Amen, amen. Alright, we'll be seated. And we're headed over to... I'll give you some directions for the Black Center Pew Bibles, page number 1413. Whoa! 1413. So that's what we'll be giving attention to. And I'm pulling up mine as well here. Sorry, Mark chapter 11. I gave the page number 1413. It's all good. That's fine. That's fine. Mark chapter 11 or page 1413. I'm just confused because there it is. My tablet's at the house, so I'm going to have to use my phone. One of those moments. Alright, question for you. What's the greatest miracle you've ever seen? What's the greatest miracle you've ever seen? People's lives changing. That was the last thing I was going to say. That's the most one. Absolutely. God transforming us. Yeah. Any of the miracles? Anybody seen someone race from the dead? Be interesting. Have you really? Please tell us. Okay. Oh, no. Okay. Interesting. I have not met someone personally. I mean, I've heard about that idea, but I've never met someone that that happened. Wow. That's great. Yeah, you pray for someone, God heals them. Absolutely. He can do it miraculously. Sometimes he uses medicine, but God definitely can work in response to our prayers to heal. Yeah. I think Mr. Harold nailed it. The greatest miracle is a transformed life, right? God changing us all. And that's what, eventually we'll get to that point in just a minute, but first we want to appreciate a story where Jesus is talking to his disciples. So here he's teaching us about prayer. And this is a story that comes, it's Matthew chapter 21, Mark chapter 11. They're both the same. I'm going to have us reading from Mark chapter 11. But in this story, this is Jesus' last week before he dies on the cross. And every Wednesday, we've been giving attention to Jesus teaching about prayer. And there's a lot he talks about prayer in his last week. But specifically, he's gonna talk about a fig tree. And we've mentioned this fig tree about a month ago. And there, the point there was to be aware of someone who has a bunch of leaves to make you think they're alive, but there's no fruit. and he's cautioning his disciples about what we'll call dead externalism. But here is a different question, a different lesson to learn from this fig tree, and that's the idea that we can believe in the living God, really meaningful. So I'm gonna start reading in chapter 11, verse 20, and we'll read a couple verses, and then we'll try to make sense of this story, really powerful story here. I'll read verses 20 and 21 first of all. In the morning as they passed by, So they're walking somewhere. They saw the fig tree, a fig tree that earlier Jesus had cursed, and now this fig tree was dried up from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursed is withered away. So we have to ask this question, what's the object lesson that they're seeing here in verses 20 and 21? They're walking up. They see this fig tree, right? The day before Jesus had seen this beautiful fig tree, fresh leaves. He's hungry and he's approaching the fig tree expecting like anybody else to find figs or fruit that he's gonna eat, except there's nothing there. Now he knew that this is gonna be an object lesson for him, but what does he do when he sees this fig tree? And he's like, oh, there's nothing here. He curses it. Strong language, right? Was Jesus losing his temper at this tree? Oh yeah, we'll curse you. No, there's a purpose behind it. There are other stories connected to that event that showed he's not just cursing the tree, but he's pointing also to the Jewish religious system, which was all show and no heart. Yeah, what else? Yeah, that's a good call. That's a good point. In fact, you know, let's look up earlier in the chapter, verse 14. What does Jesus say? Verse 14. I'm going up a page a little bit. You see in the red there, no man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. That's it, no fruit from you. That's the curse. He's not saying, you know, no, it's not like I'm losing his temper. It's like, that's it, you are cursed, meaning no more fruit from you, right? So what would that look like? One day later, 24 hours later, a withered, and notice in verse 21, how far is it withered from? Like where does it start to die? at the roots, right? So this is not just like, oh, it's fall, the leaves are changing colors and it's kind of wilting. No, it's like all the leaves have fallen off this thing and the branches are completely like gnarled and dried up and ready to snap for firewood. This is a miracle. And the disciples see it like, whoa, did you see that? Like completely, that's amazing. And that's what Peter says in verse 21. Master, look at the fig tree. It's completely withered away. Over in Matthew's gospel, they actually ask a question. And there they ask the question, chapter 21, verse 20, when the disciples saw it, they were amazing. How soon is the fig tree withered away? Almost like a question, how did this happen? This is amazing, right? And that leads us to the second idea from the passage. Jesus gives them a really important lesson. See if you can find the lesson that he gives them. Hint, it's four words long. Starting in verse 22, what's the four-word lesson that Jesus wants them? Oh, look at this, we're amazing. Someone, even though there's snow, he's still learning. I respect you for that, Gavin, that's awesome, right? So he says, four-word answer, have faith in God. And both of those ideas are important. Have faith, but it's not just faith in anything, it's faith in God, because God is the one who can do it, right? So we wanna appreciate this idea. Jesus says, have faith in God. And he explains what that means, and he gives really this amazing promise. So I'm turning in my Black Pew Bible over to page 1414, so I can see a little more detail here in verse 23. Verily I say to you, Jesus is gonna emphasize something really important for this. You asked, how did you do that? Whoa, Jesus, like that tree completely changed on itself in 24 hours. How did that happen? He says it's faith. But notice it's faith in what? Or faith in whom? It's faith in God, right? You ever heard people say, just have faith, you just gotta believe, you just gotta believe. And I appreciate, usually it's well-intentioned, but it's an incomplete idea. Faith in what? Right? You could say, I have faith that my spirit animal is going to give me power in this little video game. That may not be worth it. Or there's an idea today, and it's kind of new age, but it's the idea if you manifest something, I'm going to say it, I'm going to declare it to be true, and it's going to happen. Because I say it, and it's like they pretend that they're God. I'm going to make this happen. Admire my power. Right? Or even there's a I think it's a DreamWorks film, The Prince of Egypt. And the song at the end of this is they're freed from Egypt. There can be miracles when you believe. And that's the end of the sentence. And I'm always like, believe in what? You're leaving me hanging. Jesus is really clear. It's faith in God specifically. Notice how he explains that. What's the scenario he gives? what would you do to see this faith in action? Let's say you tell this mountain, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. So what's the scenario he's giving? They're walking on a road toward Jerusalem. Jerusalem's on top of a high hill. So perhaps Jesus is pointing them, hey, imagine if we told this mountain to move into the sea. And we believe God when he tells us he's going to do it. We have to have faith in God and his promises, not faith that I could wish anything to happen and it happens, right? Otherwise we're all wishing for a million dollars under our bed tomorrow. He could be pointing to the mountain of Jerusalem. He could be pointing at another mountain called the Mount of Olives, which is like a cross, a valley. Still, Jesus is saying, imagine that mountain being picked up and put into the sea. No, I'm sorry, thrown, cast into the sea. And even then, that can happen. That's unbelievable. Now, we may say, okay, Jesus, but do I really need to pray, dear God, please move this mountain? Let me ask a question. Has God done miraculous, natural things like this? Boogie, what do you think? Boogie, what do you think? Boogie, what do you think? This way. Thank you. Help your friends pay attention, okay? What has God done? Yeah, I mentioned that a moment ago. Imagine the Red Sea scene. True story, right? A sea that you cannot, it's too far to swim across, too deep to walk across. God blows this windstorm all night long, pushing the waves back. Right down the middle, people walk across the dry land at the bottom of the sea. That's one half of the miracle. What's the other half of the miracle? As they get to the other end, The Egyptian army starts chasing them in, what happens then? Swimming time. Swimming time, or you're gonna fail to swim time, right? The wind dies down just enough so that now the waves are kind of, the water starts collapsing on itself on top of the soldiers, chasing them through this dry, across this dry land. If God can part a sea, then actually, it's possible you could pick up a mountain and throw it into the midst of the sea. In fact, you go to Revelation chapter eight, verse eight, it is predicted that one of the great judgments that are gonna come on the world is a fiery mountain is thrown into the sea. So there may be a time in the future when people say, God, you promised this, please make it happen. And he will. Now that may be an asteroid coming from out, but it's a mass large enough to be called a mountain, and it will be thrown into the sea as one of God's judgments on earth. So it's a hypothetical, but there will be a point when we'll actually see that happen. Let's go back to more of those verses. So Jesus gives a scenario, a tremendous promise, right? But then he just gives this broad principle now, verse 24. Dear God, I'm asking you to keep your promises. When that happens, believe that you shall receive them and you shall have them. And that raises a really important question. Is Jesus promising like a blank check? Ask whatever you want. Believe that God can do it, and he'll do it. Help us make sense of this. Okay, so it's got to be part of his will. Yeah. Yeah, so it's a combination of all these things, right? Hopefully I'm desiring what God is promising, right? So that's... So that's the key. Yeah, if I want what God wants. Yeah. Dear God, I believe you to give me what I want and what you say is sin. Amen. Yeah, that's not the kind of prayer that God's gonna answer, right? Dear God, please let me have this sin. Yeah, if my desire is to glorify God, and this is a theme that comes up all the time when I'm praying, and then we'll get into this probably after the holidays, but a lot of Jesus' promises about prayer in the Gospel of John, Elaborate on this in chapter 15 and other places. He's gonna say, you're gonna pray. Let's assume you're praying my word. You're praying my promises. You're reminding me of my promises. And that's what I love, right? Let's say I'm in a situation where I, we need God to help us, but we know God has promised something about that situation. I can pray so confidently. God, do it, keep your word, please, fulfill your promises. By your power, you said you would, and so I'm gonna believe that you would. It's unbelievable, great principle. Jesus doesn't finish, though, because he gives one condition. What's the condition? Verse 25 and 26. He says, when ye stand praying, do what? Forgive, if ye have ought against any, that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. It's a heavy reminder, right? So the key condition here is forgive. Jesus is describing a situation, you have something against somebody else. They've hurt you in some way. And because they've hurt you in some way, it's easy to kind of, oh, be resentful. And yet he says to forgive. Or at least if they haven't apologized, I'm willing to forgive, right? I'm already loving that person. I'm willing to make it right. So we have to figure this out then. What is forgiveness? What does it mean to say I forgive you? Brandon, what do you think? Forgiving. I think it means where you give up on all the negative energy that you feel towards that person. That's a great answer, yeah. So I'm giving up all the negative energy. I'm willing to, another way the Bible says it's releasing it. All right, I'm not going to hold it against them anymore. Great answer, yeah. Now, we want to give some clarification here. Does that mean they got away with it? No, because they answer to God still, right? Does it mean that it didn't hurt? Oh, I forgive you. Not a big deal. No, sometimes it really is hurt. Does it mean I'm not going to remember anymore? You know what? Forgive and forget. It's not that simple. Sometimes it really hurts, and it really sticks with us. So forgiveness is more like a choice. Yeah, what else do you need? Hmm. Yeah, they still have to make it right, yeah. Joyce, what would you add? That's good, yeah. So I forgive you. Forgive doesn't mean trust. I mean, that's another good point too, right? It doesn't mean, oh sure, I'll set it up where you can hurt me again. There's wisdom built into the system, that process. Yeah, but as much restoration as possible. And Jesus is going to connect restoration with other people to a different restoration, right? Restoration with God himself. And he makes really strong cautions here, right? And there could be different opinions about this. Does that mean One common way is if I refuse to forgive someone, that means I don't have God. God's not changing me at all. I have not truly trusted him. That vertical forgiveness is not a thing yet. That could be. Or it could be just day to day. I need God to forgive me every day as a Christian, as my father, that relational forgiveness. If I confess my sins, he is faithful and just to forgive my sins. If I refuse to forgive the other person, and that relationship with that person is not healthy, that means my relationship with God, my Father, is not healthy either. So there are two ways to look at it. There have been times I've leaned to that first idea. That means I refuse to forgive. That means I've never experienced God's forgiveness. And then I listened to something recently where the guy said, you know what? he is your father who is in heaven. It's like, oh, okay, so maybe it just means I'm growing distant from God. Either way, it's a serious warning, and I don't wanna be light about it in any way. And so that's why we're gonna say a really important condition is if I'm gonna be praying, I wanna be able to forgive. So let's bring this to a close then, and we'll just mention these two just broad principles then for ourselves, and we'll get ready to pray. And obvious. And he doesn't have to deal with you, So if I try to make it right So I try to make it right with him ahead of time so God doesn't have to take me behind the woodshed Yeah, and that's it. I want to have just clean, good, good relationships all the time. And that means I can keep this one strong as well. So let me suggest this one broad one. I want to make sure I'm believing God's power, right? And that's good to think through, right? Is there a promise that God has given me? I'm going to give you daily bread, daily grace. Or I'm going to give you strength in moments of weakness. We could say, you know what, God, this is too hard. I don't think you can keep that promise. Hopefully we realize that doesn't sound good. It's not accurate. No, God, you promised it. I'm gonna have faith in God. He's gonna do what he said he would do. And it's not easy, but it's possible. And that's what's amazing. God loves to work in our moments of weakness. And the other one is related to the idea of forgiveness, then. I wanna reflect God's forgiveness. If God has forgiven me, I wanna be able to, have that same pattern to other people. We've already said this, right? I'm willing to release others for the very legitimate, challenging hurt that they caused me, but I'm gonna refuse to bring it up with them anymore, to them or to myself. And that means I'm walking closely with God, and those are probably combined together. Dear God, you tell me to try to forgive. This is really hard. I need you to help me keep your promise and help me forgive this other person. And here's Jesus doing that and showing his disciples. And all this through a fig tree, the simplest thing. And yeah, he's like, this is really important for us. All right, let me pray for us and then we'll do some requests and we'll split up. You guys did a great job. Thank you for doing your best. Kind of, yes. Let's pray, let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you that you do have limitless power. You're working in a situation, it's not limited by you. Often it's limited by us because we're not praying enough and we're not trusting as completely as we could. And so we confess our weak faith. We believe, but help our unbelief. And so grow our faith in you more and more. We pray that you would help us to reflect your forgiveness to those around us, to love others as you love us, You are such a good father toward us, a heavenly father, and we wanna find stability and growth in you as our God. Thank you for helping us to continue to pray in these ways. In Jesus' name, amen.