Sermon Tone Analysis
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| 1-7-01 \\ \\ FINDING FAITH FOR A NEW YEAR \\ MARK 9:14-29 \\ \\ \\ NEED: PERSONAL FAITH IN GOD.
\\ \\ PROPOSITION: HAVING PERSONAL FAITH IN GOD MUST BE \\ A PRIORITY AS WE ENTER THE NEW YEAR.
\\ \\ OBJECTIVE: TO LEAD GOD'S PEOPLE TO GREATER FAITH \\ THROUGH PRAYER AND SERVICE.
\\ \\ INTRODUCTION: \\ This passage of scripture is always a challenge to my heart.
As I read through the gospels three or four times a year, I \\ always read this passage with anticipation.
It speaks to me with freshness every time I read it.
\\ \\ It may be that it speaks to me because I can so easily identify with the parties in the passage.
Most of us have had the \\ experience of standing beside that broken hearted father and feeling so helpless before an impossible situation.
This \\ father had a son, who had severe spiritual and physical problems, and the problems had been a part of his life from \\ his earliest childhood and all of his attempts to help his son had failed.
In a somewhat desperate move, he had \\ brought his child to Jesus, only to find Jesus was not present, and to have the sad experience of the disciples of \\ Jesus not being able to help his boy.
He was at his wits end.
Haven't you been there?
He was in a condition described \\ by one poet as having “his wings of faith broken”.
Whatever faith he had in the past, it is now utterly shattered.
\\ \\ It is also easy for me to identify with the disciples.
They had experienced a severe, public, embarrassing failure.
They \\ had known the excitement of exorcising demons on numerous occasions, but on this day, they failed.
The bitter taste \\ of failure and the sense of shame were heavy upon them.
How many times in life I have walked away from some \\ situation with that bitter taste of failure in my mouth and the burden of failure upon my shoulders!
Haven't you been \\ there?
\\ \\ However, the thing that really makes the passage a challenge is seeing the central figure in the incident.
The central \\ figure is not the boy, nor his dad, nor the failing disciples, but the Lord Jesus who has just descended from the Mount \\ of Transfiguration.
There may be failure all around, but Jesus is no failure.
He is standing in the passage to become \\ the friend and helper of all of those who have failed.
\\ \\ As we stand on the threshold of a new year, I feel the need for my faith to be strengthened.
I know that my successes \\ and failures in 2001 will be determined more by my faith in God than anything else in my life.
I want to learn what I can \\ learn about finding faith for a New Year.
Let us look at this passage together, open our hearts to the one that stands \\ in the center of the passage, and allow God to move us up to a new plateau of faith as we move in to a treacherous \\ New Year.
\\ \\ I. OUR FAILURES MAY REVEAL OUR LACK OF FAITH.
\\ Failure is the first thing that stands out in the passage.
When Jesus approaches the crowd at the foot of the Mount of \\ Transfiguration, He sees the crowd.
It is obvious that an intense discussion, even a debate, is going on between his \\ disciples and some of the religious leaders.
There can be seen standing off to the side, while this intense debate is \\ going on, a stooped shoulder, brokenhearted man, with a troubled youngster standing at his side.
Every thing in the \\ passage has the smell of failure.
I know that smell.
You know that smell.
\\ \\ 1.
Failure is painful.
\\ Can you imagine the pain experienced by that group of disciples, when they were not able to help this father with his \\ troubled child?
They had known on many occasions the joy of seeing faces lit up with hope and freedom through their \\ exorcisms.
They had gone through the same forms that they had used before, but this time they did not work.
This \\ had prompted some accusatory words from their critics who stood by.
So, they were enduring the pain of failure.
\\ \\ And the father knows the same kind of pain.
In fact, failure is all he has known as it relates to his troubled child.
Even \\ though it is not indicated in the text, knowing what we know about parents and life, I'm confident he had exhausted \\ every possibility of finding help for his child.
Bringing his child to the disciples of Jesus was a last desperate act on the \\ part of this man.
And then he was shattered when these disciples of Jesus were not able to deliver his child.
This \\ leaves the man without any hope for his troubled son, he thinks.
\\ \\ However, such pain does not have to be wasted!
It may be the pain that we have experienced in our failure can lead \\ us to another level of faith in our lives.
It did in the lives of those who were involved in this story.
\\ \\ 2. Failure is revealing.
\\ Why was the boy not delivered?
Why was the demonic power in the boy superior to the religious exercises of the \\ disciples?
Fortunately, we are not left to speculation at this point.
When Jesus heard the details of the situation, His \\ response was immediate: "Oh unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you?
How long shall I put up with you? \\ Bring the boy to me."
To whom did Jesus address these stern words?
They were addressed at least in part to the \\ father.
The father was approaching him as though he was as helpless to do anything as anyone else.
Jesus identified \\ the father as being a part of a generation that was characterized not by its faith in God, but by its convictions what \\ God could not do.
It is an unbelieving generation.
An unbelieving generation is a generation that has refused to \\ believe what God has revealed.
An unbelieving generation is responsible for its unbelief.
An unbelieving generation \\ has chosen to walk in the shadows of doubt rather in the light of God’s revealed Word.
\\ \\ However, we ought not to exclude the disciples from these accusatory words!
They, too, were acting like they were a \\ part of the unbelieving generation.
Had He not been with them?
Had they not heard Him? Have they not learned the \\ secrets of faith from Him? Evidently not!
Actually, in Matthew's account of this same incident Jesus tells the disciples \\ that they were powerless at this situation because of their "unbelief."
(Matthew 17:20) They, too, were a part of the \\ unbelieving generation.
\\ So, at least something good came out of the failure.
The failure caused the father and the disciples to recognize the \\ fact that they were short on the vital ingredient of faith.
Would we dare admit that many of our failures might be traced \\ to our insufficient, weak faith?
If we will allow the failures to open our eyes to the reality of our situation, some good \\ can come out of our failures.
\\ \\ II.
JESUS USES OUR FAILURES TO FOCUS OUR ATTENTIONS ON HIS \\ SUFFICIENCY.
\\ Jesus thrust Himself in to the situation and made Himself the center of attention.
He gives an urgent command to the \\ father saying, "Bring the child to me."
Then, he gives that word to this unbelieving father that always challenged my \\ heart: "Everything is possible for Him who believes."
\\ \\ We need to be clear about the content of these words.
These are not words that encourage us to have faith in our \\ faith!
There is no miracle working power in faith itself.
The miracle working power is in the object of faith - - even the \\ Lord Jesus Himself.
If you mistakenly place your faith in one that is weak and impotent, your faith will do you no good.
\\ It is only when faith has as its object the all-sufficient Lord God who is revealed in Jesus His Son that faith is able to do \\ the impossible.
Think with me about this for a moment.
\\ \\ 1.
His sufficiency is without limits.
\\ The problems of the boy were real.
In modern day medical language he would probably described as an epileptic.
He \\ would be seen as a victim of that brain disorder that brings about epileptic seizures.
And there may well have been \\ the physical phenomena of epileptic seizures on the part of the boy.
Modern medication has done wonders in \\ controlling epileptic seizures, but still has not come up with permanent cures for it.
However, if that was the physical \\ condition of the boy, it had been made even worse by the demonic power taking advantage of the situation.
There \\ was in the child a demon that caused the child to be dumb, unable to speak.
There could be no communication \\ between the father and the child in a normal manner.
There were no medical cures available.
It was a desperate \\ situation.
\\ \\ However, in our Lord's response to this troubled father, He makes this bold assertion, "Every thing is possible for him \\ who believes."
The father had said to him earlier, "But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."
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