it is possible, but I just don’t know if I can.” Why is it that we want to have the faith of a child, but yet, we don’t? Why is it that we have the tension, the questions, and the faith struggles?

Let me give you three quick obstacles to real faith. Most of us at one time or another have dealt with these faith obstacles. The first one, if you are taking notes, is “sign demanding faith”

Sign-demanding faith

Most of you have probably done something like this before, “God, if You would just get me out of this, I’ll follow You forever. If You will just give me a sign, then I will know You are real.” Be honest. How many of you here today, you have done something like that before? The problem in looking for a sign is that a sign is not the real thing! Let’s say you are looking for a hotel, and you see a sign that says “hotel three miles”. You don’t go to sleep on the sign, do you? Because it is not the real thing.

Too many people want to sleep on the sign. “I need to see a sign.” The sign simply points to the real thing. The real thing is Jesus. “if you will just help me pass this test, O Jesus, and I’ll serve You forever.” Okay, you get a “C” and you still go on doing your own thing. “O God, just get me off this roller coaster alive, and You can have my life,” - ever said that? It just doesn’t work.

I found this out in my life. I did so many deals with God growing up…”God just do this - and then I’ll do this…just give me a sign!” The problem with the sign is - it’s not the real thing. It just points to the real thing.

Then there are other people with…

Second-hand faith

How many of you grew up in a Christian environment? Maybe you had some Christians in your family, or neighbours, a grandma…how many of you grew up with some Christians around? Maybe, because of that, you went to church occasionally. Maybe at Christmas and Easter only? Maybe you got baptized as a little kid or went to confirmation classes or got an extra point for bringing your friend or a star from doing your Bible verse - and all that stuff. Maybe you grew up close to the things of God, but the faith that others had never became your own. Mom’s a strong Christian, or dad…or grandma, or the people I hang out with, but it’s never been your own faith.

Listen to me - there is no such thing as faith by proximity. Jesus was talking to His disciples and He said, “hey, who do other people say that I am?” And they replied, “Oh, oh, oh, some say John the Baptist. Oh, oh, oh, oh some say Elijah, the prophet.” Jesus looks at Peter and says, “But Peter, who do you say that I am?” That’s the question! Who do you say that He is? It doesn’t matter that momma or grandma believes. What do you believe?

There’s a third obstacle to real faith….

Self-centred faith

This is how the self-centred faith will play out. This is so common. It happens all the time. “Okay, God, here is what You are going to do. All right? You are going to do this, in this way, at this time, and when all of that goes down, okay, then we’re tight. Okay?” But then, when God doesn’t, you say, “Okay, God, where were You? You didn’t do what I asked You to do. Forget You, okay? I was doing all of this, and I went to the Bible study, I tried to be good, I read my Bible, said my prayers. All I asked You to do is get me the promotion, and I didn’t get the promotion, so I am not going to go to church. That’ll teach You, okay?”

Or, “God, I just told You by the time I am thirty, I am going to be married. Right? That was the deal. I’m thirty, and I’m not married. Forget You, God.” Okay?

What that does is it puts ourselves in the place of God, and it is a very self-centred faith. How do we grow past that? How do we have the child-like faith of a four-year-old who sees a friend hurt in the playground and prays for their healing? Well here’s something that might help.

The first thing we do to really build faith is to….

Immerse yourself in God’s Word

This becomes our daily friend. God’s word. It’s living. It builds faith.

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
Romans 10:17 (NIV)

Notice it is not by hearing the latest self-help person, or by reading the best selling book at the bookstore, or by listening to Darren Ethier tell stories about his kid. It is faith that comes by hearing the word of God. That is where the power is okay? If you want to get in good shape, chances are, you probably want to eat the right things right? You start eating the right things , and you’ll probably want to exercise to!

When it comes to faith, you want to feed and renew your mind with God’s word. It becomes an integral foundation of your life. When you exercise, your muscles get bigger. When you listen to God’s word it expands your faith.

I can look back in my life and notice that the times when my faith is big and I’m believing God are the times I’m in His word. The times when I am in doubt, I am not in His word.

Now you may say, “I tried to read scripture. I don’t even know how to start. Well, where do I start?” There’s no right or wrong way…just start reading! Some of the best helps for me have been following a read through the Bible in a year - it gives you the day and the scripture verses you read for that day. Another thing Kerryanne and I try to do is read a section of scripture every night together before we go to sleep.

If your anything like me, you’ll read the Bible and there will be some things you’ll come across that just don’t seem to make sense - but they might next year. There have been times where I’ve read something and it didn’t make sense and then something else I read in the Bible later brings it all into focus. Just keep feeding yourself the Word, and it will renew your mind out of the garbage of this world into the truth of the kingdom of God, and your faith grows.

Then…we don’t just engross ourselves in God’s word, but the second thing that we do is…

Act on God’s word.

We don’t just believe in it, but we believe it, and there is a difference. The demons, scriptures say, even believe in God. We don’t just believe in His word, but we believe it in such a way that we are willing to stake our lives on it. We are willing to act on it.

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James 2:26 (NIV)

Faith without working, faith without taking action is dead. Maybe you have been to a church like what some people say to me, “I went to such and such a church and it seemed dead.” What are they really saying? What they are saying is, “Maybe there were spiritual words, but I didn’t see anyone acting on it. There was no sense of spiritual anticipation and movement. Maybe we do believe this, and it was kind of like, ‘We just did church. Check’ and we went on with our life.”

Faith without actions, faith without living it on Monday, is dead. It is a joke. Either we believe that God’s word is for our life Monday through Sunday or we are simply playing church. Either we believe that God is real, or what we are doing right now is a first-class joke, and we should just go home and never come back again.

Friends that is the crucial miracle that must take place before any other miracle - the miracle is not simply believing that God could and also that He will do something but something more. It is the miracle of a faith that is not dependent on the outcome but simply in the character, the heart, and the nature of God. Real faith doesn’t hinge on the outcome. It depends on the heart, the character and the nature of God.

CONCLUSION

So, you are desperate today. You need a miracle. This father needed a miracle, and he cried out, (kradzo) “I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief”. And here is what happened in the story

25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.”
Mark 9:25-26 (NIV)

Now imagine, this really happened! He was healed by the power of a good God. God is a God of miracles.

I told you about my Dad earlier. The support my family got from friends and churches while my Dad was sick was absolutely amazing. People all over were praying for Him. My family was praying for Him. Yet, on December 20, 2004 my Dad died. But let me tell you something that is the real miracle in the midst of the pain of that time - the real miracle is that in spite of what my Dad was experiencing - in spite of the grief I was feeling and witnessing in my family - my faith wasn’t in the outcome - it mattered to me whether or not my Dad lived - but it mattered more that His life was in God - and that it was. My faith was not in the outcome - it was in God. That is why today I still proclaim the goodness of God, because my faith is not in the outcome as much as it is in the character, the heart of who God is, a good God.

The Bible shares the story of three boys with child-like faith. Their names were Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego. They said, “We love the one true God.” King Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament said, “I am sick of hearing about your God, you guys bow down and worship this statue of me right now or I will kill you by throwing you in the fire.” And then these three young men said one of the greatest faith statements you will ever hear. They said, “You go ahead and throw us in the fire, but we will not worship your God because our God will deliver us.” That’s faith. Then, they cemented their demonstration of faith when they said, “And even if He doesn’t, we will not worship your false God. We will still believe.” Our God can. Our God will. And even if He doesn’t, we will still believe. The faith of a child.

PRAY.