Filled With Faith and Forgiveness
Notes
Transcript
Parent Commissioning Service
I know that most of us have been to church when they would do a baby dedication or something of the sort. You may notice that I am not calling this a baby dedication but it is a parent commissioning service, and there is a reason.
I firmly believe that the focus of any children's ministry is ultimately the home. Yes, it is good to bring your kids to church, but we only have them for 3 hours a week maximum. They are in the home every day of the week. They have ministry leaders and shepherds in their home every day of the week. Therefore, I do want to focus on the children because they are a gift from the Lord, but I want us to realize the importance of the parents in the life of the children.
I have been to several events over the years where they would have missionaries come in and be ready to go into the mission field and they would commission them to do so. The greatest mission field that most of us will ever serve in is in the home. So we want to look at parents as missionaries, and we want to commission you all to go into the mission field of the home and serve as missionaries for the Lord.
In essence, what you are doing is dedicating yourselves to the ministry of the home and we, as a church, are dedicating ourselves to support you in this mission.
This is not a baptism service. Baptism represents salvation and in no way can children this age make a confident profession of faith. But, our goal is to cultivate that in the lives of these children through you, as parents, in hope of one day seeing them make credible professions of faith and seeing them baptized as a profession of this faith. So, don’t see this as a ceremony that somehow guarantees your child’s salvation, but one of dedicating yourself, as parents, to the ministry work of parenthood.
I want to give us some charges and then I want to present you all with gifts that will be great tools for this ministry endeavor.
Charge to the parents -
By standing here, you are making a public commitment to raise up your children in a Christ honoring home. You are committing to disciple your children, to teach them scripture and the importance of it, to teach them how to pray, to raise them in the context of the local church, to teach them to love others and to love the lord with everything they have. And when they grow up and leave the home, you will support them to serve the Lord in whatever context he may call them to serve in. Pray for your children, love them, teach them about Jesus so that when they leave, you are confident that you have done all that you can to prepare them for whatever may come.
Charge to the church -
Church, it is our commitment to come alongside these families as they raise these children. We are to support these parents as they do the work of missionaries in their homes. This means that you commit to pray for them, to be there for them when they need advice(not unwarranted), to supply them with resources they may be helpful for them, even to offer to babysit for them to give them a night off if they need it. What you are saying is that you are there for them.
Gifts presentation
Sermon - Filled with Faith and Forgiveness
review from last week; this bookends the scene at the temple; called out the people about what they had turned the temple into
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.
21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Prayer
We now come to the third day in the last week of Jesus’s ministry on Earth before he goes to the cross. Often, we try to consolidate the last week of Jesus into the week before Easter as they teach through it. But that does not do it justice the events that took place. The book of Mark takes 5 chapters to lay it out for us, and this is not everything that even happened. So we are taking our time with it. Think of it as you are going on the scenic route through the country to get to the destination.
The theme of our passage today is prayer. What a wonderful thing for us to talk about on Mother’s day. Mom’s are often known for their prayer. I know that there are many of us here today that are thankful for the prayer of women in their life, whether it be mothers or grandmothers or just an influential woman in their life.
I want to give you an insight into my preparation with this sermon though. Because I have heard many, many sermons on prayer, specifically texts like the one we are in today, that do not do the text the justice it needs. You may wonder why? Well the problem often comes down to context. See, when we overlook the context, we misinterpret texts. So I truly wrestled with this text this week. I wanted to know that I was confident in what God’s word says right here, so that I could encourage you with it and that you will be empowered by the working of the Holy Spirit through God’s word.
I believe that scripture is so important to us, that we need to understand when to take things literal and when to see if something is a figure of speech. We need to understand the audience it is being written to and the type of literature it is. You don’t need to read poetic scripture as though it is a book of history. So we don’t need to read things outside of what the author intends it to be.
Last week, when I read our text as a whole, I added our passage for today in there. That is because it is one cohesive them and idea that is strung out between different settings. The idea is that of prayer. Jesus had walked to the temple, cleared out the temple, and declared that the temple should have been a “house of prayer”. But it wasn’t. So we pick up this same idea in our text this morning.
Main Point - Prayer without faith and forgiveness is powerless
Main Point - Prayer without faith and forgiveness is powerless
Who wants their prayers to be powerful? I believe every follower of Christ wants their prayers to have power. I want us to search the scripture today to find what powerful prayers truly should be focused on and how we have them.
To catch us up one more time, Jesus and his disciples went to the temple. On their way, they see a fig tree and Jesus goes up to it and sees that it has no figs but has beautiful leaves. He then curses this fig tree because it has no substance, even though it looks good. They continue to the temple and he declares the same thing over the temple. Looks good, no substance. Or as I said last week, big hat no cattle.
They go back to Bethany for the night. Then on the way back into Jerusalem, they see the fig tree again.
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.
Jesus had made a declaration of death upon this tree. And it had to do with not bearing fruit. Just as he had made the same declaration upon the temple. No fruit. I had mentioned last week how much I love the agricultural references in scripture because they still are very applicable today.
This picture of withering is so powerful. Withering is a sign of death. Maybe today, you feel like you are withering. What are signs of withering? Not producing fruit is the first sign of withering. For the Christian, we need to examine ourselves to see if we are producing the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. A Christian should have all of these. This isn’t a menu of options. But if you aren’t bearing fruit, you are in danger of withering. What do you do with something that is withering? Jesus tells us.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
When the fruit is not being produced, and the tree begins to wither, it doesn’t just stop at the fruit. We are told that this tree is withered all the way to the roots. We must root ourselves in Christ. And we will also see that apart of being rooted in Christ is being filled with faith and forgiveness.
21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
It is almost as if they are stunned that the tree has rotted. The disciples are about to learn a very valuable lesson in fruit bearing as they continue throughout this week. They will see Jesus be arrested, they will see him be sentenced to crucifixion, they will watch him hang on the cross and die. They will all fall away. But, then the resurrection will happen. Jesus is preparing them for what is to come. And in this moment, he is pointing them towards faith in God.
What is faith? Hebrews defines faith for us. Hebrews 11:1 “1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” We cannot see God, but we can have assurance of salvation through faith in the resurrection. Having faith is a command to the disciples from Jesus. But it is a command to us as followers of Jesus today. And that is the first sub-point in the text today.
Be Full of Faith
Be Full of Faith
Throughout history, there have been great stalwarts of the faith. I think of men such as John Wycliffe who gave his life to translate the bible into the common language. Men such as Martin Luther who carried the torch of the reformation against the Roman Catholic church to protest the teachings of things like purgatory. I think of more modern men such as Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of London in the 1800’s.
But I also think of men who may not be as well known today. Men such as Adoniram Judson. Adoniram Judson was born in 1788 to a congregationalist preacher. Although his father was a pastor, and he grew up learning the scriptures, he walked away from the faith as a young man. After losing a close friend, he began to search for truth which led to his conversion at the age of 20. 5 years later, he would wind up in Burma with his wife as a missionary. Burma was a war torn place, so it was not a paradise to serve in. In the first several years, he and his wife Ann had 3 children. None would live longer than 3 years old. He would then lose his wife. He would be thrown in prison for preaching the gospel.
Many people gave up as missionaries and did not last long in Burma. Adoniram stuck it out. His faith grew and he was steadfast. He stayed in Burma for 40 years and saw many come to faith and started many churches.
This is what it means to have faith. He could not see, but he believed that God would be faithful. In this scene, Jesus tells them to have faith in God. Then he goes into an explanation that sounds somewhat like a parable that has to do with prayer.
23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
This may be a familiar text to some of you. This is what I was mentioning earlier when I talked about how crucial context is. So, I want to set somewhat of a scene for you. They are on their way into the city again. They are looking at the Temple Mount and the Dead Sea. From Bethany, you would look straight ahead and it would be the temple at the beginning of Jerusalem. If you were to look to your left, it would be the Dead Sea. Those are two very important things as we look at this text.
This mountain would be both literal and an illustration for the disciples. See, the mountain is a representative of the heart. In the temple the day before, their big issue was their hearts. They did not have true faith, they did not have fruit, therefore the temple was misused and ultimately useless. This image of moving a mountain would represent a heart moving from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh.
This is why he goes from a fig tree to prayer. It has to do with faith. If your roots are dried up and withered, you don’t have faith. Therefore, your prayer is powerless. But we are called to have faith. If you want prayer to have power, you must have faith.
This verse is a very important verse. And we must have a deep understanding of what is going on for us to truly understand prayer. When Jesus is speaking, he is using imagery, but he is also being very specific to his disciples. He does not say, “whoever says to A mountain”, but he says this mountain. He is talking about the temple mount that is in front of them.
This image is even more impactful when we think of where they are, what they are looking at, and what had happened the day before. The day before, when he was in the temple, he declared to them that the state of the temple was not what God had intended. So he is talking about this mountain, the temple, being taken up and thrown into the sea, the Dead Sea. This Dead Sea represents what its name truly means, death. He is pronouncing the death of the temple.
To be thrown into the sea means death. Jesus has used this imagery before. Whenever Jesus was teaching about causing someone to stumble, he warned them that it would be better to die. Mark 9:42 “42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” And whenever he casted out the legion of demons into the herd of pigs, what did they do? Mark 5:13 “13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.”
Jesus is talking about the temple being destroyed. He is equating the faithless temple to the dead tree and comparing them to someone who values prayer. When he speaks of prayer, we need to look at all of scripture and see if what we think this may say actually lines up with what all of scripture says. We are in danger of twisting scripture to our own desires if we don’t do this.
If you wonder what things you should pray about, Jesus gives us a template.
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
We must know God’s will when we pray. God has not given me any sort of supernatural knowledge of his will, but he has given me his word. And this is full of his will.
What I often see is people superseding themselves to God. We think that we know better than God. This is not the point of prayer. Prayer is not us trying to get God to do what we want. Jesus told us, “your kingdom come, your will be done”. This should be our prayer. Prayer is not imposing our will on God but opening our lives up to God’s will.
If you are ever confused on how to pray or what to pray for, open up God’s word and pray it. What better way to see “your kingdom come” than for us to pray God’s words back to him. To pray his goodness, to pray his mercy, to pray his grace, to pray his promises back to him. Be full of faith. And if you are worried about what to pray, know that God is sovereign and knows what you need before you ever ask it. Matthew 6:8 “8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
This “ask” should not be like the “ask” that Herod had offered. When his step-daughter seduced him, he told her to ask him anything she wanted and he would give it to her. We should not treat God like this. There are some things that we should not ask for, and there are some things that God will not answer. He is not a genie in a bottle.
Mountain moving prayers. We must pray mountain moving prayers. I said the mountain represents the temple. This mountain was getting in the way of the work of God. Maybe you may wonder what our mountains are today. Our mountains are not sickness or pain. Our mountains are the things that get in the way of the advancement of the gospel. That was the temple. And Jesus, when he is talking about throwing the mountain into the sea, is talking about the destruction of the temple. But soon, he is going to give us a new temple. And at the center of this temple is the ability to pray faith filled, gospel centered, mountain moving prayers.
Be full of faith. But prayer, Jesus tells us, is not only about faith, it is about forgiveness.
Be Full of Forgiveness
Be Full of Forgiveness
On June 17th, 2015 in Charleston, SC, a young man walked into a church. He proceeded to attempt to ignite a race war by brutally murdering 9 people in the church. He would be caught, and arrested for this horrendous act. But, even in his attempt to cause this race war, he was unsuccessful. I am sure he was expecting the families to go on the news and to call people to hatred, but that isn’t what happened. No, they went on television and before the entire world, they told Dylann Roof that they forgave him for what he did. This was not some publicity stunt. This was a group of people who have been changed by the gospel and they are full of forgiveness.
Jesus wraps up our scene with yet another focus, one of forgiveness.
25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Forgiveness is at the center of Christianity. We are saved by grace through faith. Forgiveness comes from the grace we are shown. And we have faith that we have been forgiven by God. Because of that, we forgive. And forgiveness is not limited to certain people. While Jesus was hanging on the cross, and the hands of his enemies and unbelievers, he asked God to forgive them for what they were doing.
Paul wrote an entire letter to someone on forgiveness. He wrote a letter to a brother in Christ named Philemon. He is asking Philemon to receive back a man named Onesimus, who was once a bondservant to Philemon.
17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.
18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.
He is telling him to forgive this man for whatever he has done to you. Why? Because he is a brother in Christ now. Paul even tells him that this forgiveness is required in verse 8. Not suggested, but required.
I am afraid there are a number of people walking around that have not forgiven someone. They had that old friend one time that did that one thing and they are still holding it in. They have that one family member who borrowed a tool and never returned it, and they are still holding onto it. We must let it go and forgive. 32-35 is such an important part of the gospel that Jesus took time to teach on it. Not only here, but he told a parable that is recorded in the book of Matthew for us.
He tell us in Matthew 18 about a servant that owed 10,000 talents and was going to be sold to pay his debt, but he went to the king to beg for patience. Instead, the master forgave his debt. The same man went out and found a man that owed him 100 denarii(10,000 talents=6 million denarii). The man begged for patience and he refused and threw him in jail until he paid. His master was very displeased in him doing this after he was shown forgiveness.
32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.
35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
If we are like this man, Jesus tells us that we are in danger of the same fate. If we do not forgive, our salvation should be called into question. This is a very serious matter and we should see it the way that Jesus does.
We, as a church, are to build the kingdom and impact our community. Unforgiveness will never let this happen. We cannot build the kingdom of God up, both in the world and in our own lives, if we cannot forgive. If we are building the kingdom of God then we are showing others how the gospel has taken root in our life. If we cannot forgive, the gospel is not alive in us and we don’t understand it.
Listen, some of you may think that I am naive or something. You believe that there is no way that you can truly forgive someone of something. I have lived a lot of life. Your pastor is not some young kid who went to seminary and never worked a real job. I am not someone who has never experienced hurt or betrayal or loss. I have felt them greatly in my life. Yet, I know that what I have done to God is so much worse than anything that anyone else has ever done to me. But God has forgiven me.
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
If God can forgive you, you can forgive others. And if you want to have mountain moving prayers, you can’t have them without forgiveness.
Prayer without faith and forgiveness is powerless. Be full of faith, be full of forgiveness.
Conclusion
So how can we do this, how can I do this?
Surrender to Jesus - We must first have a saving faith. We do this through a response to the gospel (gospel presentation). Repent and believe.
Forgiving others - if you have any unforgiveness, you need to take care of this and forgive the person.
Praying the right things - Our prayers should not be selfish prayers but they should be gospel centered prayers. I have a few tips for us as we pray.
Be mindful of God’s glory
Be mindful of God’s omniscience
Be mindful of God’s plan
Be mindful of God’s power
Be mindful of God’s goodness
Are we praying for the right things? As we close out the sermon, we will sing another song of worship. As we do this, if you need to do any of these things, I want to challenge you to do it. There is nothing special about coming down to the front steps and praying but if you would like to come and me pray with you, please come down and I will do that.
Prayer
