Do you have the right faith?

If you have a bible open it up to Matthew 17. I have titled the message this morning do you have the right faith?

I want to get into the text quickly this morning.

Matthew 17:14–20 “14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.””

Really this text and the past 7 months have got me thinking about faith, and how important it is to have the right faith, and It was not until I began looking at this sermon, and thinking about my own faith that I see the greatest problem I have and probably you have is not that I don’t believe because I do, but in my belief I dont always have Jesus alone in mind. And I will unpack what I mean by that as I preach this text this morning.

Now for those who follow along every sermon I have a main idea and its this..

Jesus is looking for people who have faith in him, not ourselves or our circumstances.

We need faith just the right kind of it and I want you to leave here today having the right kind of faith. So its quite the change in setting from last week. Remember when Jesus is up on the mountain revealing his divinity now he goes down the mountain and sees the world for which he came to save. That has all kinds of fallenness. All kinds of sin, and effects of sin, and here we see in a fallin world a demon possessing this young boy, and we see a Father who is desperate for Jesus to do this miracle.

First point is this.

We must have a desperate faith in this fallin world.

I have shared this with some of you before but I did not grow up much in church went here and there as a child, but through my church experience I heard alot of about the devil, but not much about demons or the effects of demons in this world, and we see them at work over and over again in the Bible, and we see there presence in this world.

In the case of this boy he is so demon possessed that he has seizures and suffers, and falls into the fire and water all the time. He needs someone to heal him. And the disciples for one reason or another cannot get this demon out of this boy.

Lets talk about demons for a minute and do so from a unique perspective I encountered in my study. THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is C. S. Lewis's little book on the big problem of demons in our modern world. It consists of a series of letters written by Screwtape, an important official in the devil's hierarchy (or "Lowerarchy" as Lewis phrases it), to Wormwood, his nephew, a junior devil residing on earth. These letters are all instructions on how to corrupt the beliefs of Wormwood's "patient," a young man is who is in danger of becoming a Christian.

In Screwtape's seventh letter he gives this instruction on how to avoid detection:

My Dear Wormwood, I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command [the Devil]. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves.

Of course this has not always been so. We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and skeptics.

At least, not yet. Screwtape continues,

I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalize and mythologize their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in us (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy (God].... If once we can produce perfect work, the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but truly worshipping, what he vaguely calls 'forces' while denying the existence of “spirits' —then the end of the war will be in sight.

"But in the meantime," Screwtape concludes, "We must obey our orders, I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark.

A commentator would go on to add. The fact that 'devils are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you, If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you."!

Today's text records an exorcism! That's easy to overlook because there is so much talk here about faith (the exorcism easily gets buried under all the conversation surrounding it), and it's easy to overlook because we are in the practice of overlooking such things. You see, we have a category for what is said in verse 15, where the father says of his son, "he is an epileptic or our version seizures," but we don't know what to do with what is done in verse 18, "And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him." The demon?

For us, the Screwtapes and Wormwoods of this world, who are unapologetically presented to us in Scripture, need an apologetic. Yes, in a culture where unseen demons are seen as funny, fluffy team mascots-the Blue Demons of DePaul or the Red Devils of Manchester United, to name two of 200 examples-the idea of a demon so controlling a little boy that he is out of control is far from our mind's eye. But it ought not to be!

If we are to get into this text we need to move from our modern worldview into the Biblical worldview. We need to move from the culture we live in, which is made up of "Materialist Magicians" - people who, on one hand, won't believe in anything unless there is scientific data to support it, and who yet, on the other hand, believe in almost anything that has the ring of “magic" to it. Today it strikes us as perfectly normal that the FBI would hire a psychic to solve a case and that a computer programmer is a witch on the weekends. We need to move from that into believing that reality includes the existence and the effects of unseen spirits. For you see, as Jesus comes down from the mount of transfiguration, he walks into the valley of "a demon-infested world.

Paul even says in Ephesians 6:12 “12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Demons are real they are all around us and the presence of demons is plenty enough reason to have a desperate faith. The demons of this world come in many forms as we even see in this text, and if we do not have faith we are more susceptible to them. And we dig even deeper into this sermon we see that the greatest problem for the disciples was not the demon, but a lack of something faith.

2nd point is this.

Jesus calls us to have greater faith.

Listen to verse 17 again. Matthew 17:17 “17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.””

Though Jesus helps us in our weakness he also condemns us for a lack of faith. He wants us to have greater faith. We see Jesus confronted by alot of helplessness. Helpless Father, Helpless boy, Helpless disciples who cannot do the task that Christ gave them authority to do. And he addresses not only the disciples but the whole generation of Isreal who refuse to have the right faith in Jesus.

And Jesus says simply they are two things they are faithless and twisted.

The people of Isreal had this long history of seeing the faithfulness of God to them over and over again and how did they respond when the messiah the Son of God came with faithlessness. It anyone should have trusted God it should have been yet they were faithless.

And they were what also twisted. they could not think strait everything they were suppose to do and believe was all messed, and Jesus says How long am I to bear with you.

He was disappointed in them because of their lack of faith, and here he was possibly foreshadowing the reality I am not going to be with you forever.

So he says bring him here to me, and what does Jesus do he heals him. He rebuked that Demon right out of that boy, and he was healed marks gospel says he convulsed when Jesus commanded the demon to come out of him. But Matthew says that he was healed instantly.

And as this took place the disciples asked him privately why could WE not cast it out? Well they have what some of the scholars I was looking at called little faith and they say this and I agree with the statement because notice the word We. I am guessing along the way of these disciples after casting out demon after demon seeing it happen again and again started having faith in their abilities and not the abilities of God.

You could even argue that they themselves thought they were the magicians.

In fact one man said some really powerful words… He says.. Little faith is not directed to Jesus, and little faith is not humble before Jesus.

But mustard-seed faith is the opposite. It's big on Jesus and not too big on self. It's humble prayer to Jesus. Just look at this man. This father's faith is mustard-seed faith. He's kneeling. Kneeling is not the posture of self-worth. He's begging. Begging someone else to help you because you're helpless doesn't strengthen one's inner ego. And begging someone on behalf of someone else is far removed from the natural necessity of looking out for number one. So, yes, he's kneeling and begging Jesus, and as he is doing so the mountain is girding its loins, and up and off it goes down the road, into the abyss, as far away as Heaven is from Hell.

I have argued several times now that Jesus starts off that sermon on the mount saying in verse 3 of chapter 5.

Matthew 5:3 “3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

IN order to be a faithful Christian that has the kind of faith that Jesus wants us to have we lower ourself in desperation like this faith knowing that its Jesus who can move mountains. See what matters most is not how much faith we have. Because you can have alot of faith in yourself your spouse your mom or dad or your job and it wont get you anywhere if the object of your faith is not Jesus. What truly matters is not that we have faith in our abilities in our God given assignments what matters if we have faith In God.

One man said.. Do you want to move mountains? I'm not talking about commanding Mount Kilimanjaro to skip into the Indian Ocean. And neither is Jesus. I'm not talking about getting that new Rolls-Royce you've been eying in that magazine. And neither is Jesus. God is not your personal pleasure genie.

Your wish is not his command. But do you want to move mountains the mountains God wants you to move?''

You don't need the world's bigger backhoe; you just need a bit of faith in the right mountain-mover, Jesus. You don't need more self-reliance. You don't need more gumption. You dont need more faith in faith. You need humble faith in Jesus. For apart from him in his own words, "you can do nothing" (John 15:5), but if you abide in him , "ask whatever you wish" -according to God's will and for his glory — and Jesus promises, "and it will be done for you" (v. 7).

It's not the amount of faith it's the posture and object of faith. Mustard-seed faith is humble prayer to Jesus for power over evil— the evil we see and the evil we don't see in this demon-infested world.

I believe God wants us to do incredible things for his kingdom, but we can only do that Church if our faith rests in him, and not our own abilities. Jesus wants us to have a greater faith in him.

I love sharing stories of those who came before us and seeing what God did through him and taught them listen to one of those examples here as we close from the eyes of other men.

Some of you are familiar with the brave missionary John Paton. If not heres a slice of his story. In 1858 he traveled from his native Scotland to serve the natives of the South Seas in New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). After he had learned enough of the local language, he began to translate the Gospel of John into their tongue. However, he puzzled over how to translate one of the Apostle John's favorite expressions, ("believe in").

He puzzled over this important expression because (a) the natives had no specific word in their language for trust, which made sense because (b) they were a group of cannibals, a group that knew little or nothing about such a concept. Paton was relieved when his servant, who was a converted native, arrived on the scene and came to his assistance. Sitting at his desk, Paton asked him, 'What am I doing?" The man replied, "You are sitting at a desk." Paton then raised both his feet off the floor and sat back on his chair. "Tell me, what am I doing now?" The servant, in his native tongue, used a verb that means"to lean your whole weight upon." That was the precise expression Paton was looking for and the one he used throughout his Gospel translation for the all-important verb "believe in?" “To lean with your whole weight upon"—isn't that what we see here with this desperate but dependent father? By expecting everything from Jesus and nothing from his "own piety or power,"? and by yielding his insufficiency to the "true sufficiency" of Christ," this faithful father "leans with his whole weight upon" Jesus, and in doing so he becomes for us a great model of genuine faith a faith that is aware of inadequacies, a faith that takes no confidence in itself, a faith that does not judge Jesus by the weakness of his followers, a faith that looks to the powerful Son of God and to him alone, and a faith (quite simply) that kneels and prays, "Lord, have mercy."

Do you have that faith? It's not big faith! It's just a faith that humbly prays to Jesus for the dynamite to do the difficult, for the power to overcome the impossible. Do you have that faith? It can be yours. Just get down on your knees before him and pray that you will have faith.

I have already mentioned but maybe the problem we have as a church as Christians in this day in age is we have this idea ingrained in our mind that we are enough, and that we can overcome the obstacles in our lives, but that is not what Jesus teaches and that is not faith.

Faith says God I cant but you can God i am weak but you are strong, God I cannot overcome, but you overcame, and I believe Jesus wants us to have that kind of faith.

The power of our faith rests in who God is. Remember the mustard seed is one of the tiniest seeds found in the Middle East, so the conclusion is that the amount of faith needed to do great things is very small indeed. Little is much when it comes from God. If you remember the mustard seed in the parable grows to be what a huge tree, which grew into the gospel being preached to the world for now close to two thousand years, and whats remarkable as well is when we believe our faith starts as this small seed and grows into something incredible in us and around us.

Let me close with this..Faith means to stay focused on Jesus. This is one of the most striking demonstrations of the function of faith in our personal lives and in our ministries. The generation of that day was described as being “without faith” (17:17) while Jesus’ disciples were described as having “little faith” (17:20). That Jesus was not talking about the amount of faith in the disciples is indicated by the analogy to the smallest of all seeds, the mustard seed. Instead of amount, Jesus pointed to the effectiveness of faith. The smallest faith can accomplish the greatest deeds, such as moving a mountain, if it is properly focused. We do not accomplish anything on our own. It is God who is at work through us, and our role is to yield ourselves to him so that he can accomplish what he wants. Thus, the important thing once again is to listen to Jesus, hear what he calls us to do, and then simply say yes to his will for us.

I saw this up close in the first pastorate that my wife and I served. The wife of one of our elders was gravely ill and hospitalized. The doctors gave her only days to live. Her husband called me one evening and asked if I would gather the other elders and come to pray for her. I was a young and completely inexperienced pastor, but they looked to me to offer some hope. As we gathered in her hospital room, we prayed and anointed her. I went home that night exhausted with the ordeal of her condition but peaceful with the way in which we had placed her in God’s hands. The next day her husband called early in the morning with intense excitement in his voice. His wife was showing improvement! The doctors were amazed at her recovery, and within two to three weeks she was released from the hospital. Although she was in her seventies and suffered repercussions from her illness, she went on to live four more years.

It was a miraculous healing that profoundly affected the entire church. One of the other elders in the church also had a bedridden wife, suffering from a severe spinal injury. She likewise asked us to come to pray over her. I was feeling as if a whole new ministry was opening up! As we gathered around her bed, we prayed the same prayers, used the same anointing, and had the same hope. But this woman was not healed. In fact, she got worse.

Did we have more faith when we prayed in the first incident than in the second? No, I don’t believe so. I believe that we acted out of the same primary motivation: We were seeking God’s will for each woman. In the first case it was God’s will that she be healed; it wasn’t God’s will in the second case. We were God’s instruments by which he demonstrated his will. The second woman later declared to us that not being healed was the best thing that ever happened to her, because she learned to rely on God in the middle of her suffering. This eventually led to her developing a ministry to others in like circumstances.

It is not the amount of our faith that works miracles. It is the focus of our faith on Jesus who will work miracles through us according to his will. Jesus’ point is that anyone with any amount of faith can do the most unthinkable things, if that is what God has called us to do. Therefore, we should not place confidence in what we have; rather, we should be confident that if God calls us to do something, we can do it in his strength, even the most absurdly impossible-sounding things from the world’s point of view. That is the primary point of the apostle John’s statement, 1 John 5:14–15 “14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

Church I want the kind of faith for us that is confidence in Christ. I want us to have real faith, that trusts not in our own abilities but in Christ. Christ is calling us to a greater faith…

So two questions? First do you have saving faith? A faith that trusts Christ for your salvation a faith that believes Jesus died for you. And if you do believe that do you have faith that of a mustard seed? Let us pray.. .