Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost: Bring your Doubts to God

Unedited Transcript Follows:

The name of God, the Father, the Son. The Holy spirit. Amen. Amen. So, as I reflected on, today's story in Mark, I was actually brought to a moment from when I was much younger. Uh, the year I think it was 1990 and it was in the rural Countryside of France.

And I was there on a mission trip with my parents. And I remember during a worship service. Something interrupted everything and a woman started screaming. There was definitely not a normal scream. It was very deep. Guttural, masculine voice. Very loud and very, very Unforgettable. Um, and I remember feeling very scared, hearing it.

Uh I think I was 12 at the time so you could probably do the math to figure out how old I am but do that later. Um, But it was an unforgivable scream and it was was really clear to me, was that was a very evil scream and it shook me to my bone.

And the worship leader told the spirit to be silent in the name of Jesus in French. Of course. Um, But the the whatever it was understood Fringe because the evil sound stopped, It was my first memory of encountering an evil. And still leaves me unsettled today. Now. In that episode, I was encouraged that the power of Jesus was stronger than that Spirit.

But also showed me that there really were deep spiritual threats, uh, that could harm us. But I'd say that today's passage still feels awkward for many of us, because those kind of really outward, demon manifestations seem far. Less evident to us in today's time and place. Now, there's multiple reasons for this.

One reason might be Were perhaps too quick sometimes to medicalize things that might be manifestations. We could be suppressing, real spiritual torment, that is happening right now. Amongst us. But I think there could be other reasons too. I had an interesting chat with a youth. Pastor up near Layton who uh, did a mission strips in South Africa, said in South Africa.

It's very different. You see a lot more demonic manifestations. They're very clear, but he said, it's He believes it's because people there actively cooperate with those Spirits. So those Spirits are incentivized to operate out in the open. And his argument was a reason you might not see him act in the same way here is because we still have a lingering Christian Heritage and if we saw stuff like that it actually could probably drive a lot of people back to church which is definitely not an outcome.

Those Spirits are seeking so um but whatever. The reason his experience in South Africa, my experience in France. And today's passage shows that evil forces really do exist that can harm people. How might we as Christians deal with them? What about anything else? We need God's help. What do we do when we don't get Deliverance?

We want when we pray, What do we do when we have doubts? When that happens. Hopefully, today's passage and Mark will help a little bit with this. And as we'll see, it shows that when facing trials, that shake your faith, bring your doubts, to God, let them transform you to be more like Christ.

So, the passage starts off by describing Jesus, along with Peter, James, and John, it doesn't name him, but we know from the previous passage where they're at. Showing up and rejoining the rest of his disciples where they had just been, was experiencing the Transfiguration. If you just turn the page to the left in your Bible, that's where they were.

They had basically those three disciples that just experienced the full power and Glory of Jesus. It is a little ironic that as they're coming down, from this literal Mountaintop experience, they're seeing their fellow disciples Uh, see me looking kind of Clueless powerless and frustrated. Uh, when they had just seen all the stuff that with with Jesus on the Transfiguration, Um, and they're arguing with scribes.

So an obvious question is, what are they arguing about? Which Jesus asked them? And then a man comes up and says, I brought my son to you to be healed of a spirit that makes him mute now, what's interesting? He says, I brought my son to you when I just explained Jesus was not there, he was at the Transfiguration with those three disciples.

So why did he say you? I think he assumed rightly that Jesus had conferred his power and authority to Jesus, Um, and I say you assumed rightly because this happens in chapter six, Jesus commissions, the disciples to proclaim the coming of kingdom of God to the region. And it's explicitly includes giving the authority over unclean, spirits, and Mark tells us, that his disciples did go on to cast demons and heal the sick.

So basically, Jesus had told his disciples to act as his hand and feet and they had repeatedly done so by this point And that explains why the man brought his disciple. His sick, man, too. Though, makes sense. It also makes sense why it was pretty frustrating for all involved.

That despite the disciples trying to drive him out, they were unsuccessful. And this is undoubtedly, the reason why the scribes are arguing with the disciples A good chance they're arguing about well, maybe you weren't using the right techniques or More importantly, they were probably challenging the source of their authority to drive out those evil spirits.

So that's the context that Jesus arrives there. And his response wasn't just to the whole man, but the whole crowd and he says o faithless generation. How long am I to be with you? What this shows is that Jesus recognized that the people's lost confidence in their disciples ability to heal had transferred also to him.

They lost their, their fate in Jesus ability to heal. And we know from, uh, Jesus. Visit to his hometown. There's a correlation between lack of faith and lack of Jesus. Being able to perform Miracles. But regardless of this, he apparently still sees some evidence of Faith because he asked the father, bring the boy to me.

And when the boys brought to Jesus, it goes berserk, because it clearly recognizes Jesus, unique Authority as Son of God, and is rightfully threatened by that. Jesus. Then asked the man how long this has been happening. And the father said it was like this from childhood. And I just want to pause here for a second because when I read that, I got a little uncomfortable, I'll be honest.

As Christians, we all affirm, all humans are sinful including children. But demon possession for a kid, seems like That seems like a big stretch. I I mean, we know Well we know all people sin, we do view children often as more innocent than adults. I mean think about we even have laws that protect kids from not being legally.

Accountable for their actions. Like we do adults. So like the temper tantrum, your kid throws at the grocery store. Um you it's just immaturity, it'll work itself out when it gets older sure, it's a reflection of his sinful nature, but it's not really a serious just immaturity and there is an element of Truth here.

Children are less mature in their faculties than adults, and that makes it just harder for them to see outside themselves and their immediate desire. Like when they want that candy bar at the store, And but I would say often the reason those kids stop throwing temper tantrums is not because they naturally just stop doing it.

It's because they have parents. They help build character through discipline and instruction. If that didn't happen, it's much harder for kids to grow out of sinful behavior. And that definitely leads to much bigger problems as adults. You're probably hearing that saying. Okay, fair enough. But it's still still demon possession.

Still a big, uh, hurdle for me to walk over. How do we make sense of that? I so first we're not told how the evil spirit entered. The boy, Jesus just asked and he said it was, he's been like this since he was a kid. Um, so I don't want to spec, I want to be very cautious with speculating too much.

But we do know that evil spirits, don't enter people accidentally, they do have to be invited in. So in that sense we do have to find that a bit unsettling. It says that none of us including children are just automatically immune from this kind of thing happening. It 10 and does happen.

But as Christians, I also need to stress. It's not something we need to live in fear of Things like baptism regular communion confessing sins fellowship with other believers prayer. These are all robust Safeguard that God protects us from things like that. But it does mean we need to be viligent when we interact with the outside.

There are evil happenings out there. That don't discriminate based on age, gender, ethnicity, ethnicity. They're really big on diversity and inclusion. They don't discriminate. Uh and that's a, that's a problem that's in a bad way. So the father then pleads with Jesus to rescue his boy saying if you can do anything.

Have compassion and help him. By saying if you can, it's it still shows. He has some doubts that Jesus can save his boy. Now it's interesting. Please respond by flipping that right back at him. If you can, all things are possible for the one who believes Again, Jesus stressing that lack of faith was keeping the boy from being healed.

God's powers made real for the one who trusts in him. And being uniquely fully human and fully. God, Jesus is the only human capable of having complete trust in God, on one hand and being aligned with his will. And that's why the results of our prayer. Like those disciples don't always match the results.

We desire. In this case, it's cure. The boys will did align with the boy's father. God always desires, evil spirit us to be freed of evil spirits. But in this case it was it was a father's faith. That was lacking and then we get to the man's just incredible response.

I believe. Help my unbelief. It's just a really powerful and encouraging statement. He's basically admitting here, he both believes, Jesus can heal his boy but also still has doubts. He's making an expression of a faith. For a faith. He doesn't fully have What's key, though, is, instead of allowing his doubts to paralyze him, he just moves closer to Jesus.

He acknowledges the limits of his own power and asks, Jesus, to do the rest, What's cool is instead of Jesus saying, you need to just try harder in your faith. Jesus cures his son. It shows that the man's Faith had been strengthened. When facing trials, that shake your faith, bring your doubts to God, let him transform you to be more like Christ.

Jesus response here. She just is just a huge encouragement for all of us. For many Christians throughout history, especially in our very skeptical times doubt is often a frequent companion of Even some of you may have never experienced serious doubt. But it still may come even when you least expect it.

But what it does instead of being guilt or fear when it happens, this passage shows that doubt is just part of our normal walk with Christ. And regarding this verse John Calvin said, there's none of us that does not experience both faith and doubt in himself even Calvin doubted and guess what?

He was absolutely not alone in the fathers of the church. Some of their best writings came out of their doubts which continue to enrich us today. Now Mark, finishes by focusing on the disciples who go to Jesus afterwards and ask him why they couldn't cast the spirit out. That's a very valid question especially since chapter six makes it clear.

The disciples had a track record of doing that previously. So it's a fair question. Why didn't it work this time? Now, we're told when we're told earlier that the disciples drove out, demons, Mark doesn't say how they did it. Maybe they just been commanding the spirits to come out just like Jesus did.

But somehow, whatever they were doing, didn't work here. What's important to know is? Jesus doesn't chastise them for lack of faith here. It just indicates that this particular kind of spirit may have required a more intense form of prayer than what they've been doing. Now being God, Jesus is able to directly exercise his authority over the spirit.

He just commands it to come out. But for the disciples, and for us for that matter, this episode shows that certain challenges might require more Focused prayer than others. Might involve inviting others to pray with us for a situation. It might require us spank some intentional time in a room praying.

Our clergy, for example, entered a period of intense prayer for a premature deathly ill, baby in Idaho and praise God. God, brought miraculous healing. So there's definitely power in intentional praying and sharing prayer requests. What's another application of this passage? Well one, I I think it definitely forces us to wrestle with the reality.

We are all prone to doubting. It could come like in this passage when God doesn't respond to prayer in the way that we want. Like when he feels to heal some, someone needing help. But also could come, when we encounter scripture, we don't understand or don't I have trouble accepting.

We hear a compelling arguments from Skeptics that we just don't know how to respond to We can't wrap our minds around why God seemingly allows certain evil people to flourish. Well, righteous people are struggling to pay their bills, all of these types of things can trigger doubt, and when it happens to you, it's important to remember, that doubt is an invitation to move closer to God.

That's what happened to the man in the story, by admitting his doubts to God and praying for help God, strengthen his faith as evidenced by the subsequent healing. When facing trials, that shake your faith, bring your doubts to God, let him transform you to be more like Christ. So, When we enter a season of Doubt, what can we do?

Well, let's let's take a look at unanswered. Prayer. First, we may pray with genuine faith, that God will do something, and sometimes it doesn't happen. A, a an example of this, a good example of this is, is serious illnesses. Doubt here is totally understandable because that kind of suffering that we've all seen, is simply heartbreaking.

There's just no getting around it. But if you're in a situation like that something important to reflect on is that the point of Jesus Earthly Ministry was never to heal every single Universal ailment of every human on the planet that they would. So that they would never suffer or die in the present age.

First off, Jesus didn't heal everyone and even those he did heal that had Faith. They all eventually died even Lazarus. He rose from the grave. Would eventually die? When uh, that's because his healings were not the end in and of themselves, they served as a sign. That's why John's gospel calls them signs.

They were pointing to the Future resurrected life. He desired for all Humanity. When sickness and death will finally and fully be abolished the life. He gives in those healings They're temporary, but they point to that Eternal future. And invites us to participate in that future right now. So we certainly should pray for healing and Rejoice when God does heal.

But never forget that the primary purpose for us being on this Earth is to be shaped to be more and more like Christ to have our lives modeled more and more into one's prepared, for eternal life, not to never experience suffering. So when God doesn't respond respond to our prayers, in the way we prefer, it could be as in the story today.

A case of lack of faith but there could be another reason beyond our understanding. But however, God responds to our prayer. We could be confident. It's aligned with his will that we are moved to become more and more like Christ. So as we wrestle with disappointment prayer requests, we need to keep this will of God Central in our minds.

We should pray that God show us. How in light of tragic situations, he wants us to move closer to him. When facing trials, that shake your faith, bring your doubts, to God, let them transform you to be more like Christ. Now, some of you might be experiencing intellectual or spiritual doubts, And I first want to point out there are some really really good first-rate apologetic resources in print and especially online right now that are a huge value.

It's it's actually pretty incredible. Trust me. Whatever you're struggling with other Christians throughout history have wrestled with them as well. Let God speak to you through how he helped them wrestle those issues. But also, please talk about with other believers. Certainly Father James or I pray with us. Some of, you know, I went through some very serious intellectual doubts just over a decade ago and I really, really lament.

The fact, I bottled up a lot of my thoughts and issues inside. I did it far too long. It takes a lot of courage to be vulnerable to someone. But yeah, but God really, really honors that courage. You're allowing him to do important work in you. And it, it takes courage, because it's scary.

You don't know what you're gonna end up at the other end of that Journey. But it's a way God is preparing, you for an everlasting life with him. Never lasting life of comfort and peace. So please give God all your doubts. Allow him to keep transforming you more and more and the person he designed you to be.

The person that will spend eternity with him, amen.