Mark 9_11_29 outline

Text: Mark 9:11-29

Title: Valley Experiences

Intro: Life has Mountains and Valleys… (God on the Mountain)

Life is easy, when you're up on the mountain. And you've got peace of mind, like you've never knownBut things change, when you're down in the valley. Don't lose faith, for you're never aloneFor the God on the mountain, is the God in the valley. When things go wrong, He'll make them rightAnd the God of the good times Is still God in the bad times. The God of the day is still God in the night.

Orientate Text:

CPS: The Jesus of the Mountain is the Jesus of the valley and we must call on Him by faith and in prayer. This life is difficult and in our own power we are unable to advance His kingdom.

A Difficult Situation Vs. 14-19

A desperate world

When Jesus, Peter, James, and John came down from the mountain into the valley they found a crowd gathered around the remaining disciples. They encounter a father; whose little boy was in desperate need. The boy is possessed by a demon, he has symptoms of epilepsy, he has severe seizures, deaf, mute, and the demon often tries to kill the boy.

This world was not supposed to be like this, but it has fallen pray to disobedience… to sin. Because of sin this little boy suffers. Because of sin I suffer and because sin you suffer.

This world once was free of epilepsy, free from speech impediments, free from cancer, free from autism, free from diabetes, free from depression, free from anxiety, free from addiction, free from murder, free from evil, and free from death.

But, no more… this world is desperate….. it’s broken and people are searching for an answer for their brokenness and we have that answer.

The Church (Body of believers) has that answer….. Jesus!

A defeated church (vs.19)

This father brought his little boy to Jesus to be healed, but Jesus wasn’t there so he asked the disciples to cast it out, but they were not able to. They had cast out demons before (Mark 6:13) but this time they could not. They lacked power because they were trusting in their own capability.

Illustration: The church is to be like a lighthouse safely guiding a ship into the safety of the harbor. But we often times find our light is powerless in the darkness.

Why is that? Because we are not plugged into our power source.

Look around us, what do we see? A Valley! A low place desperately in need and we are to fill that need by the power of Jesus. People are lost and going to hell, people are addicted to drugs and are enslaved to them. We see immorality and pure evil, murdering babies by the millions but screaming injustice because someone wants to build a wall to help protect our people. A nation who has removed itself from God’s presence and will soon remove itself from God’s graces.

This nation doesn’t mock God anymore… it denies His existence.

We fail because we do ministry in our own power, not trusting in the Lord of the Church…. Jesus. Not trusting in the Holy Spirit who He has given to us. A dependence on self has caused the church to be defeated.

Transition: We live in valleys here on earth, We may be down but we are not out. There is a solution.

A Divine Solution Vs. 19-29

Oh, faithless generation, how long should I put up with you, how long should I suffer you? Vs. 19a

Jesus cultivates faith

Bring him unto me. Vs. 19b

They brought the boy to Jesus and when the evil spirit saw Jesus it broke bad, and threw the boy down. The boy’s father is desperate… he cries out” help us if you can…have compassion on us!”

Jesus answers if I can…. Can Jesus! Yes! He is the creator of the universe, God cloaked in humanity. Jesus said all things are possible for the one who believes. Faith!

The Assurance of thing hoped for, the conviction of things unseen. By Faith kingdoms were conquered, justice was administered, promises obtained, the mouths of lions were shut, raging fire quenched, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign enemies to flight. By faith the dead were raised to life. (Hebrews 11:1, 33-35a)

(NB) The impossible is made possible through faith!

The father cries out, “Lord … I believe, help my unbelief” vs. 24b

It seems the father was doubting because he saw the disciples powerless over the demon….. We want to believe but we constantly find ourselves living in doubt.

That demon was no match for Jesus. “ I charge thee come out of the boy and enter him no more.” The demon had to obey…. All things are subject to Jesus.

When the demon exited the boy, his body lay on the ground motionless. “like a corpse” many said he was dead. Was he dead? The bible doesn’t say, but Jesus took him by the hand and raised him. This is preview of the resurrection, answering Peter, James, and John’s question “What does rising from the dead mean?”

By faith Jesus can raise people from the dead. Jesus will raise from the dead everyone who calls upon His name.

Jesus corrects failures

We all fail, we all have lapse in faith, like a good teacher Jesus takes His disciples away privately and patiently corrects their failure.

The disciples ask, “Why could we not cast out this demon?” (vs. 28) Jesus corrects their failure by telling them only “Prayer and fasting can cast this kind of demon out.”

Prayer, you were not relying on the Lord you were relying on yourself. Self is incapable… but Jesus is capable.

Life is a war, there is a battle going on and our enemy is powerful, more powerful than any human can possibly be. We can’t win that battle ourselves.

Illustration: Calling in fire support….. Because of faith we know Who to go to. We know how to get to Him. Prayer is your communications link to the Lord of Glory. We need to call in fire support. Through prayer we can call headquarters for everything we need as the kingdom of Christ advances.

Prayer makes our weapon powerful, Prayer is for wielding the word of God.

“Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” (Eph. 6:17-18)

Take the sword praying!

What is the Divine Solution? Jesus… How do we have access to Him? By faith and prayer.

Application: Peter, James, and John came off the mountain where they saw the Glory of Jesus and entered into the valley below meeting their fellow disciples who were discouraged.

We can learn great lessons from Mountaintop Experiences and we recall them in order to help us carry on. Peter wrote about His time on the Mountain in 2nd Peter as he is nearing the end of his life, he tells his audience the trustworthiness of the prophetic Word. “We heard it with our own ears on the Holy Mountain”

Those times in the valley are difficult and we find ourselves there more often than we do on the mountain top. But there are lessons to be learned there too.

We are incapable of doing anything to advance the kingdom of Christ in our own power.

We must rely on the promised Word of God and wage war through faith and prayer… that is our connection to Him and we must stay in step with Him always.

Conclusion: We need to bring the glory of the mountain to the gloom of the valley. The same Jesus that we meet on the mountain is the One our hurting world needs in life’s valley’s.

Learn from those times in the valley that we are powerless to make it on our own.