I closed the message last evening where we dealt with the stumbling block of discouragement and pointing out the real reason there is discouragement that comes into our lives and overtakes us. And that's because of the stumbling block of unbelief. Unbelief lies at the heart of all of our discouragement. This event from the life of Christ reveals that one of the greatest stumbling blocks that Christians often encounter in their journey to glory is this stumbling block of unbelief. Now, you would have thought that the disciples would have no need to ask Christ that question in verse 28. Why could we not cast him out? Why in the world were they asking that question? They had already heard the reason for their powerlessness, at least part of it. I say this because when this boy's father said to Christ in verse 22, if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us, Christ replied, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Why didn't disciples get that? Why did they later ask the question, how come we couldn't do it? The Lord Jesus immediately, in his answer to this father, points out the power of faith and the absolute powerlessness of unbelief. It would seem that the disciples didn't really grasp what the Lord was saying, else why would they ask that question, why could we not cast him out? But I've, I came to the conclusion a long, long time ago that all of God's people are spiritually dyslexic. They're slow learners. They have to be taught the same lessons over and over and over again. You find this all throughout the gospels. You would think that the disciples would have advanced beyond where they find themselves. I mean, there they are at the last supper and they're arguing about who should be the greatest in the kingdom of God. Can you imagine? Yes, yes, I can imagine. Because man that is best is at best a man. And pride so often gets in the way of our learning. We think we know. And God brings us down a path in life where we don't think we know what we thought we knew. We're not as good as we thought we were. We're all students in a classroom, learning. Keep that in mind, brothers and sisters, before you become too critical of others. You yourself are in a classroom. I am in a classroom. Confessing, I know nothing. Lord, teach me thy way, not my way. They didn't get it. If all things are possible to him that believeth, then the obvious reason for their inability to cast out the demon from that boy was their own unbelief. As a matter of fact, that's what Matthew says in his account of this scene, back in Matthew chapter 17. No need to turn, I'll read a few verses, that's my point. Verse 19, it's the same scene where the disciples are talking to Christ privately, they didn't want to be embarrassed, you know, and ask this question publicly. We gotta keep our name, our reputation up here, so they ask Him privately. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief. That's why you couldn't do it. For verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence into the yonder place, and it shall remove. And nothing shall be impossible to you, albeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. This wasn't a case, therefore, of not having genuine faith. Every Christian, has genuine faith, you're saved by grace through faith, and that, not of yourself, that faith is not of yourself, it's the gift of God, you don't work it up, it doesn't come from your will, your determination to believe, it's a gift the Holy Ghost gives, like repentance. So if you're a Christian, you have faith, true faith in God, because you know without faith, it's impossible to please Him. So, they were true believers. Nor was it a case where they hadn't tried to cast the demon out of this man's son. They had, no doubt, put forth their best effort. But this was a case where the Holy Ghost says they could not. They couldn't do it. Power wasn't there. Surely we all sympathize with the father, his cry, as he's watching his son writhing on the ground in front of him. He's seen it so many times, just foaming at the mouth, jerking. He's watched as his son's been cast into the water or into the fire by this demon to kill it. Surely we have compassion. His heart is broken for his boy. His hopes that Christ's disciples could fix the problem have been shattered. Shattered hopes. He's discouraged, deeply disappointed, and heartbroken. He's facing a situation on the verge of what seems to be impossible to turn around. And now the Lord Jesus tells him that the real issue here is not about Christ's ability to heal his son, it's about the Father's ability to believe. That's the problem. His ability to believe. Do I sound like an Arminian? Jesus Christ said it, if thou canst, and that word means if you have the power to believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. He sees instantly the truth that Jesus Christ utters, not only about faith, but about unbelief. So he cries out, you see this father, if you've had a situation where you've prayed and prayed and sought God to save your child, who's under the clear control of the devil, you understand the tears that are flowing down his face. As he cries, Lord, I believe. Help thou, mine unbelief. It's my unbelief that's the problem. It's not you. How often has that prayer been on our lips? God has brought us to rivers that seem uncrossable and mountains that we saw no way of tunneling through them. All of our efforts to fix the situation have ended in total failure. The waves have entered into our little ship and we're convinced that we're going down. We're going to sink and we're not going to rise again. Our hearts have grown so cold at times that we fear that we'll never know again the warmth of Christ's love for us. We remember it. We remember being near him. We remember the Lord speaking so tenderly and kindly to us. But, oh, unbelief has come in like a flood, and our hearts have felt so far, far away from him that we would never hear his voice again speaking through the written word or through the preached word because of unbelief. Our children have gone off into the world. They were reared in a Christian home. They were taught the scriptures from the time they were knee-high to a grasshopper. They memorized the catechism questions. They had the memory verses. They knew the word of God. And yet there came a time when they went off into the world, held by Satan's captive chains. It looks like all hope is gone when unbelief holds the upper hand. To this dilemma, a dilemma both for the Father and the disciples that showcases one of the greatest stumbling blocks that every Christian faces throughout his or her entire life. It's this tumbling block of unbelief. First thought as we dive into this and look at it and pray God will show us our unbelief. First thought is this, unbelief is a real obstacle to obtaining greatly needed help from God. Unbelief is a real obstacle to obtaining real help, needed help from God. This man's son desperately needed help. This father desperately needed help. And these disciples, loyal, faithful disciples, needed help. But those words, they could not were written all over their dilemma. Perhaps it's written all over the dilemma you're facing just now. They couldn't. They had tried to the best of their ability to deliver this boy, the disciples did deliver this boy from the power of the demon that controlled him, but they hadn't even made a dent in this child's case. This was a total failure. If you haven't ever had to deal with in your life, in your ministry, total failure, you just wait. It's coming. Failure at a level you never imagined. They were utterly powerless to overcome this demonic activity. They were true believers, yes, they were true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they were powerless to do what needed to be done in the work of God at this juncture. They were powerless to do what absolutely needed to be done at this juncture in the work of God. Because that's all this was. This was life in the kingdom, and they had come up against a wall. And they couldn't deal with it. What made the failure even more painful for these disciples was that not only had the Lord expressly given them power to work miracles and cast out demons when he sent them out, not only had he given them the promise of success, but they had already enjoyed success at casting out demons prior to this. This was not their first rodeo. Here we are. You know, town, Williams Lake. Yeah, this was not their first rodeo, folks. They had already had success in casting demons out of people. Turn back to Mark chapter 6, just a few pages in your Bible. Let's break in at verse 7, please. Mark chapter 6, verse 7. And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two, and gave them power over unclean spirits, and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only, no script, no bread, no money in their purse, but be shod with sandals, and not put on two coats. And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you when you depart then shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. And they went out and preached that men should repent and they cast out many devils and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them. They cast out many devils, not a few, not some, but many. So they had known a time of great success in casting demons out of these people by the authority, by the power of Jesus Christ, but not now, not here, not with this boy. how helpless, how powerless they feel. They could not. Folks, those are haunting words. Haunting. Haunting. Did they not haunt you? Have you found yourself saying, I can't Lord, I can't do this. Quite obviously, they were completely dumbfounded about the whole affair. It was a complete mystery to them. After all, they had cast out demons before, why not now? After all, they were Christ's disciples. He had chosen them. He had commissioned them, and they had this power. They were actually, in fact, doing the will of Christ. They were being obedient. They were doing a good work, and they were doing a very godly work. But now this man brings his demon possessed son to them and they find they're powerless to cast them out. They were powerless and they were helpless and they didn't have an answer as to why. Have you ever been there? Some place in your life, in your home, in church, where you need help. And you don't understand why you're not able to get through the problem and see the remedy. You may give it a thousand and one reasons why that's taking place, but you really don't understand why I'm not able to go forward. I'm not able to see this power of the Lord. He's promised me to overcome the situation. I say, here's a true life picture of the church. Whenever she's been found in a state of spiritual powerlessness against Satan, who is pictured, I think, by this demon-possessed child. He's being controlled by the devil and the disciples are powerless to do anything about it. They can't go forward. This demon has a death-like grip upon this man's son. The devil still has this death-like grip upon the lost all around us. How come we don't have the power to see things change? How come we seem to be powerless to cast out the devil, so to speak? After all, all things are possible to him that believe it. Why aren't we exerting more influence upon our lost family members, upon our lost neighbors? How come? We're the salt of the earth. We're the light of the world who reflect the light of Christ. And yet the church, just like these disciples, is quite obviously failing to deal with the situation. Let's not kid ourselves. We are failing to deal with the situation that we're facing. The strongholds of hell are not being cast down. The spiritual power that the church has experienced in bygone days is simply not there. Ah, you see a little tiny advance here, little tiny advance there, but is that what it's about? Is there not much more that we could accomplish? Is there not much more a casting out of the power of hell that we could see done? Now, you see, unbelief tells us otherwise. Surely, I hope we understand something of the feeling of these disciples. We're all aware that there is this possibility of success based upon certain events of the past, like these disciples, that, well, we've done this before. It's worked. And yet, we're not successful. As far as that goes, I believe that Christians, by and large, are facing the same dilemma on a personal level. They want to enjoy more spiritual victory. They want to experience greater power over the sin they see in their lives. To overcome the temptations of the devil in the world and the flesh. They want to enjoy more consistency and more power in prayer. They know that it's just not a matter of saying the prayers. It's not just a matter of just throwing up a bunch of petitions to heaven. No, they know that they need to be seeing answers to prayer. It's not enough just to pray, however eloquent and however effectual it may be. It matters not if we don't actually obtain answers to our prayer. They want to see more holiness in life. They want to be more useful to the Master. But those same words haunt the Lord's people now that haunted those disciples. They could not. Unbelief is a real obstacle to the needed help. Secondly, unbelief is the cause of needless fear and sorrow. The cause of needless fear and sorrow. Try to imagine in your mind's eye, Christ has come down from the mount of transfiguration and He sees a dispute going on between the disciples and the scribes. The Lord, He wants to know what's it all about. Of course, He knows what it's all about. That wasn't the point of His question. He's never asking a question He didn't already know the answer to. What are you arguing about? What are you debating with him about? What's going on? Now, the Lord Jesus Christ tells the Father, tell me your story. He tells him the story. Christ utters those words, bring him unto me. I brought him to your disciples and they could not bring him to me. You can only imagine that his heart must have leapt for joy because he had a glimmer of hope that his son would now be healed. As soon as they bring his son to Christ, however, this demon throws that boy on the ground and he begins these violent convulsions and rolls around foaming at the mouth. It's like Christ says, bring him to me, he's going to be healed, but all of a sudden he's thrown down and here we go again. Christ asks how long this has been going on. He tells him since he was a little child. That's the meaning of the word. Can you imagine that demon possessed from the time you're a little child? It happens. They're not these little innocent things that we think they are. Satan can come and possess a little child. He doesn't care if it's a little child. He describes how this demon has sought to kill him by throwing his son into the fire trying to drown him. No doubt this father's heart is breaking as he reflects Just from the question that Christ asked him, how long this has been going on, and how the disciples were so powerless to help, and now he's here wallowing on the ground before Christ, and he pleads, but if you can do anything, if you can just do something. Now that word, but, is interesting. It's a strong word that could be translated, nevertheless. That was faith speaking, be it ever so weak. He has said, this is bad, it's been going on for so long, your disciples couldn't do it, nevertheless, if you can do something. Yet Christ knew that unbelief, it was unbelief that was holding him back from peace of mind and from confidence that could be his to enjoy. That was holding him back and he was sorrowing so much right then and there because of unbelief. When the Lord pointed out his unbelief, he wept. He's just crying. He saw that his unbelief could be the very thing that was now in the way of his son being delivered once and for all. And brothers and sisters, that's just what unbelief does to us. In spite of being true believers, our unbelief can cause us many, many needless tears and needless sorrows. If the just shall live by faith, and that means really live the life. If the just shall live by faith, if faith is the victory that overcomes the world, if without faith it is impossible to please God, then how much we suffer and groan within ourselves because of unbelief that we find in our own hearts. I said the last, the only two words you needed to hear from Jesus Christ dealing with that discouragement and all the sorrow and the pain and the grief that comes with our discouragement is only believe. Faith is the victory. But when we're not believing what the Lord has taught us in His Word, then we open up our hearts to all kinds of fears and all kinds of... Listen folks, you're not going to be filled with fear if you're filled with faith. You're not going to be cowardly if you're believing what the Lord's Word has said. You're not going to find yourself, this is an impossible situation. There is no fix for it. There is no hope for it. There is no remedy for this. When you're controlled by unbelief, you'll find that your fears are absolutely needless. Your sorrow is absolutely needless. You're groaning and moaning for no real ground for moaning and groaning. Think for a moment of just how and why this sin of unbelief leaves us so weak, so fearful, how this actually impacts, why it impacts our lives like this. Well, in the first place, this sin of unbelief, this stumbling block, greatly dishonors the Lord. There is no one who is more worthy of our trust than God. He has never lied to us, nor can he ever lie to us. Everything he says is the truth. Yet unbelief makes God out to be a liar. Or at the very least, questions whether or not he will do what he has promised to do. questions whether or not he will be true to his own covenant. Doubting whether or not when God raises his hand and takes an oath and says, I will, unbelief says, I'm not so sure that you will. Can you imagine how that dishonors the Lord? And I will tell you one thing, When you're going down that road and you trip on that stumbling block, the Lord is dishonored, his spirit is grieved, and I will tell you when his spirit is grieved, you are gonna be grieved. It would be like a wife who has a husband and has always been faithful to her. always taken care of her, always loved her. And she begins to question whether or not he's been faithful to her. There's no reason for it at all. Can you imagine how, can you imagine, put yourself in that situation, those who are married? Your wife begins to doubt you and your fidelity to her. Would it not break your heart? Why are you doubting me? I've cared for you all these years. I've loved you. I've provided for you. I've been true to you. There's been no one else. Why are you doubting me? You magnify that when the bride doubts her husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, is he going to be true to his promise to me? I have thought of those disciples on the ship and the sea of Galilee and the storm came and it was filling with water and the Lord was asleep on a pillow in the hinder part of the ship. They let him alone for a while and they try to bail water, but it's getting fuller and fuller and the boat sinking lower and lower in the water. And finally they jar him awake and say, master, carest thou not that we perish? Don't you care? You ever done that? I have. More than one occasion. Years ago I was newly attending the first Free Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia area, Newtown Square it was in those days. It's now Malvern. Reverend John Greer was a minister. I'd been going for about a year to the church. And I remember one Wednesday evening going to the, Tuesday evening it was, to the prayer meeting, driving down this road, this major highway, making the turn at this corner where there's a gas station. And I was so discouraged with my own life, with my own walk with God. Things were just a mess. I turned the wheel at little Mazda GLC. I said, Lord, don't you care? You've been there. Don't you care? Unbelief, it so dishonors the Lord. Unbelief also damages our communion with God. Consider what it does to us in the place of prayer. How do you pray with any confidence? How do you pray with any boldness when you have stumbled over this rock of unbelief? You say your words. You get the jargon. You know the jargon of prayer. You've got your little prayer book. We all do, you know. It sounds good, but it's not mixed with faith. You doubt whether or not the Lord's even hearing you. After all, your eye is fixed upon your problem, and all your failures, and all your sins, and why should he hear you anyway? My, how it affects your place of prayer. It affects it so much, you go on and trip over this block, and you'll find yourself just ignoring the place of prayer. You'll spend very little time with the Lord on your knees. You won't come to the church prayer meeting. Why? You don't believe he's going to hear you anyway. Prayer takes a back seat. Everything else becomes more important than communing with the Lord, seeing answers brought down on belief, on belief. Think of how unbelief is the source of a cold heart. You begin to doubt whether or not the Lord cares for you, whether or not he loves you, whether or not he's going to intervene for you, help you. Whoa, then your heart begins to grow distant from the Lord. A coldness creeps over you. At one time, You would be able to say in your life, whether you heard some message from the preacher about the Lord's grace and his mercy and his compassion, his kindness, you'd find the tears rolling down your face. You'd come to the Lord's table and you would weep your eyes out because you just got a sight of Christ. But not now. You don't remember the last time you wept upon your knees before God. You don't remember the last time you heard a message that moved your soul so deeply, set your heart aflame. Unbelief did that. It lies at the root of our inability to get the blessing from God's word as we could, because it's not mixed with faith. Oh, you read your Bible, you follow your schedule. You're very loyal to that. You've read your assigned portions. But the Lord actually speaking. You hear the voice of your beloved. That's what I'm talking about. you know the Lord is talking to you. There's no audible voice, I'm not talking about that. It's the Spirit of God speaking to you through the written word. And it's like there's no one else, this was for me. Lord, you knew I needed that particular verse just now. The Lord, many years ago, sealed my call to the ministry through Isaiah 41, 9, and 10. I had serious reservations. How in the world could I ever be a preacher? I knew too well my faults and failures at every level. I had Alan Cairns and John Greer as my models. Never, ever, ever am I going to be like them. Me? It was one evening after weeks and weeks of praying that the Lord settled it. My Bible reading for that day was Isaiah 41. And that verse nine, thou art my servant. I have chosen thee and not cast thee away. Fear not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. I will help thee. I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. I can't tell you how many times through my 35 years of preaching that I found myself in a church, in a situation where I'm just a castaway. And what has come up in my regular Bible reading is Isaiah 41, 9 and 10. I didn't plan it, but when I was at the lowest, the Lord said, nope, I'm not done with you. I'm not casting you away. That's what I'm talking about. The word of the Lord just comes and it's just a personal, and you know the Lord's talking to you, but unbelief, Prevents that. You're not expecting it. What help can we get from his promises? What help can we get from the ordinances? What help can we get from all the means of grace when unbelief holds sway? There's something else unbelief does that makes for our misery. Unbelief opens the door to Satan's temptations. He has many fiery darts that he throws at the Lord's people. And it's the one thing that Paul said quenches his fiery darts. What is it? It's the shield of faith. The one thing. And since faith is the victory that overcomes the world, what does it say about the effect that unbelief has in this battle? It's unbelief that leads us to become impatient and discouraged. When the thing that we have been praying for doesn't come when we think it should come. It is unbelief that will lead us to take things into our own hands to try and deliver ourselves from the fear that has gripped us. Unbelief causes us to worry about what we shall eat, what we shall drink, wherewithal we shall be clothed. Are you a worrier? It's unbelief. Anxious? It's unbelief. Unbelief lies at the root of our fear of death. Indeed, the more unbelief grips the heart, the more fearful we become. We're afraid to die. And isn't that strange? We're afraid to die and go to heaven. I see Beelzebub is flying around here, the Lord of the Flies around my head. Hmm. You afraid to die? Doesn't matter how it happens. Death is the entrance to glory. Immediate, but unbelief. Thirdly, Christ brings his people into impossible circumstances in order to grow their little faith. He brings his people into impossible circumstances in order to grow their little faith. He knows right well that we trip up, and quite regularly upon this stumbling block of unbelief, and he's going to remove it. Little by little, he brings us to face impossible situations. to grow our little faith. We've been looking at this stumbling block of unbelief, one that is common to all believers. As one old Puritan put it, there is not a heart so holy in all the world but is in some degree tainted and infected with this disease. I'm encouraged by that. No one is not infected with this disease of unbelief. It was John Bunyan who said that unbelief has the lives of a cat. But why did God bring them, these disciples, this father, into this impossible situation? in order to strengthen and deepen their faith. You see, brothers and sisters, those situations, I hinted at this last night, God brings us there. The impossible things. Faith only grows when it's got to struggle. Only when it struggles. Faith only grows when it's tried. that the trying of your faith worketh produces patience. Oh, some number of years ago, not so much now. I'm getting older. I've joined the senior citizens. But, you know, 15 years ago, I was interested in the gym, five days a week, no workout, lifted no weights, classes. muscle definition. You know the only way that ever happened was by resistance. Lifting the weights and your body adjusts to a certain weight level and you've got to increase the weights if you want more definition. If you want more muscle mass, you've got to increase the heaviness You know, it's just how faith grows. The Lord brings you to a situation and it seems so giant of a mountain. To some other believer, it's like a molehill because they've been there and done that. They've been able to deal with those 50 pound weights or whatever it was. They're on, we've moved on to bigger weights. That's how it works with us. Don't think for one moment that life is going to get easier and the burden's going to become lesser as you go on with God. It's going to take a larger trial. It's going to take a heavier burden to increase the faith. If God never brought us into impossible situations, and showed us how little our faith was, how strong our unbelief, our faith would never develop. We'd be content. We all have unbelief still within us, but we're not unbelievers. We struggle with unbelief. Thank God there's a struggle there with unbelief. That struggle will continue till the Lord calls us home. just a little bit longer and it's gonna be all over. In the meantime, you want to remember that when you face a situation that seems too impossible, the weight is too heavy to bear, when unbelief seems to be such a large stumbling block in your path that you're powerless to do anything about it, remember that it's the Lord that has brought you to right where you are in order that he might grow that faith. Fourth and final thought, this father's faith was real. Lord, I believe, that was not an empty confession. This was a confession of faith that arose from his heart and from the depths of his soul. Yes, he became painfully aware at that moment how little his faith was, but the realization of his little faith, of the unbelief that dwelt in his heart, didn't keep him from telling Christ that he believed. He had enough faith to realize there's unbelief here. Unbelievers don't see that. It's believers who see the unbelief. It's those who have true repentance that understand their lack of repentance. Wherever you find weak, small, feeble faith, it's still true faith. It may be feeble, yes, faith that doubt the very promise of God, that questions his ability. Does he care for me? But any faith that is real faith, as Peter puts it in his second epistle, it's precious faith. So no matter how small your faith or mine is, we want it to grow, but it is still precious faith. Where'd you get it? You didn't work it up. It was a gift given to you by the Lord. It's precious to him. Though this father's faith was weak and small, it gave clear evidence it was real. I say that because of several reasons. It actually moved this father to weep. It was his faith. Moved his heart to weep. Whether the weeping was because of the sense of his own sinfulness in doubting the Lord and His mercy that the Lord was showing him in spite of his sin, the fact is that this melting of his heart was just a response of true faith in his soul. It was little faith, but it opened his eyes to see the sin of unbelief that was still there. He says, help thou mine unbelief. I didn't see it, Lord, I didn't see it. I thought it was your disciples, it was their problem. And I've just told you by my own mouth, if you can do any, I've been doubting your ability to fix this problem. I see it. I see it. I have unbelief in my heart. Lord help me. It was little faith that had brought him to Christ to plead for his help. He knew he couldn't help his boy. He found that the disciples couldn't help his boy. He found that he could not remove this plague, this disease of unbelief himself. It wasn't gonna happen by more resolutions, determination. But it was a small feeble faith that moved him to plead with Christ to help him. He knew that none but Christ could help. And if that's not real faith, I don't know what is. Has that not been your experience? I just ask you this morning, even when your faith seemed to be non-existent, You felt that you were that bruised reed in that smoking flack. It was just going to take one little thing and it was over for you. You fell on your face before God and you cried with tears, Lord, help me, help me, help me. Years ago in one of our weeks of prayer, Goes back probably 20 years. Minister was at a really difficult time in the work. It seemed that it was no way of going forward. Problems on the left and on the right. Remember him crying out in that prayer meeting with tears. All I could say was, Lord, help me. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. That was faith. Even when your faith is so tiny, it's living faith, it's real faith, and it gives you a desire for more faith. I stress all of this because one of the enemies of faith that is always found walking hand in hand with faith is doubt. The devil is always trying to get the believer to doubt the word of God, to doubt his promises, that he would cast away his confidence in the Lord. And Satan is a master at preying on our faith. Don't believe him. Don't believe the promise. Hath God said. I just want to tell you something you know, but I got to repeat it. The devil is a blatant liar, and he's the father of all lies. You do not want to find yourself believing the father of lies over the God of truth. So what's the situation that you're facing? You say it's impossible. This can't be turned around. That lost son, that lost daughter can't be saved. This issue that's facing my church, there's no answer for it. The struggle I have in my own heart, this trial of my faith, I have no ability, it's not gonna be fixed. It's just unbelief talk. Only belief. So what are you going to do about the stumbling block? You got it. We all have this disease. The holiest man in all the world has it. It's one thing. Lord, I believe. I know you're true. Your word is true. I believe, Lord. Help my unbelief, Lord, help my unbelief. What else is there? What else is there than that? You see, folks, this is exactly what the Lord wants. To turn your eyes upon him. And the Lord says, as he said to this father about your particular problem, just bring it to me. Bring it to me. Let's bow our heads in prayer and seek the Lord together. Our father and our God, we thank thee that thou art ever working within us to grow our faith. There's a change going on. We're transformed into the image of thy son from glory to glory, little by little. Lord, we all admit here that faith has so often been the victory that's overcome the world, and it's unbelief that has hampered our effectiveness and our joy, our usefulness, our power with men and power with thee. In Christ's name, we pray, thou wilt help our unbelief. Teach us to bring it more and more to thee in the place of prayer. For surely, Lord, thou hast promised to answer our cries, and this is one of them. May our churches find a wonderful growth in this grace of faith, and we will be a people who go on and go forward and mount up with wings as eagles, not just dragging ourselves through another day, not just eking out an existence in life, but going on from strength to strength. Meet us where we are, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.