Thank you, Brother Spencer. We have already been challenged this morning. I was teaching the young men's class that was downstairs. Brother TJ normally teaches, and he's had to work triple overtime it seems like the past couple days of wearing him out. But I'm going to tell you what, he's got a fine class. I turned it into a Q&A, Grill the Pastor or Stump the Pastor. So you're looking at Stumpy the Pastor this morning. But they had some excellent questions, some deep thoughts, and just so thankful how God is working in their lives. And just pray for these young men, because as they are starting out in the world in a different sense, as some are finishing high school, and some are close to finishing, and some are out of high school, and very many, many challenges in this world. and they are biblically minded from what I'm hearing. So that's very, very encouraging. If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to the gospel according to Matthew chapter 17. Matthew's gospel, the 17th chapter. And I'd like to ask just a couple of questions this morning as we start. First off, how do we pray when we do not know God's will in a matter? When we're not sure what God's will is, but we have challenges in life, how do we pray? How do we overcome spiritual failure? When we fail in spiritual areas in our life, how do we overcome that? Our passage of scripture will definitely deal with that this morning in Matthew chapter 17. But I want you to listen to what the word of God says in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 11. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith. In the same chapter of the book of Galatians, or back in chapter 3 verse 3, The word of God says, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Many times in life we will make fleshly decisions because we don't know God's will in certain areas of life. Some things are not very specific, but what we base our life upon is the promises of God's word. And when God says something, God's word cannot fail, and therefore it's on his promises that we do stand. And because not everything is detailed out, with all the intricacies of life's problems, we walk by faith and not by sight. Matthew chapter 17 and verse 14, in God's word we read, And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and sore vexed, for oft times he falls into the fire, and often to the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour. 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, For verily I say unto you, if ye have faith, as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting. In this passage of scripture, what we find is our Lord's coming down from the mountaintop of transfiguration with his three disciples, that inner circle of disciples, Peter, James, and John. As they're coming down from the mountain, they encounter this scenario. If you will recall in the book of Exodus, Moses was on Mount Sinai, and when he came down in chapter 32, the word of God tells us that he as he's descending and he comes into the camp of the Israelites, he is confronted with apostasy and confusion. Jesus coming down from the mount was met with spiritual opposition. You notice we read in verse 18 that he rebuked the devil. He was also met and confronted by unbelief, as it says in verse 17. He says, O faithless, are you without faith? And crooked are the perverse generation. The word of God also tells us in verse 20, it's because of your unbelief. It's the reason you could not cure this young man. In Mark's gospel, it has a much larger version of this passage of scripture in the Gospel of Luke. It also has a version and we'll be referring to those. And what we see that what Matthew does, he's focusing on the unbelief of his disciples. How often we experience in life the glorious light and love of God. We can experience his presence, his closeness, and sometimes they're through difficult times and He lifts us up. He comforts us. He gives us strength. He gives us hope. And then it seems like after we have a kind of like a mountaintop experience with God, shortly right after we are faced with sin and darkness because of this world, I would like for us to look at in this passage of Scripture the first thing Is this father who is nameless in the scripture? I want you to notice his love for his son. In the word of God, we are told it's his only son. I believe it's in the gospel according to Mark. And what we find, because he's an only son, you can imagine if you only had one child, how precious that one child would be to you. Oftentimes, Sarah will go on a trip She's only a child, but she's grown up. She's a grown-up child. Nan, I remember you as a child. And you're a grown-up child, too. Gee whiz. Oh, how the kids grow up so quick. But you know what? They're still your child. And they're still very precious to you. You have love for them. And sometimes if your child is wayward or rebellious, they're still your child. And you still love them. This man, as the word of God tells us in verse 15, he says his son is a lunatic. Now that word, back in biblical times, means that he was moonstruck. In other words, the phases of the moon. Many back in biblical times thought when people had problems it was because of the phases of the moon. Now the phases of the moon might affect you some. You might be partial lunatic. I don't know. But this particular young boy, what we read about, he was sorbexed. In other words, he was tormented. What was probably happening in his life, because he was thrown into the fire and thrown into the water, would resemble what in our day and times would look like an attack of epilepsy. Not all people who have epilepsy is possessed of a devil. Do not take this passage of scripture and run with it and make a blanket statement. We see because of this demon that is in this only son, who is greatly loved, he's thrown into the fire and water. You can imagine what this young boy looked like if he was thrown in fire and water. He was uncontrollable. He had scars. There were many issues going on in this young boy's life. In the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 9, if you read down in verse 17, one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto you my son, which has a dumb spirit. This is the dad talking. My son cannot speak. It's what he's saying. Yet it's very interesting what we find as Jesus rebukes this demon. Jesus basically says he has a deaf and dumb spirit. in the Word of God down in verse 25 in Mark chapter 9. It says, When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, You dumb and deaf spirit, I charge you, come out of him, and enter no more into him. So we see a problem here. This young boy, young man, he's deaf, and oftentimes Many that are deaf cannot speak. In this particular scenario it was due because of a demonic power. This spirit is a violent spirit and just like Satan he desires to steal, kill, and destroy. Satan is evil and the demons that followed him are evil. They like to cause division, havoc. They like to kill, steal, and destroy. What we see here, Jesus asked him, how long has he been like this? And the father says, since he's been a child, we find in Matthew's gospel that the man comes and he kneels before Jesus. What we find in Luke's gospel, he's beseeching Jesus. In other words, he's begging Jesus. You can imagine the torture this demon has caused upon the young boy, but you can also imagine the trauma the dad's going through. That this is his son that he loves so much and therefore he falls before Jesus and he starts begging Jesus to have mercy upon my son. None of us like to see our children suffer. Times have not changed. Our young man, because of his situation, had brought much grief upon his dad. When you move to verse 16 in Luke's Gospel in chapter 17, the dad said this, I brought him to your disciples and they could not cure him. Now I want you to reflect upon what he's saying. Your disciples lack the power to cure him. Look back in chapter 9 of Luke. Back in Luke's gospel in chapter 9. Look down in verse 1. The Word of God says, Then called his twelve disciples together, and he gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. In Matthew's Gospel we find that in chapter 10, he gave them power over demons, yet they could not cure him. They were commissioned to go and cast out demons. But what we find in the Word of God, they could not. They could not cure him. They failed. They had a spiritual assignment. And here they encountered failure. I cannot tell you how many times in ministry I've failed. I'm not keeping count. I pray you're not either. But I want you to notice what Jesus does, because Jesus is the answer. In whatever situation you're facing in life, whatever problems you're having in life, Jesus Christ is the answer. In verse 17, Jesus answered and says, O faithless, you have no faith. Ah, pistos. The word pistos is faith. Ah, negates that. Oh, faithless and perverse, a crooked generation. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. Who is Jesus calling faithless and perverse? Is it the crowd? Is it the dad who has the son? Is it his disciples? There are other scribes that are in the picture here also. Is it the scribes? Is it that whole generation? He says, how long? He says, how long? Twice. You can imagine the perfect son of God who came from a perfect holy environment to dwell among sinful men and women. All of mankind was sinful, and it's almost like he's longing for heaven. How long must I endure? How much longer do I have to allow you? It's a very interesting question our Lord asked, and he asked it twice, but I want you to recollect in Numbers chapter 14, And down in verse 11, the Lord said unto Moses, how long will this people provoke me? And how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have showed them? It's almost like a repetition from the Old Testament. Our Lord draws from, how much longer must I endure you? This shows the long-suffering of our Lord. Have you ever wondered how long at times you have to endure the sinfulness of this world? The perversions of this world that are flaunted and thrown in our faces? The hideous vulgar language that people will talk like normal language How much longer must we put up with sin? Jesus very simply says, bring him to me. Bring him here to me. I want you to notice, though it seems patience wears thin, Our Lord is still calling people to him. And the word of God tells us in verse 18, he rebuked the devil. He didn't rebuke the child, he rebuked the devil. Over in Mark's gospel once again, In chapter 9 and verse 26, the word of God says, And the Spirit cried, and rent him sore, tore him sore, and came out of him, and he was as one dead, and as much as many said, he's dead. People thought he died. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. The power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Luke's Gospel. I want you to notice in chapter 9 in verse 43, the Word of God says this. Back up to verse 42, and as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down and tear him, and Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and delivered him again to his father. The Word of God says they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. While they wondered over one and all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples, Let these sayings sink down into your ears. I want you to notice how the crowd responded to Jesus casting out this demon. The Word of God says they were amazed at the mighty power of God. That word, mighty power, here's one big old long word in the Greek, mega leates, mega. In other words, what Luke is writing in his gospel, they are seeing the great splendor and majesty of God working through our Lord Jesus Christ. they see this magnificence. And it's like, it's almost the scenario of what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration. There's this glory shining through, and here the crowd sees the mighty power, this wondrous splendor of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what they get a glimpse of is the glory of God. Do you have problems in your life? I'll say you're dead if you don't. Everybody has some sort of problems, issues in life. If you don't have any issue right now, you'll get one. Just wait. Things happen in life. There's nothing that will probably cause more grief in a parent's life than a child that is wayward, rebellious against God. The Scripture teaches us here we need to bring them to Jesus. You may not physically be able to bring them to Jesus, but you can take them to the throne of grace. You can take them before the Lord. Take them to Him. leave the matter with our Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples are no doubt embarrassed about this situation. Here the dad said they couldn't cure him. Imagine how that made them feel. So in verse 19, the disciples came to Jesus apart. In other words, in private, they took Jesus and they're coming where nobody else can hear them, no doubt, because they couldn't do it. And they asked why. Why could we not cast him out? And Jesus, his answer in verse 20, I just want you to notice the first phrase he said unto them, because of your unbelief. Because of your unbelief. What he's saying, he says, you have no faith. Now here are lessons for our disciples in the context of our scripture as they're asking Jesus says, because of unbelief. The lack of faith was the problem with our disciples. Because they had lack of faith, here's a Greek word where you get the root word of oligopistos once again. You remember if you've been with us over the past few Sundays in going through the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew uses the word oligopistos, our little faith, four out of the five times. Here in the context of our scripture, what we're talking about, he's using it as a noun. The other ones are used as adjectives, and they're all used about his disciples. And he's always talking to his disciples, oh, little faith, little faith. It's because of your little faith, which is equated to being no faith. Little faith is like no faith in this particular passage of scripture. Before you start pointing fingers at the disciples, let us think about ourselves. When things are going well in your life, you've got great faith, don't you? Faith is pretty easy when things are going good. When everything's zippity-doo-dah, zippity-yay, everything's going my way, I've got great faith. But what happens when troubles come? What happens when things don't start going our way? I got to tell you, I'm going to chase a rabbit. I'll probably get in trouble, but that's all right. Not the first time. Sarah's car got hit the other day. We took it to the shop, and people who hit it paid for it. As soon as she got it out of the shop, she went across town and parked it and got hit again. Same day. That's just a little unusual. material things like that. It didn't seem to faze her. She was probably more worried it would faze me, but it wouldn't faze me. It would probably more faze her mom. When things are not going our way, have you ever noticed how little your faith is? How big a difference it is opposite of when things are going away. Our faith grows weak in troubling times, and when faith starts turning weak, then that faith, that little bit of faith you have then, starts turning to doubt. You know how it is. Then you start doubting about things. What great faith does is trust, and it keeps on trusting. When prayers seem like they're not going the way I'm praying, and I'm praying a certain way and I believe it honors God, but it seems like God is not answering my prayer. When there's no food on the table, When the dollar cannot stretch any further than the dollar stretched, great faith keeps on trusting in the promises of God. Great faith keeps on trusting. It is as Job said back in the book of Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Though I lose all things, And though I die, I'm going to keep trusting him as great faith. The problem with the disciples, they had little faith. But even a little faith can accomplish great things. Because what Jesus says, in the context of scripture, look in verse 20, he says, for verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain." Now he's not talking about a literal mountain. This is a proverbial saying. He's saying that you can say to a mountain, remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you. No faith can accomplish great things. But Your faith must be placed on the right object. Let me say who is the object of your faith. Who only can remove a mountain? It is not your faith, it is God. It is God who can move mountains literally. Nothing shall be impossible unto you. And let me say, if it lines up in accordance to the will of God. You cannot pray and use God as a genie and get whatever you will, whatever you're praying for. it must line up with the will of God. And the best way to discern the will of God is does it glorify God? Does it line up with glorifying God? The Word of God tells us the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Over in James chapter 5 verse 16. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, woman, avails much. And here's what our Lord is teaching us here. What was the disciple's problem? I believe the answer is very simply, it was oligopistos, little faith, which was equivalent in here, you had no faith. And notice what he says in verse 21, this kind comes out, but only by prayer and fasting. The emphasis is on prayer. Here are the disciples. Jesus has gone up the mountain. He's coming down. They encountered this situation while he's up the mountain, but they didn't pray. What they did, they trusted in themselves. They had the power. They had the ability. They can do it. They didn't pray. A failure to pray is a failure to depend upon the Lord. We, as God's people, are a dependent people. And you know what? We'll be dependent upon Him until the day we die. He is God, and we must lean upon Him. If you fail to pray, you will forever have little faith that's equivalent to no faith. power in your life as a child of God depends upon your communication with the source of the power. I read a little story about a pastor in church and the organ stopped working. The pastor, he says, let us pray about that. Well, the janitor looked over and saw the organ was unplugged. So he wrote a little note to the pastor and put it on the podium. It says, when prayer is finished, the power will be on. You gotta plug into the power. God is all-powerful. But it's not your faith that accomplishes things, it's His power. It is God who is able to remove whatever proverbial mountain is in your life. He's able. It's in accordance to His will. He's able. I know He's able. I know my Lord is able to carry me through. Oh, you remember that little song? I want to sing it. He healed the brokenhearted. He set the captive free. He made the lame to walk again, and He caused the blind to see. He is able. I know He is able. This morning we will give Him the invitation. Whatever is going on in your life, I know God is able to carry you through. Sometimes He carries us through the storm. There are storms in life, and the storms don't go away, but He gives you strength to endure the storm. Sometimes He removes the storm in life. That's God's prerogative and God's will. God is God. We don't command God. We trust in God. Have you trusted in Him? as your Lord and Savior. Have you trusted in Him that He died upon that cross for your sins, that He was buried, rose again, He's coming again. Have you trusted in Jesus Christ? If not, let me tell you, you have not the source of power. You're not plugged in. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. If you're a child of God and you've got struggles in your life, don't be faithless, but be believing. Have faith in God. Let's stand and go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we approach your throne of grace and as we have seen this scenario that played out many years ago, the traumatized son that echoed into traumatizing the father, we see that the only hope is trusting you. No doubt there were traumatized disciples for spiritual failure. Lord, help us to have faith in you. We ask that you work in our midst. We ask that you heal the brokenhearted. We ask that you'd help those that are captive to sin to be set free by faith in Christ. Work effectually and mightily to your glory for Christ's sake. Amen.