and I appreciate that. Dr. Bill, please open your Bibles to Mark chapter nine. As Brother Bill said, you don't know what's ahead of you, but I do know who has gone before you. And I know who's coming behind you. He's our re-reward. Mark chapter nine. Mark chapter nine. I can interpret what the guy said when he spoke in a foreign tongue if you want me to. In hillbilly, that translates, everybody meet in the parking lot at five, he's taking us to Cracker Barrel. Amen. Amen. If he gets to speak in tongues, I get to interpret, amen. Amen. Mark 9. When I was a boy, my dad said something to me that I have thought about a lot. He said, if just one generation would listen to the generation that went before them, what a difference it would make. But every generation, because of that old Adamic nature, has to strike out on its own and make the same mistakes over and over and over. After I got saved, I decided with the Lord's help that I wouldn't make mistakes that I didn't have to make if the Lord would give me wisdom from people that had already made those mistakes. Making mistakes is not the best way to learn. doing it right the first time is the best way to learn. Now you can learn from your mistakes, but not if you never learn from your mistakes. And in regards to that, I wanna share something with you this morning from God's word that I have so much confidence in, I'm gonna give you a sermon guarantee. I'll guarantee if you will listen to what the Lord teaches in this passage of scripture, that it's gonna save you several things in your lifetime. Now, I'm gonna probably mention your ministry a lot this morning, but I wanna say that what he teaches in this passage of scripture, the Lord teaches, will help you in your personal life, it's gonna help you in your family life, and then it's gonna help you in your ministry. And by the way, that's how it all works. If you don't have your personal life in order, you're not helping anybody, right? and you gotta keep that family life right, you and your wife, amen? And then the ministry comes as a part of that. Here are some of the things that you can save yourself, and then I'm gonna pray with you. You can save yourself some time if you will believe what Jesus teaches in this passage, because this will be what you do instead of wasting your time on things that he doesn't teach. it will save you some money. Because instead of in your pastor having to fly somewhere every year and spend $125 to get into a church to hear everybody that knows how to do it, God save us from the experts. Amen? There are no experts. And having had that plane ticket, you can just actually believe what the Lord says. He probably knows. Right? He probably knows. It'll save you a lot of frustration because you won't be trying to accomplish something that can't be accomplished in a way that can't accomplish it. I'm not going to use it this morning, but I have an illustration I use about how not to change a tire. There are a lot of ways you can't change a tire. And the reason you can't is because it doesn't work. And there are a lot of ways you can't do ministry because that's what the Lord said not to do or said do it another way. But we keep trying to do it the way we want to do it. And we so desperately want our way to work because that's the only way we can take credit for it. Everybody's always got to have a new way to do something. Because that's the only way you can have it. One of my least favorite words in ministry is innovation. This thing's been going on a long time. And if you're just now thinking of it, I'm real worried about it. It'll save you some poor associations. Because when you leave what the Lord said to do and go find out what some man said to do, that's not somebody you need to associate with. But you'll build a friendship with these experts and down you go. You'll have the right kind of associations if you associate with the people who believe God. It'll also save some lives and it might be your life it saves. It might be the life of your children. It might be the life of your family members and it might be the life of some poor old soul that you run across that needs to be saved. And looking way into the future, depending on when the Lord comes back, it might save you some loss of reward at the judgment seat. When we disciple people, we're really discipling them beyond this world, and I've told my church many a time, my job as a pastor is to prepare them for the judgment seat of Christ. That's why I don't fall for a lot of things that come down the pike today, because I don't think they're going to be worthwhile at the judgment seat. If you want to save those things, I think you can find that in this passage. Let's pray together. Father, I pray as we look into this text of scripture together, that you'll help us to do one thing this morning. I pray you'll help us to believe God. And Father, we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Before I begin to go through the text with you, I want to say that what I'm primarily dealing with this morning is the sufficiency of Christ. Now the title of the message is this, when the church loses its power. When the church loses its power. I believe in the sufficiency of Christ if I don't believe in anything else. It's the basis of everything that I believe personally as a Christian. It's the basis of everything that I believe as somebody charged with the responsibility of pastoring one of the Lord's churches. I believe in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ in salvation. I believe God saves sinners. And I believe when he saves them, he saves them right the first time and all the way the first time. I believe in the sufficiency of Christ for sanctification that God can take the worst of men and grow them into maturity in Jesus Christ and that He does that and not we ourselves. I believe in the sufficiency of Christ for service and that Christ alone has what we need to be able to go out and serve Him anywhere in the world. God can take any student here. regardless of any limitation you might think about yourself and do the mightiest work that you would never imagine possible that you could be a part of it because it's not about you at all. I'll tell you one of the things that we have perpetually misjudged in Bible college students is that we look at the most gifted and we look out in the future and think they'll be the most successful and we miss it over and over and over. And when 30 years goes by, it's normally the old plotter who just trusted God and did his job. I believe in the sufficiency of Christ for supply. All that we need for ministry can come from the hand of God, no matter what it is that we need. And I believe in what I'm dealing with here in this text today, and that is the sufficiency of Christ in spiritual warfare. This isn't a game we're playing. This is very serious business that we're at. And we had better have a sober mind. One of the dangers that you have right now in Bible college is that you have a college mentality and you don't realize you're already in the battle. If the devil can wipe you out before you ever get out in the ministry, he'd just soon get you now as later. You're in a battle, friend. a very serious raging battle. And you'd better have something serious to fall on in these things. So let's look at this text together. When the church loses its power, let me give you the outline first. I have a terrible habit of not making sure folks get the outline. I know you're taking notes. Here it is. Number one, the argument in verse 14. Number two, the anguish in verses 15 to 18. Number three, the accusation, 19 to 24. Number four, the authority, verse 25 to 27. Then number five, the answer, verses 28 and 29. In verse 14 it says this, and when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them. Here's a big group of people. And the word there to question has the connotation of to examine something and it includes the idea of argumentation, the idea of disputing. You get the idea that you have the scribes on one side, are you listening or coughing? Y'all have the plague. I wish I'd have wore a mask. You have the scribes on one side, and you have the disciples on the other. Now think about these two groups. The scribes obviously knew the words of scripture, but did they know the Christ of scripture? They were religious, but they were lost. Just because a man has all the accolades and all the religious things about him doesn't mean he's the least bit spiritual. Right? And on the other side you have the disciples who were saved in our terminology but had lost power. Now they had been given power by the Lord to do their ministry and part of that power included in that was to heal people as a sign. And also included in that power that was delegated to them was the ability to cast out devils. Right? But somewhere between the time they were given that power, delegated that power, which comes only from God, they had lost it. And now they're in a situation that we'll read about in a moment where a man desperately needs God. And he ought to have been able to come to these men and said, I need help, and them say, we can help. And yet, when they were supposed to help right there at that critical moment, Right there at crunch time, they could not help. And what good are we if we can't help? What good is a church without power? What good is a church when it's crunch time and there are desperate situations and we don't have any more help than the religious scribes? And so you have the argument break out. Now, look here. One of the reasons that we are continuously debating between fundamentalism and New Evangelicals and the contemporary movement and all that is because, for the most part, a lot of us just don't know what to do but argue. They don't know how to help, so we make fun of them. They look back at us, and we don't seem to know how to help, so they make fun of us. And then we argue over really important stuff. Right? Wrong. And we got the saved but powerless people and the unsaved religious people all debating over who knows what, who knows this, and we're still holding conferences on how to do it. Right? Bring all the experts together and explain to each other how nobody knows how to help a man that needs help. And while we're there, let's spend a good amount of time making fun of the other people that don't know how to help. All this arguing, all this bickering over nonsense is because there's a power loss in our churches, in our personal lives, and so we just fight over nonsense. Look with me now, verses 15 and 18, to anguish. And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit, and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth and gnashes with his teeth, and pineth away, and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out." Now notice these words, and they could not. They were supposed to be able to. Really, it shouldn't have been a big deal. I want to ask you a question. Is there any place in Scripture that God had any trouble with the devil? If you go all the way back to the beginning and Lucifer said, I will, I will, I will, the Lord said, oh boy, we got trouble on our hands now. He's real powerful. I don't know what I'll be able to do with him. Looks to me like he said, get out. And he did what? Now, we don't have any strength and we shouldn't be foolish about our dealings with the devil. But God has all power and, friend, He's not a bit afraid. He's not scared. He's not wringing His hands. You realize that at any moment He wanted to, He could just cast the devil into the lake of fire and be done with him? It's not like there is two gods fighting it out for control. There is one God who's in complete control. And he's delegated that authority to us to be able to work in that spirit realm and help people who desperately need it. And yet we have people come in a serious situation like this. And I'll tell you this, when a parent brings a child, it doesn't get any more serious than ministry. You want your heart broke to have trouble with a child. This daddy's had this boy and this trouble's been going on and on and on all this time. and his boy is being ravaged by the devil and he can't help him himself and his heart's broke. It's full of anguish. And he comes to the people that he has heard can help. And you know there were times they did help. But just because we have power from God one day doesn't mean we'll have it the next because it's relational based. When our eyes and hearts are fixed on the Lord and we're in tune with Him, we have all the power in heaven and earth to do ministry. And when we're flippant and we get out of sorts with the Lord and we just go through the motions, we're not going to be able to help anybody at any time anywhere. And so the world is broke down in anguish and people's lives are being destroyed. And really, they ought to be able to show up at church and get help. I was in the church last weekend, preached in Maryland, and when I went in on Sunday morning, I saw, I think, three different people in tears before the service could even get started. And I thought to myself, I am in the right place. When hurting people go to a church because they're hurting, they know there's help at that church, that's why they're there. Now look with me, starting here in verse 19, the accusation that the Lord levels against that present generation. He answereth him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer? You bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him, and when he saw him straightway, the spirit tear him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming. And he asked his father, how long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said of a child, and oft times it cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. And if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus saith unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. In verse 19, he mentions the fact that that particular generation in which he was ministering on earth was a faithless generation. Now, God deals with us as individuals, and you can be full of faith even in the middle of a faithless generation. But it's interesting to me that he collectively places this on that generation. I wonder how God would look at our generation right now across the globe. We're trying to figure all these things out. How are we going to help people with addictions? How are we going to stop school shootings? How are we going to get the prodigal home? Right? And the newspaper guy, he's going to write it from his slant. And this guy over here is going to write it from his slant. And this church over here is going to write it from his slant. Everybody's got an opinion and still the troubles remain. And right down at the core of it is this. If we know who is the one who can help and we have complete faith and confidence in the sufficiency of Christ, there's more help for anything than we can possibly imagine. Where is the church that believes completely and entirely in the sufficiency of Christ and has no regard for the opinions of men? Where is the church that has totally disregarded anything that has to do with the secular nature of this world and sit in Christ alone and actually believe that God can help? Can God save the drunkard? Can God save the dope addict? Can God save the church gossip? Huh? Can he? Look with me now in verse 25. When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him and enter no more into him. Now watch how this spirit rebukes Christ and takes charge and runs Jesus off. Is that in your Bible? I am literally dumbfounded in scripture at how casually Jesus Christ deals with devils. Aren't you? I mean, he doesn't go into it much hocus pocus at all. He's not saying words of chants. He's not making some kind of concoction. He's not slapping people in the forehead. There is so much power in the person of Christ that the devils tremble. And the spirit cried and ran him sore and came out of him. And he was as one dead in so much that many said he is dead. Now there's two things here. One is the devil himself. This is spiritual warfare. That's why I'm dealing with authority here. Now your professors I'm sure has dealt with this a lot. So I won't stay long here. But I want to point out in the New Testament when you deal with the word power there's two things to keep in mind. One is power in the sense of the gospel, which is like an explosive power. It's the power of regeneration on the inside that comes from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ that makes you a new creature. Right? You believe in the regeneration? And then there is power that has the connotation or the sense of authority. The first kind of power deals with the ability of God. This kind of power deals with the authority of God to do it. And in the supernatural realm, in the realm in which God exists and the devils exist, there's a rank and file system of authority. And God's at the top. Christ has all power. Did you hear that? All power. You will literally Never run up against anything in your life that he's not in control of. He has all power. And it doesn't matter if it's a devil or the devil himself. When Christ speaks, they have to obey. Isn't there a place over somewhere in Acts where some old boys decided that they would get into the devil removal business? What was happening the last time we saw them? Rather embarrassing, wasn't it? When you enter into these spiritual-natured things flippantly, you're a fool. But this is the ministry. This is where we live and move and dwell in the spiritual realm. This is why a church has power or is powerless. It is why, if you're listening, some churches have to function as a business organization and run by a CEO. Because anybody can run a business even without God, and many do. It's why it's so easy to run a religion without God. The Mormons do quite well. Right? Bring in great numbers, great proselytes, and make disciples, all without God. We're not in the religious business. We're not in the CEO business model of ministry. We're in the spiritual nature business of the church of the living God, a living organism, and God's in the business not of recruiting good men, but in bringing dead men to life. And that takes the power of God on the inside to do the converting. Oh, you can draw the crowds if that's what you want, and I'm for crowds if it means people are getting saved. I'd rather run 30,000 is three. if all of them got born again, wouldn't you? But you can do all the external things and nobody really be helped. Because what we're talking about is a man who's demon possessed that needs to have the devil removed and then the second part of that is after he deals with the devil he's got to deal with the man. And you don't have the personal power to remove devils and you don't have the personal power to help men get up. Jesus, it says here in verse 27, but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. Now that's ministry. In my personal view of ministry, if you want to take the measure of a ministry, look to see where the men were at that were enslaved, who were freed, and then are set free to serve the Lord, to live for God. Is anybody being saved? Is anybody being helped? Is anybody being lifted? Is anybody being set free to be able to live for the Lord? And the power that it takes for that is immense. People get fascinated with miracles. The greatest miracle in our dispensation is the regeneration of a new Christian. You want to see a miracle, just look at the seat of the man who walked in looking for help and got it. And now he's born again and filled with the Holy Ghost and able to live for the Lord and not be enslaved. That delegated authority. Now, look with me in verse 28. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately. I don't blame them. There's a lot of things that I need to talk to about the Lord that I don't want any observers. When you're embarrassed about a lack of power, it's time to go talk to the Lord about it. I hope I can say this without causing too much trouble. I'm not sure the independent Baptist shouldn't take a sabbatical of all conferences for a year and nobody teach anything, nothing. But all of us get before the Lord and say, we have no clue what we're doing. Would you help us? from the least to the greatest. Just confess, God, help. Just ask the Lord privately, what's wrong with us? Here's the question. Why could not we cast him out? Now here's the answer. And he said unto them, this kind. Now you're gonna run up on that kind. You're gonna run up on that kind. This kind can come forth by, now would you circle this and mark this? Nothing. There are no alternatives. Remember when I first started I said if you would believe God it would save you a lot of things. If we would just believe God operated in the way he says himself he operates, it would sure save us a lot of time. It'd save us a lot of money. You know, the crucial parts of ministry don't cost anything. It didn't cost you anything to win a soul to Christ today. Right? You don't have to raise no money for it. You don't have to have any deputation. You can just win somebody to the Lord. and it didn't cost you anything to pray. Right? Save you a lot of frustration. Preachers all over the country are at their wit's end. I tell you, they're near suicidal. Just about every preacher you talk to will say something along these lines. These past five years have been the hardest I've ever had, even the ones who've only been in a year. They are literally, they're about mad. They're crazy. What am I going to do? How am I going to do it? Everything's dying. I know what I'll go over here and learn how from other people who don't know how either. Right? Because it says in this passage, nothing. When's the last time you ever went anywhere? and got an order of services, and all the classes said, today, this one will be on prayer and fasting. Number two would be prayer and fasting. This one would be on prayer and fasting. And this one, we're not even going to talk about. We're just going to pray and fast. I'm trying to sort of overdo it to drive home a point. Obviously, we have other things to teach and other things to understand. If the power of God is directly related to what Jesus said it was related to, why isn't that the core of what we're trying to do? Nothing but by prayer and fasting. Now I want to do something with you to try to illustrate. Imagine a young man graduating from Ambassador Baptist College this year, and he goes out and he takes his first pastorate. And let me just tell you right now, you have no clue what you're getting yourself into. I still wonder what's going on. Am I right, Brother Syrett? Isn't that true? It is an amazing thing in ministry because God always leaves you over your head. Because he wants all the credit. So you will always be in a situation that you can't help. And if you ever get to where you can do it without him, you're in worse shape than when you ran over your head. So this young man, he gets out there that first year, and the first year, man, he just runs on adrenaline. I got this. Got his schedule, got his preaching, preaches the best messages, gets him books, follows all the advice he was given, uses all his tools, and nothing happens. Next year, he backs up and hits her again. And most of us are real hard-headed or we wouldn't be independent babies to begin with. So it takes a good five years for us to learn anything. Five years into it, his wife's about to go nuts and his children don't know what's in their dad and he's about half crazy. And they're all trying to figure out how to get to church to go and the deacons are wondering if they should fire him. And finally, finally, he said, I gotta do something. So he starts surfing the internet. How to help your ministry grow? Will things come up? Oh yeah. How far on the top of the list do you think prayer and fasting will be when it bings up? How far up the list? It won't be on the list. Here are literally the things that will pop up. Or if you go to a conference, maybe you'd go to a conference like one of these where they sit around and what is the question they ask? The why conference or something? Here's one of the things that you'll learn. You need to change your wardrobe. Because when you're dealing with devils and men that need to be regenerated, suits are out of it. There are no spiritual power in suits now. In the 50s there was spiritual power in suits. But if you will wear skinny jeans and untuck your shirt, the power comes. Right? Now I'm not saying there's any power in suits and ties. That'd be just as foolish on our part. Right? But what I'm saying is what we're told to get rid of and replace it with has no bearing at all on ministry. And yet it's a major focus. Because you can't look like an old fuddy-duddy with a suit and have any power of God. It's the craziest thing ever. Right? We got old men now trying to look like they're on Vogue magazine. Because we've lost our minds. They look ridiculous and they can't breathe. Then they'll tell you you need to change your Bible version. Right? Because everybody knows there's no power in the King James. It's only been the foremost English translation in the history of the world. But somewhere about, what, oh, maybe 1900, 1850, the power just went right out of it. Just one day, churches were booming, souls were being saved, devils were being defeated and just gone. And Lifeway Bookstore figured out how to fix it. Isn't that silly? Absolutely silly. I was preaching for Mark 16, 15 one time and at the end of the service a woman raised her hand and said, you've preached the entire service on Mark 16, 15. It's not in my Bible. It's in mine. And a lot of other things are in mine that are not in theirs. I wonder if those things that are still in mine still have power. And when theirs lost it, they lost the power that went with it. Oh, if you'll change your music. Because we all know if it's got a little beat in it, it just terrifies the devils. Right? Scares them to death. You bring a lost man in that's demon-possessed and put on rock music and the devil will leave. That is ignorant, folks. It's more than ignorant. It's insane. but what it will do is entertain right on the hill. Huh? Now I'm not placing any stamp of approval on what we already do. I'm just saying that what we're told we should do absolutely has no power in it. Then we're told we need to change the church name because Baptists have never done any good in the world. Right? We had no bearing as Anabaptists all through the Dark Ages. Bunch of weaklings, all we survived was hundreds of years of persecution. Right? All we did is maintain a standard of purity and a love for Jesus Christ when they were dying. Right? There's no power in the Baptist church. Tell that to thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people that have come into a Baptist church and been converted by the grace of God and went home saved. Do you really believe you're going to get out of your little silly chair and go outside with a can of rattlesnake print and cover over Baptists and all of a sudden you're going back inside and the devils are going, I'm out of here. Now they're a community church. Power here. We're crazy. Then they tell us, change our preaching style. And the one thing that's got to be changed is authority. You do not want an authoritative man with an authoritative voice, with an authoritative message. But if you can tone him down, and tamper him down, and tame him down, the devils fear him. You tell you what the devil's fear? Authority. God's. And when God extends that authority to the kind of preacher God uses, he has authority. And the message he has, has authority. And the spirit world knows that. So now instead of those big leather lung preachers that carried their Bibles one soles to Christ, we got what we've got. And the church is getting more effeminate all the time. And I don't mean the contemporary church, I mean independent Baptists. The boys in our churches are getting more effeminate and effeminate and effeminate and effeminate. Bible colleges probably ought to put a farm out back and make them milk cows. Amen. You can't do nothing. You can't change the oil in your car, right? If you had to work for a living, you wouldn't know what to do. Someday you'll get into ministry and you'll end up in trouble in the ministry and need to go out and work a little job somewhere to help and you won't be able to do it and you'll become a crook in the ministry because you've never worked a day in your life. You don't know how to work. We've got to change that preaching. Then we've got to change our pulpit because everybody knows glass, these wooden, old wooden pulpits have no power. But you get a good glass one on there with a little dove on it, power. Or if you want ultimate power, no pulpit because it impedes power. And if you'll learn to sit on a stool and rest and take deep breaths and talk in a monotone voice, power. Then we got to get rid of our expectations of Christian living, which used to be evidence of power, right? Look at old so-and-so over there. He got saved and used to cuss like a sailor. I ain't heard him cuss in three or four years now, right? Just read a few weeks ago, a preacher took the time, a so-called preacher took the time to write an article on why it was okay for preachers to cuss. I couldn't believe it. I got saved at the wrong time. If I had just waited about 20 years and got saved, I wouldn't have had to change a thing. Then one of my personal favorites, we got to change the atmosphere in our churches. Pay attention, boys. Here's what you got to do. Once you get rid of the power impeding pulpit, you got to have a couple things. For one, you got to have lights, preferably colored mood lights, NFL strobe a little even better. And the more you have, and the more stage presence you can get, the more power you have. Because the devil can't stand lights. Especially the purple type that flash. Then, if it's right down there to it, brother child, where you've got a guy that's demon possessed, and he's on the brink of hell, and you've got to do something to really help, you've got to get a fog machine. You plug it in, your lights are flashing, the fog's coming up, and you bust out like you're in the Super Bowl. Power. Now I purposely, purposely tried to be a little silly there, because it is silly. But it's not silly to the man that needs help when he come to church. and he leaves without help and he dies and go to hell. And it's not silly to the young man who falls into that nonsense and spends the rest of his life chasing rainbows and ends up at the judgment seat of Christ in ashes. And it's not silly to the rest of the world that desperately needs the gospel and isn't getting it because we're sitting around playing crazy games taught by the experts. Just as a practical standpoint, I'm not going to any conference run by a 20-some-year-old man dressed in skinny jeans and a pink tie telling me how to get a glass pulpit. That's just practical common sense. Because if that's what he believes brings power, he's nuts. He don't have a clue what he's talking about. Power is vested in God, and God extends it to His called servants to do His work And Christ is entirely and totally and completely sufficient for all of these things. And if we would stop being silly and get back to what actually works, what He said would work, it will work.