I would like to make some New Year's predictions for you. Now, I'm no prophet with special personal visions, so just take this as one who's going to give a best guess as to what is going to happen in your life this year. So here I go. This year, This year is going to be your most difficult year yet. Whatever trials you went through last year will be lighter than the trials that you face this year. Whatever fight you were in at the last year, I pray it ended, but a new one might start. And it will be a fiercer fight. Whatever spiritual warfare you were engaged in, it's going to get uglier. This year you will be tempted to sin with harsher temptations. The world is not going to make it easier for you to live and witness for Jesus Christ. Your flesh is going to rage against your spiritual progress in ways that you haven't yet experienced. The devil has more cunning in store for you. Were there victories in your life last year? I pray so. Did God overcome many things for you? I pray he did. Maybe you came into this year being, after a year of great blessings, victories, you think you can live off them. I pray that those things are true. But even if you were blessed with more, maybe more resources, Maybe God was good to you in certain ways you hadn't experienced in life. The thing is, what is God's expectation of you this year? This year you have even more responsibility to either lose it all or invest it all for the sake of Christ and his kingdom. You don't want to be like an Ananias or a Sapphira. You definitely don't. I guess what I'm saying is, don't you know how hard it will be to make progress this year, spiritually speaking? I mean, what about our church here at Nelson's? We've experienced some growth. We've seen growth among our people, more people coming, ministries growing. But don't you know that there will be more struggle in the church this year? Don't you know that? The unity of the church will be assailed with great ferocity. Let the reality sink in. The kingdom of darkness is raging. You are on a perilous road. Mountains are in your way. You are headed for impossibilities. Happy New Year. Does it surprise you to hear me speak to you this way? Yeah. The question then becomes, will you get through? Will you get over? Will you get around it? I want to tell you this, as pessimistic as I sounded to you, the goal of this sermon is not to leave you in despair, because the whole point of this passage is to say, yes, there is one way to overcome, but only one way. You know what it is? Through faith. Through faith. Trust God. It is through faith you will overcome. You see, the disciples who walked with our Lord in the day of this passage were being taught the very same lessons. Yesterday's successful ministry yields to today's harder work. Yesterday's demon was a molehill compared to the mountain of the demon that you face today. Progress comes at a great cost. The closer you draw near to heaven, the hotter things get here on earth. Paul would write in Acts 14, it's through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of heaven. The more you do for Christ, the harder it is to do more for Christ. Just take this example out if I could, if I can kind of earthify it a little bit. You know, we're in this season, if you like sports, we're coming to the NFL playoffs. And there's a team in the NFL playoffs that has many championships, multiple championships. And if you ever ask teams that have had multiple championships, which championship is the most meaningful one, do you know what they'll say? The next one. They'll say the next one because they realize how hard it is to keep on making progress, especially when you have a big target on your back. In spiritual life, in divine life, that is the case. The more progress you make, the harder it is to make progress. Don't be afraid. Because God has graced you. He's given you this special resource. through which his power flows. His omnipotence flows through this great channel that he gives his followers, and that resource is called faith. It's a gift from God to us. Faith, 1 John 5.4, says that faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. If Betty was here, I'd tell her we need to sing that hymn more often. We need to sing that hymn more often. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. And here's my main point, the focus this morning, the main thing, this is what I want you to know if you're following in your outlines. Persistent faith in Jesus accomplishes the impossible. Persistent faith in Jesus accomplishes the impossible. I'll tell you why it's persistent in just a few moments. But I want you to see this. Jesus wants his disciples to know that if you have faith, nothing will be impossible for you. What does he mean by all this? Well, with these thoughts. I want to go into this passage where Jesus comes down the mountain. This incredible testimony, this mountain where Jesus is transfigured before the faces of Peter, James, and John. and he's shown to them his face is transfigured, his clothes are transfigured, the whole scene is transfigured, and Jesus fellowships with the saints of old, Moses and Elijah, and he fellowships with God the Father and the Holy Spirit as the cloud of glory overshadows everything. And they come down the mountain, and on the way down the mountain, Peter, James, and John, these three disciples, ask him a question. So first, I want you to see this. The first lesson that we have to learn of persistent faith, according to this passage. The first lesson is this. Persistent faith in Jesus is more valuable than all religious talk. Than religious talk. Jesus comes down the mountain and he tells the disciples, these three disciples, don't tell anyone this vision until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead. Well, why is that? Because nobody would understand that. Peter, James, and John come to their buddies down below at the base of the mountain. They say, you guys, you wouldn't believe it. This thing happened to Jesus before our eyes, and the disciples might say, huh, I wonder what all that was all about. But when Jesus is resurrected from the grave, and He ascends into heaven, and He's exalted to the right hand of God the Father, now the disciples, these disciples can go and testify that this is what Jesus is like now in heaven for us. This is what He's coming, what He will return as, this resplendent, glorious, majestic Son of God. How do we know what Jesus is like now that He's been raised from the dead? Well, Peter would write in his epistle, he said, because we saw it on the mountain. We saw it in the majestic vision that God gave us. But these verses then turn to a discussion about what the scribes, the religious leaders, the interpreters have been teaching about Jesus and about the coming day of the Lord. You see, they asked Jesus, why though? Why then do the scribes declare? Why do they say that Elijah must come first and then the son of man? Why do they do that? And you have to remember, the scribes were experts in religion, expert teachers, expert interpreters. They were men of great learning. They talked all day about matters of religion. But one thing they lacked. It's the case with so many who talk of religious talk. One thing they lacked, the most important thing, the crucial element, is they refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah who was sent from heaven. They refused it. They refused it. Their problem wasn't Elijah hadn't come yet. Their problem was straight up. They just didn't want to believe in Jesus. And so what did they do? They searched the scriptures to actually work against Jesus. They searched the scriptures to say, oh, Jesus, you can't be him, because if you were him, then Elijah would come before you. And what does Jesus say? He says, yeah, actually, the scribes are right. Elijah does come first. But I'll tell you what, he's already come. He already did. And he did exactly what Elijah was going to do. Jesus and the disciples are discussing the Malachi 4 prophecy. And he said, Elijah did come, and he accomplished all this stuff. And the scribes and the religious leaders hated him, and they made him suffer, and ultimately he died. under our very own religion. And so I'll suffer the same way, Jesus says. And what do the disciples see? Because they know Jesus is the Messiah, they've already confessed him to be Lord. They see, oh, wait. The picture is coming into focus. Elijah has come. I know this figure that has done this mighty work of introducing the day of the Lord and the kingdom of God and calling people to repent and follow the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I know there is one who has been bringing in this day. Who is he? Oh, it's John the Baptist. And so they could see that, yes, in fact, what the angel told Zechariah, that John the Baptist would come in the spirit of Elijah and do everything that was supposed to happen. It's actually all lining up. And see, here's the thing. This is why this matters is because if you put your faith in Jesus, This is something that just helps you tremendously. If you put your faith in Jesus, if you believe in Jesus, if you take him at his word, let me tell you something about the Bible. It opens up for you and unfolds before your very eyes so that you can comprehend it in ways you would never have before. Can I tell you this? The Bible, the prophecies, it's all about Jesus, y'all. It's all about Jesus. Do you know it? You read a section of the Bible, in some way, maybe it's not clear right off the bat, but it is all about Jesus. You go back to the stories of Genesis, you go back through the law, what are these laws about, how you need Jesus. What are the sacrifices and the temple furnishings about? They're about the greater work of sacrifice that Jesus is going to give. What is the kingdom of David and Solomon about? It's about pointing to the greater kingdom that the greater son of David is gonna bring. What are the prophecies about? They're about the day of the Lord, Jesus, his first and second comings. What are the gospels about? Jesus. What are the, what's the Acts about? Jesus. It's all about Jesus. What are the letters of Paul about? It's all about what Jesus has done, so now live for him. Live your whole life to him. Revelation. It's all about Jesus. Jesus even told these same religious leaders in John, chapter five. He says, you you guys search the scriptures. You guys search the scriptures because you want to find life in the scriptures. But what does he say? It is they them that testify about me. So if you reject Jesus, all the scriptures become darkened. And that's just what the world does. We have religious skepticism. You look at the Bible and you say, oh, this can't be true, this is myth, this is fiction, this doesn't work, it doesn't line up, all this stuff. That's not what people's problem really is. The problem is, what is it? It's just what Jesus says. You reject me. You reject Jesus Christ. If you accept Jesus Christ, you believe in Jesus Christ, the words of God unfold before you. Not only that, but the plan of God unfolds before you. I want to show you something is very interesting about this passage. The passage that predicts Elijah's, Malachi 4, says that John the Baptist would come and preach the great day of the Lord, and he would restore the hearts of fathers to their children, and the children to their fathers. And it's a really interesting thing because this work still continues today, but it continued in a very technical way in Jesus' day, and just think about this. If you go to the Old Testament, And you see instances where children are sick, or maybe they've even died, or maybe they're just presented unto God. It's always, it's always the moms. It's the mothers that bring their children to the prophet, like Elisha or Elijah, or to Eli, like Hannah did with Samuel. It's always the moms presenting their children to the holy man or to the priest. But in the gospel, we see this incredible thing happen, and it's something that we might overlook. In the gospel, think about all the times that children are brought to Jesus. The majority of the time that children are brought to Jesus, they're brought by whom? Their dads. Why is this? It's because John the Baptist has been doing incredible work in and around Galilee. You see, You see right off the bat in Matthew, chapter eight, it's a centurion who comes to Jesus and and seeks help from Jesus to heal his paralytic servant. In the Greek, that word means something like a son, a boy in the house. And Jesus says to this centurion, hey, there's no great. I haven't seen greater faith in all Israel than what I see in your house. Remember, it's Jairus, the synagogue ruler who brings who brings Jesus to his daughter. Remember, it's the man from Capernaum that runs to tell Jesus his son is sick and Jesus heals him. And from that very hour, the son is sick. It's this man right here in Matthew 17. This happens over and over and over. Why is this? Because Elijah, John the Baptist, has done this incredible work. Praise God for the moms that brought their children. But in this thing, this thing that happens in our gospels, we see this is a direct result of the work of the new Elijah, John the Baptist. And it's even true today. It's a great case. And and people are confounded over this one truth that when that when dad's husbands come to faith in Jesus Christ, the first place of ministry they take their newfound relationship is. Do you know where it is? It's the home. They go right to the home. It's it's the moms. It's it's the children. And they become they become great evangelists and great disciple makers right in their own homes. It's a powerful, powerful ministry that still continues. But it's not just. When we have faith in Jesus, we see scripture unfold, we see everything unfold, the power and plan of God, when you have faith in Jesus, you see everything. As a work of God, you see everything, you see God's hand at work in your work, in your sufferings, in your home, you see his power at work in your church, you see his power at work in you. You get a sense of the work and weight and worth of God as you believe in Jesus. If you don't believe in Jesus, everything just seems so random and, you know, how will you make it through? But let us learn, then, number two. So the first thing is, remember that a faith in Jesus is more, you know, the faith in Jesus is more valuable than any religious talk. It is, right? People can talk and yap all about religion, You know what? That's all going to go away. It's all vain until you have an earnest faith in Jesus Christ. The second thing, persistent faith, we need to know about it, is this, that persistent faith in Jesus brings people to Jesus. It brings people to Jesus. You see this pitiful father here. He brings his son to Jesus and pleads for Jesus' mercy on behalf of his son. He doesn't look at his son like his son is too much to handle or is an embarrassment or that Jesus can't accomplish this. He brings him to Jesus. Not only that, but we find out the disciples have failed to cast out this demon or to heal this son. And so this man doesn't say, oh, it's the failure of Jesus's followers. That's why I'm not going to go to Jesus. Right. We see that so much today. People say, oh, the Christians, they are all messed up. That's why I will never go to Jesus. I'll never go to church because it's all the Christians. This man's not like that. Right. What does he do? He has persistent faith. He brings his son to Jesus. And this son. says we don't really know he has a demon until further on in the story. This son has seizures or epilepsy, and in this ancient time, the way that epilepsy was described was with the word lunatic. It means being moonstruck. We get the word moon from the word lunar, and this son was a lunatic. He was having seizures. This man brings him to Jesus. He rushed upon Jesus, appealing to his mercy. You know, in this passage, it's just so clear. It's just an obvious observation, right? What does Jesus want his followers to do? Bring everyone to Jesus. Bring all you can to Jesus. Your friends, your family, your children, your enemies. Bring them to Christ in prayer. Bring them to Christ in the gospel. Bring them to Christ in the church. Just bring them to Jesus. That's it. That's what the thing is about. Because this son was really possessed by a demon. He really was in trouble. But his condition is really a great description of the world in the clutches of Satan. Don't you see it? What happens to this son is he throws himself into fire. to be burned, or he throws himself into water to be drowned. And that's exactly the condition of the world, isn't it? In the clutches of Satan, what do we do in our rebellious sin? We hurt ourselves with any and everything, all the various things, right? We say, oh, look, it's money that God gives us. We will kill ourselves on money, right? Or it's entertainment. Right? We'll kill ourselves on entertainment. Or it's wine, which is to be a blessing. We'll kill ourselves on wine. We'll kill ourselves on anything. Right? Satan doesn't care which one it is. But that's what we do. We need to be rescued from that. Certainly, this young man was a real man with a real trouble and a real devil inside him. a real one that was too much for the disciples. There's also one thing that's very clear here, and I want to make a special appeal just to us. You know, in our church, we see lots of children, you know, some of our families have lots of children, and I want to make something, and kids, look, I especially want you to look up here and listen to me right now. Look, I'll say it this way. Young people, young men, young women, You are especially appetizing to the devil. Do you know that? You are especially appetizing to the devil. You need to know that. Church, you need to know that. With your kids and your grandkids, parents, you need to know that. It's through many, many sophisticated and not-so-sophisticated tactics that the domain of darkness wants to train and recruit your children. All the entertainment, all the social media, whatever it is, it's a peer-driven culture. You know, we live in a land where Jesus Christ is so People just refuse to acknowledge him as the Lord over every sphere of life. And young people, look, I'm just going to tell you this. Right now in your age, either Jesus is your champion or the devil will be your champion. That's it. It can't be both. Jesus says you can only serve one master. And the devil has a special a special tactic for being impressive upon your mind. You might think, well, I'm not demon possessed. I'm not like in an exorcism movie. That's not what the devil's necessarily concerned about. He doesn't, as long as you can Not focus on Jesus. As long as you can say, the world matters more. As long as you can say, Jesus only matters when, you know, Sunday rolls around, or once every now and then when I go to church. As long as you can say that, goodness, y'all, that's when the devil has won. That's when the devil is victorious. When you don't see Jesus Christ as the author and Lord and the sustainer of all your life and the one worthy of all your living. People, that's when that's when Satan has that clutch around your neck and can drive you to whatever thing he needs you to drive you to. Do you hear me, church? Do you hear me on this point? This passage is here. Satan went after the man in the graves. He went after many people. But if there is one person, one type of person that shows up in the Gospels as being demon possessed, it's often young men, young women. Take heart and know that. And so parents, church, we are to be those who plead God's mercy on behalf of our kids. Amen. We plead, we teach, we train them up. We need to be like Job who made sacrifices for his children. Be like the Shunammite woman who brought her son to Elisha. Be like this father, Jairus. Bring them to Jesus in prayer. Pleading for each soul of your children that God would have mercy on them. So we see that Persistent faith is more valuable than religious talk. We see that persistent faith brings people to Jesus. But now I want you to see this persistent faith pleases God. Persistent faith pleases Jesus. This story This true story is a witness about a demon possession, but that's not what it's mainly about. This witness is mainly about the exasperation of Jesus, the anger of Jesus, how offended Jesus is when he comes upon this confused crowd and he does not find faith there. He's absolutely exasperated by it. And what does he say? What does he say? He says, oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long? How long am I going to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? In other words, he's saying, how much longer do I have to put up with you? How long? That's a lament. You see this lament in the Psalms. How long, O Lord? How long? When are you going to do something different? But mainly, this is interesting, these words, how long, O Lord, am I to bear with you? These words are the words that God spoke to Moses in the wilderness when Israel was rebelling and complaining against him. You remember what he says to Moses? How long am I to put up with such a fickle people? God had rescued them, delivered them, redeemed them from slavery, brought them into the promised land, not the promised land yet, but brought them into the wilderness, and in the wilderness, he miraculously feeds them and sustains their lives, protects them, and what do they do against God? They just don't put their trust in him. They worship other gods, they rebel against the leadership, they rebel against God, they complain against God, and God says, how long? How long? Same heart feeling that Jesus has as he comes upon these people here. By the way, this scene, you've got to read the other gospel accounts, especially Mark chapter 9. There's a lot more details in it. But in this scene, this is a scene of massive confusion. The disciples have attempted to cast out this demon and they've failed. And now there's also scribes there. And you get the sense that the scribes are accusing the disciples and accusing the movement of God. This is a failure. Jesus is no Messiah. His disciples can't even cast out the demon of a lunatic here. All of that. Jesus comes down the mountain and it's just confusion and chaos and faithlessness. And he says just this. How long? How long? Disbelief in Jesus exasperates him. Do you know this? It exasperates him. He hates it. Don't get me wrong and say he's not sympathetic towards doubt. But just think, Jesus has been on the earth now three years and in every way, with every word he spoke, he's demonstrated that he is God in the flesh and he has all power. He's already started to predict things about the future and about his coming sufferings and death. And of all the things he's done, the feeding of the multitudes in the wilderness, the raising up of children from the dead, the healing of the blind men, the making the seas be peaceful in the storm, walking on water, all these, turning the water into wine, you name all these miracles, literally banishing sickness from Galilee. And people still do not have faith in Jesus. It's so offensive to him. Hebrews 11, six says, without faith it is impossible to please God. The reason faithlessness is so offensive to Jesus is really simple. It's because he is so trustworthy. Is God trustworthy? Yeah, amen, right? Is Jesus trustworthy? Yes, praise God. Is he reliable? Yes. And the more reliable someone is, the greater it is an offense if you don't trust that person. I wanna give you a kind of a really gruesome illustration of this. I heard it and I wanted to relay it to you. Imagine, imagine with me, you go up to Arlington Cemetery, the memorials, you see all the memorials there, and you go to Arlington Cemetery, and there you see there at one of the memorials, there is a man paying respects, a veteran paying respects to a brother soldier who fought and died in battle. And this man, this veteran that you come upon, is missing limbs from that same battle. And you decide, I don't know why you would do this, but just imagine, this has happened before, you decide you are going to say and spew all kinds of mean things out about your despising of America, your ungratefulness for your country, how much you hate your country and how despicable it is and worthless it is that people fight and die for this here America. This would be definitively offensive. The veteran tells you, hey, it's worth the cost. It's worth the cost standing right there at the grave of his friend. You say, no way. It's not worth the cost. It's not worth it at all. Not only would this be stupid, this is heinous offensiveness, isn't it? Doesn't your skin crawl just to hear me say something like this? But then magnify it out to Jesus Christ. Magnify it out to the Lord of glory. Magnify it out to the one who is the fulfiller of all prophecy, the maker of the ends of the earth. The one who came into this world for you. Who bled and died in your place for your forgiveness. Who was resurrected and did all that he said he was going to do. He said three times. I'm going to suffer and die and on the third day I'll be raised. Everything he said was true. Everything he did was true. And what does a wicked, a faithless and twisted generation do? We look at this one who has bled and died for you and you say, nope, I will not believe in you. I'll go follow after other teachers, other idols, Other things. Other things will be more important. I'll put my faith in other things than you, Jesus. Do you see how heinous of a crime that is, how offensive that is? You need to escape the faithless and twisted generation that just spews treachery against Jesus. Take Him at His word. Only trust Him. And then what does the Bible say when we have faith in Jesus? He is well pleased with us. It's by faith you pray. By faith you work. By faith you love. By faith you serve. By faith you faith! By faith. Jesus works through us and it is by faith he accomplishes his plans in us. And by faith, it's when you hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. Now enter into the joy of your master. Faith. Is what pleases Jesus. Lastly, last point here. Lastly. I want you to learn that persistent faith moves mountains. Now we're going to talk about why I've been using the term persistent faith. This passage can be quite obliterated and taken out of context and thrown back on believers and say to say something like, hey, you've never worked a miracle. You've never done something supernatural. Then you must not have faith. You must not have strong faith or something like that. If you have a big problem, small problem, no matter what it is, it can go away. You just name that problem and put your faith that God will take care of it and it just goes right away. Right away. Let me just tell you something. That is not the point that Jesus is making. And I'm going to explain why here. I don't want you to be led astray or to be bashed down to think that because because you are struggling or because you're in long suffering that you don't have faith. In fact, I'll tell you, it might be the exact opposite. Jesus is in a discussion. Remember, the disciples now are pulled Jesus away privately. This is very important. Know the context. Jesus goes away privately with his disciples. He's in this big teaching point with his disciples in their ministry. He's getting ready to die, and he's piling it all on them with every object lesson, and he's teaching them important things about the kingdom and their discipleship. Jesus goes away privately with his disciples right here, and they want to know why they have had success at one time with exercising demons, but now they couldn't do it with this one. Why could we do it, Matthew chapter 10, Jesus sends them out to do this specific work, why could we do it then, but we can't do it now, Jesus? And Jesus says why. He says because of your little faith. And this is what he does. He says if you have faith like a what? A mustard seed. You can say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move. Now this is something that's interesting because some of your Bibles will tell you. Like, I think it's the NIV, NASB will tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, and I want you to know that's a bad translation. Why would Jesus say it's your small faith that causes you to be ineffective, and the way that you become effective is getting a small faith? That doesn't make sense, does it? The words here are just the words that I read to you. He says, if you have faith as a mustard seed or like unto a mustard seed. In other words, Jesus is not talking about the quality of your faith. We on our best days, the quality of our faith, if we could mustard up, is always going to be small compared to the power of God. That's it. He's not talking about the quality of your faith, or the quantity of your faith, sorry. He is talking about the quality of your faith. the quality, what kind of faith? He's not talking about the number of your faith, but the nature of your faith. What is your faith like? And he holds out this mustard seed. And now we see, oh wait, Jesus has done a lot of teaching on mustard seeds before, hasn't he? And what does Jesus teach about the mustard seed? You go back to the parable of the mustard seed in Matthew chapter 13, and he holds out this mustard seed. He says, you see the mustard seed. You see how it is the smallest of all the plants, the garden plants, right? But you plant this seed and see what it does. See how it works. What does it do? It's a tenacious little booger in the ground. It grows. It persists. It insists. And what happens is, over time, the mustard seed turns into this plant that becomes the greatest of all the farm plants. So big, in fact, that the birds of the air can take refuge in the branches of the mustard seed. Jesus is saying, have a faith like that. It's got to be a faith that moves, a faith that persists, a faith that prays, a faith that is earnest, a faith that works. A faith that, like I said, faiths. You keep on with it, disciples. Jesus is saying, look, Look, you've come to this point, you're plowing the field, disciples, and you hit the root and you hit the stone. And what have you done? You take your hand off the plow and say, oh, this has been good enough. Yes, you were able to cast out demons at one point. Yes, you were able. You had some big victories. Same thing with disciples today. You who are here, you've been Christians for a long time. You might think, oh, I've been serving God for a long time. I've been keeping up with service and Bible readings and church attendance and all those things. And I've seen victories. I've seen people come to Christ. Well, what is the great encouragement that you see over and over in the New Testament? OK, press on, keep fighting, keep striving. Keep striving, and that's exactly the failure of the disciples. What does it say? I brought them to your disciples and they could not heal him. You get the sense that they tried and they failed and they threw their hands up. And we know one thing that they actually lack the whole thing, because in Mark's gospel and it's a verse that is not at the end of this paragraph. In Mark's gospel, Jesus says this can only happen by prayer and fasting. This means that the disciples hadn't even yet offered a prayer to cast out this demon. And Jesus is saying that's never going to cut it. You're not going to see God move. through haphazard ministry, going through the motions, you're not gonna see God move through tiny little efforts, you're not gonna see God move through lip service prayers or ritual mantras. It's never gonna happen. But if you take it, and you lay hold of your work, and by faith you obey the Lord, then guess what? You will be unstoppable. One preacher I heard asked this question, or he made this statement, he said, I think most of us do not want God to take our prayers as seriously as we pray them. That's a pretty powerful statement, isn't it? Earnest prayer pleases God. Desperate prayer pleases God. Careless, thoughtless, same old, same old, You won't see the hand of God work. What's the result according to Jesus? I'm bringing this in for for closing here. He says, with faith like a mustard seed, you'll be able to move this mountain. Which mountain? Why does he say this mountain? It's not just any mountain. It's the Mount of Transfiguration that he just came down from. This is why this passage is so important, because he's telling his disciples, if you have persistent faith, if you quit relying on yourselves, you will be able to take this mountain, the mountain of God's glory, the mountain of the vision of Christ, the mountain of worship, and you will be able to take it anywhere you go. Isn't this an incredible lesson? And what do the disciples do? Jesus is resurrected. Where do they go? They go all throughout the world, telling people to repent and put their faith in Jesus. And what happens when we put our faith in Jesus? We become true worshipers, beholders of God's glory. The mountain of transfiguration moves wherever the gospel goes. Did the disciples ever pick up a mountain and literally move it somewhere? By the way, the term mountain mover wasn't a unheard of term in the days of Jesus. It's not even an unheard of term today. It means a difference maker. It means someone who makes change, is effective. But Jesus says this mountain, this one, the transfiguration mountain, you'll be able to move this anywhere if you just have faith. if you just have faith. They persisted in faith. And people from every nation can come now to the risen and glorified Jesus Christ. That's what your work is, church. Persist in faith. Tomorrow, today, every day, don't take your hand off the plow. Don't look back. We don't take inventory of all those victories that God has given us. Yes, we thank God. We bless him for every blessing. But here's the thing. We have to press on. to press on in faith, in faith, in faith. Yes, it is true that this year will be more difficult for you as you resolve to do more for Christ, it's going to be difficult. But if you have faith, then nothing will be impossible to you. I'll close with one illustration. It's one that I got to share with my children this past week. Um, when I was, uh, when we were just at, you know, praying at night, we watched this video learning about some missionary work in the nation of Cambodia. Really an interesting thing. And in Cambodia, I don't know if you know this or not, but the biggest religious structure in the world is in Cambodia. Did you know this? It's a structure, it's a mountain called the Angkor Wat. And it was dedicated to Vishnu, which is a Hindu god, like a thousand years ago. And now it's been reclaimed by the Buddhists. And it's this interesting monument because all around the base of this mountain, this giant mountain, all around the base of this mountain, there's these idol makers and craftsmen that are making these gods out of, you know, stone with their chisels, gods that can't see or can't hear, can't live, can't speak. And they're just making these idols. Why are they making these idols? It's because in the Angkor Wat, in the ruins, all the other idols are falling down flat on their faces. They're just turning into rubble. The decay of this place is astounding. And these people are freaking out thinking, let's just, we'll fix this by putting more idols there. And you know what's happening, though, at the same time? All this religious structure, now a thousand years out, is just crumbling to dust. But you know what's happening in the land? Just down the road, there's these villages that are raising up churches, soul by soul, person by person, in the preaching of the gospel. This mountain over here, Angkor Wat, is going to fall. It may be in this generation, it may not be in this generation, it may be a few generations out. But you know what mountain is growing in all the earth? It's the mountain of the Lord. Church, mountains are big. It's a hard thing to move. But let me ask you this. How do you plow a field? You know how you do it? One row at a time. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you move a mountain? One stone at a time. That's persistent faith. That's persistent faith. And collectively, as we all play our part, you may think it's a small part, You may think it's just a prayer. You may think it's just a conversation. You may think it's just a service. You may think it's just a dollar going in a plate. You may think it's small stuff. But you move the stones one mountain at a time. And soon we shall see. It may not be in your generation. It may not be in my generation or my kids' generation. But what is the promise of God? What has he already declared? That Mount Zion shall be elevated over all the mountains of the earth. And all the kings and all the nations and all the peoples will flock to it to find refuge in Christ. That day is coming. Do you have faith to believe it? Do you have faith to persist in it? Do you have faith to move a rock, a stone to build up the mountain of the Lord, the house of the Lord? Have faith, have faith and you shall overcome. Nothing shall be impossible. That's it. Maybe you're here thinking. I want to escape this twisted and faithless generation. I've been believing in vain things and idols. Well, you know what? There is one way to come into that blessed and divine life, that eternal life, and that way is through faith. Pray that God would give it to you today so that now, by faith, you would receive the gift of eternal life. And that you would take that first step in new life, which is to repent of all the vain idols, to repent of your doubts and your disbelief, and going after other things. And living like that in sin. And then you repent, and then you turn your eyes to Jesus, and you see the one who suffered and died in your place, and shed his blood for your forgiveness, and you say, Jesus, wash me clean. Because Jesus died and he was resurrected. And if you call upon Him and say, Jesus, I believe you are my Savior. With whatever belief you give me, I will cast it back on you. People, let me tell you what, if that is you this morning and you pray, Jesus Christ, I believe in you. Take away my sins and restore to me, restore all things to me so that I can take joy in my salvation. People, if that is your prayer, then guess what? You will leave, you will escape a faithless and twisted generation. And you will walk as a disciple in the kingdom of heaven, set apart for good works and set apart for an eternal life with God. Amen. Amen.