Do you believe I can do this?

April 10th 2022

Series: Questions from Jesus

Sermon Title: Do you believe I can do this?

Topic: Major questions Jesus asks us and how knowing the answer can transform our lives.

Key Passages: Matthew 9: 27-30, Hebrews 11:6, Hebrews 11:1, Luke 6:45,

Sermon Blurb: God can literally change anything in our lives. But if we are honest, we often live like we do NOT believe that. In this message we see Jesus ask this simple question, “Do you believe I can do this?” Through faith Jesus changes 2 men’s lives through that question.

Sermon:

Family Moment

Hello Family Church!!!

Welcome to week 2 of our series called, “Questions from Jesus.”

In this series we are not looking for answers……we are looking for good questions….

Because those questions will lead us to the answers we need!

In the Bible we see something interesting about Jesus….. Does anyone from last week remember what that was?????

Jesus asked lots of questions!!!

OVER and OVER and OVER again.

You can barely read one conversation before you see Jesus throwing a question back at those who were asking Him questions.

Jesus asked so many questions… But why?

Why questions and not just answers?

PAUSE

This month we are going to look at four of the most important questions that Jesus asked.

PAUSE

Last week we saw Jesus asks the question, “Why are you so afraid?”

If you ever struggle with fear and you missed last week’s message let me encourage you to go listen to last week’s message.

This week we will see Jesus as a different question. Jesus will ask the question, “Do you believe I can do this?”

I mean if we are honest…..

The reason why we fear is because we do NOT believe God is going to get us through whatever is going on in our lives…..

And then next week you are going to want to make sure you are here and please bring all your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers that do not know Jesus because we are going to address the question of, “Why do you Doubt?”

I can promise you it will be a super practical message for anyone who has ever doubted in Jesus and help them through that!

PAUSE

Then we will wrap up this month listening to one last question from Jesus, “Do you want to be get well?”

A lot of us have our issues…

We often talk all the time about wanting to be out of them…

But when the rubber hits to road….

Oftentimes….we stay….

We stay at the job we hate.

We stay in an abusive relationship.

We stay overweight.

Often….when we could change…..we don’t….because change is hard.

If you struggle with that make sure you are here at the end of the month.

PAUSE

If you have your Bible with you, please open it up to the Gospel of Matthew 9.

New Person Bible / App talk

If you need a miracle, I believe, with all my heart, this week’s message will speak to you, when we see Jesus ask two blind guys, “Do you believe that I’m able to do this?”

I want to give you some background as we are getting to Matthew 9 to make sure we are all starting at the same place.

We are going to pick up this story just after Jesus healed a little girl.

Well, he did a little more than heal her….He raised her from the dead – which blew everybody’s mind, as you can imagine.

Imagine for a second…. You are at a funeral visitation for a little girl who died….

And this guy walked into the room….

Then moments later this same guy and the little girl walked are walking around…. she is obviously alive and well!

Everyone in this room would go CRAZY if that happened….

PAUSE

That is what just happened just before we pick up the story.

So you know that rumor mill was spreading about Jesus and the amazing things he was doing.

Background to today’s message…

PAUSE

So, into this scene enter two blind men, each of them wishing for a miracle.

They heard about Jesus and the incredible things.

Now, they wanted to see if they could get his attention to heal them too.

Let’s pick up their story in beginning at Matthew 9 verse 27…..

Matthew 9: 27-30 As Jesus went on from there,

Again…there is from raising a little girl from the dead!

two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

There is that question I said we would see today!

So, what do these blind men say?

“Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.””

Wow!!!!

Jesus does another incredible miracle!!!

PAUSE

What I want to do today is just walk through this passage slowly and see what we can learn.

Go back to verse 27…..

27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him calling out,

They are following Jesus doing what church? Let’s say it aloud.

‘Have mercy on us, Son of David!’”

Two blind men followed Jesus, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!’”

Now some of you might wonder why they called out the Son of David and not Jesus.

What does that mean?

Well, by calling Jesus, “Son of David” they were saying they believed Jesus was a descendant of King David…

Which also meant they believed Jesus was the Messiah the Jews were looking for!

Because Jewish tradition, and the Bible, taught that.

However, these men were not just casually calling out….let me elaborate on how they were calling out.

The Greek word here really has a stronger meaning than just “calling out.”

The Greek word is kradzo, and it means “to cry with an animalistic cry.”

Like an urgent scream…

For example, the same Greek word is used in Revelation 22, when it talks about a woman screaming out in labor, during childbirth.

This is a scream I’ve heard 4 times in my life.

Now if you don’t have kids yet let me clue you in on something…..

Your wife is a different person during childbirth.

For real….. I love my wife…..so much…..

You all know is the sweetest person in the world BUT during labor…

She would grit her teeth and give me one of those looks like, “You did this to me!”

And I would look on and say….THANK YOU JESUS I am NOT a woman!

Women are so much stronger than us….I cannot imagine giving birth…

PAUSE

That is the type of cry these men were making, a cry from the bottom of their souls.

They had to be thinking healing is what Jesus does!!!!

They are HOPING, maybe, just maybe…

If we can get Jesus attention…. He might heal us…..

PAUSE

Now, obviously, I’ve never been blind, and it would be really difficult to imagine what it would be like.

My closest experience to being blind came one night when we were at our community group back in Virginia.

All the women were getting crazy about all these “essential oils.”

And so we are all smelling oils and whatever…

Then all of a sudden Jenny decides to rub some peppermint oil under my eyes…

Now for you non-oil people……

That was a really poor life choice…..

The fumes from this oil… it was so severe, when the fumes got into my eyes, they were burning. I’m like, “Ahhhh!”

I literally thought my eyes were going to burst!

I said, “Get these devil oil out of my eyes!”

I was crying out like an animal!

PAUSE

That was just like these guys, they were calling out – “help, Jesus!”

And from the depths of their soul, they’re believing that maybe Jesus would do something.

They were following Jesus and they were desperate.

They’ve been blind likely their entire life.

So, they cry, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”

Verse 28 When he had gone indoors

Pause there….

So, this is interesting.

They were calling out, “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!”

And we see no indication from Scripture that Jesus even replies.

Jesus just keeps on walking and goes indoors.

PAUSE

Do you ever feel like God is ignoring your prayers?

Be honest…..

I know at times I do…and I am a preacher!

Do you ever feel like God is passing you by but helping other people around you?

Be honest…

I am sure we all have had those moments.

Why isn’t God helping me in my career…he is helping him or her.

Why isn’t God helping me find mr/mrs right…and all my friends have no trouble finding dates!

Why does it seem like God is always helping other people but not me.

If you ever feel that way maybe you have something in common with the blind men in this story.

And maybe there is something you can learn from them.

Let’s continue….then “the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

Jesus says…“Do you believe that I have the power to make you well?”

And they respond,

“28 Yes, Lord, [we believe] they replied. 29 Then [Jesus] touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your

What?

Everyone say it out loud…

faith,’ Jesus said, let it will be done to you’; 30 and their sight was restored.”

Notice, what the Bible says and does NOT say….

It wasn’t according to their income.

It was not according to their social standing.

It was not according to what other people thought of them. It wasn’t according to whether they went to church last weekend. It wasn’t according to the clothes they wore.

It was not according to any of the things we tend to make most important…

PAUSE

It was according to their faith.

It was according to that part of your life, and my life, that only God really knows what is going on!!!!

Here is the point----------major words of encouragement for all believers!

God responds to faith.

Repeat

Really think about that…

God does not do things for you because of:

your income or how much you give to church... your social standing… or what other people think about you.

God does not do things for you because:

you did or did not go to church last weekend.

God does not care about your clothes.

God looks at something very different…..

In fact, Scripture teaches us in Hebrews 11;6, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

God loves our faith.

God loves it when we believe in faith.

And this is a faith-building story, because suddenly we realize, if we have faith, we can move the heart of God.

Now I am sure someone here today has been told, “Well, the reason God didn’t do “IT” is because you had a lack of faith.”

“You didn’t pray right.” “You didn’t have enough faith.” “You didn’t pray long enough.” “You didn’t pray hard enough.” “You didn’t pray with the right sign-off.

Like You prayed in Jesus’ name and you’re supposed to pray in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost.”

“You weren’t shouting when you prayed.” “You weren’t binding evil right when you prayed.”

Those are all kinds of things I have heard people say to other people about why God didn’t help them…...

And I can say that is all garbage!!!!

Hear me church….

God honors authentic faith.

I want to make sure that none of us live under a false sense of guilt believing we did something wrong.

PAUSE

So, with our time today I want to give help you see three different types of faith that God honors, and it’s my hope that this story will build our faith today.

If you are taking notes, here is the first one

What kind of faith does God honor?

1. God honors a faith that believes when it doesn’t see.

Repeat

Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Faith is the confidence in what we hope will actually happen.

It gives us assurance about things we – what? Say it with me

About things we do not see.

We see this in our story in Matthew 9. Look in your Bibles....

Let’s read it again: “When [Jesus] had gone indoors, the blind men” – who couldn’t see physically – “He asked them, ‘Do you believe … I am able to do this?’” And long before they saw the results, they said, “Yes, Lord, we believe.”

Jesus is asking you the same question today.

Take whatever massive challenge that you’re facing:

Your relationship that is falling apart Your physical challenge Your financial challenge Your spiritual challenge Your class you think you can’t pass

Your business or career issue

Jesus is asking you……

Do you believe that God is able to hear your prayer and answer? Do you believe that Jesus can do it? Do you believe He is able?

PAUSE

I am not looking for your “churchy” answer!!!

Really do you believe?

Do your WORD and ACTIONS show you believe?

Our actions and our words show the truth of what we really believe.

Our actions and words also indicate we do not believe.

I will give you a verse that I quote to people all the time,

Luke 6:45, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Here is what I shorten that to…

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

To know anyone’s heart you just have to listen to their words or watch their actions.

Ask yourself, in the last seven days what were you praying about every single day?

Some of you, not much, right?

Let’s be honest…. many of you can’t even think about the last time you prayed every day let alone for the same thing daily.

Write this down…

What you pray about reflects what you believe about God.

Think about it.

What you pray about reflects what you believe about God.

If you don’t pray about much that shows that you really don’t believe God is active.

You don’t believe that God is involved.

You don’t believe that God can.

If you’re praying for something really big; it indicates that you believe in a big and powerful God.

I would say it this way…..

The size of your prayer requests reveals the strength of your faith.

I’m going to say that again…you might want to write it down…cause this one didn’t make it into your notes!!!! The size of your prayer request reveals the strength of your faith.

If all you do is ask God for little things that are probably going to happen anyway like, “God give us a safe trip.” If that is as deep as you get it indicates the strength of your faith.

If all you pray is, “God, bless this food, that it may nourish our bodies.” That doesn’t take much faith.

Well, for some of us, that does take faith, because of what we eat, it really would be a miracle. “Bless these flaming hot taquitos, bless this taco wrapped in cheese and then wrapped in a fried second shell, and bless this mountain dew that little has no nutritional value….

But God it may nourish my body. In Jesus’ name.”

Okay, I give that one to you. That takes faith. LOL

PAUSE

The size of your request reveals the strength of your faith.

What you pray about reveals what you believe about God.

Let me give you an example from my life….

Before I was ever the Pastor at this Church….

I drove around this property…..I prayed…. I asked God to make it clear to me if this was the place He was calling me, my wife, our family to.

I asked God that if it was…. That he would do a MIGHTY work here.

That literally from this piece of property we would become a church that would send people all over the world to reach people for Jesus.

That we would become a church that impacted this community in tangible ways.

That we would change West Michigan BACK to one of the MOST Christian areas of our country.

That we could help EVERY person in West Michigan connected to a life giving church…

A Big prayer that is impossible for me…

Impossible for us….

But possible for God…..

And honestly, if we look at what God has done in the last 5 years…..wow

It has not been Adam…or Matt…. It has been God moving….

PAUSE

Jesus is asking us, “Do you believe I’m able to do this?”

I don’t know what your obstacle is, but do you believe God is able?

Do you believe God can heal a marriage that’s gone bad? Can God help overcome an addiction that’s plagued you for years and years? Do you believe that all things are possible with God?

Jesus asks the question, “Do you believe I am able to do this?”

What kind of faith honors God?

A faith that believes, even though it doesn’t see.

The second kind of faith that honors God:

2. Faith that persists when nothing changes.

repeat

A faith that continues to believe….when nothing changes….

Think about the blind guys we are talking about…

They cry out, “Jesus, have mercy on us, Son of David!” And what does Jesus do?

He keeps on walking.

He doesn’t acknowledge them.

He doesn’t stop and talk to his disciples and ask if they think he should hear them out.

He walks indoors.

So they have two choices….just like we do.

We can say…well I tried, I prayed, I fasted, I read my Bible but God didn’t answer me in the way I wanted him to answer me so oh well I am moving on….

Or we can do what these guys did… keep seeking Jesus.

They follow Him.

I bet these guys were thinking, “We’re going to follow Jesus until He heals us.

We’re going to keep believing and persisting.

We’re going to follow Him no matter what.”

PAUSE

This reminds me of my good friend Jose. Jose is a regular guy who worked for the Coast guard in a city with a large homeless population. He was just like everyone else.

He would go to work every day. He would go out for lunch a lot and he didn’t notice the homeless around him.

Then one day I remember him telling me about how he started to notice homeless people all the time.

And one day He just felt like….you know I should do something to help them….

So one day he made up a bunch of blessing bags for the homeless and he set out all by himself to go and bless some homeless people.

And guess what happened?

He could not find 1 homeless person! He drove all over and struck out!

So he had a choice…he could say well I tried to do what you were calling me to Lord but they were all safe and warm somewhere so I am done.

Or he could keep searching; like the blind men!

And that is exactly what he did!

He would drive into dark alleys and give out blessing bags to homeless people.

He would drive behind rundown buildings and pray with homeless people and give them coats.

And Jose started to change people’s lives because he kept seeking…when he didn’t see….he was persistent… He trusted the Lord to take care of him…

Jose by the way is a TINY dude…like 100 lbs. soaking wet…and has MS…For those of you that don’t know what MS is; it is a degenerative disease that causes constant pain which cripples the body.

So, it would have been very easy for even a tiny homeless woman to knock him down and take anything she wanted…but Jose trusted God….

Let me tell something else about Jose…

When I first met Jose his body was degenerating so quickly from MS he had to walk with two canes and was about to be wheelchair bound in his mid-thirties.

Today Jose walks without canes…

Today Jose can play with his kids!

Jose & I have traveled around the world doing missions!

Now I don’t know if God started to heal him because of his faith…but God healed him…and yes he still has MS but it is not limiting his life!

God HONORS faith!!!!

PAUSE

That’s what these blind guys are doing. They are saying, “We’re going to stick with Jesus. We’re going to follow Him where ever he leads us. Jesus is going to heal us.” What kind of faith honors God? A faith that persists, even when nothing changes.

PAUSE

It reminds me of my mom. She prayed for my Papa to accept Jesus since she accepted Jesus as an adult…. She prayed for years….and Papa kept hating Jesus……

But when Papa was 84…… After my mom praying for something ro 30+ years….. Before Papa died guess who got to pray with Papa to receive Christ? My mom.

I don’t know who here that’s going to minister to, but I know there’s someone who’s been praying about something for a long time, and there’s this voice that says,

Why are you still praying? Why are you still believing? God could never do that. It’s never going to happen.

And I am here to tell you that a faith that honors God is a faith that persists, even though things do not change, even though you do not see it.

PAUSE

What kind of faith moves the heart of God?

Faith that believes, even when it does not see

Faith that persists, even when nothing changes, and number three, if you’re taking notes,

The third kind of faith that honors God:

3. A faith that acts, even when it doesn’t make sense.

Repeat

Let go back to our blind friends. These blind guys could have been like any one of us. So many times, we have a problem, and we magnify the problem.

All we think about is the problem.

We are so focused on the problem, we lose sight of any solution in the hands of God.

They were blind; so in their culture they would be beggers.

They could never have a job.

They could never have a wife.

They could never have kids.

They’re life never had any meaning in their culture.

They would have lived under their shame because, in that culture, if you were blind, they believed that you did something to deserve that, you or your parents.

You must have done something wrong.

And so, they lived with the shame.

They lived with the embarrassment.

PAUSE

But maybe one guy thought, “Hey, I can’t see, but I can hear. And I’ve heard it said that there’s this guy named Jesus who’s healing. I can’t see, but I can hear.

I can’t see, but I can talk, and I can yell. “Jesus! Have mercy!”

I can’t see, but I can hear, I can talk, and I can walk.

I’ll follow Him.

PAUSE

And so, you may be thinking, “Okay, so I just have to have faith and try really hard, and then God has to answer.”

Nope, our faith is not in us.

My faith is not in my faith. My faith is not in my action. My faith is not even in my desired outcome. My faith is in the faithfulness of God,

a God whose ways are higher than my ways,

a God whose thoughts I cannot comprehend,

a God who is good through and through,

My faith is in the only real and living God who is all powerful, ever present, and all knowing.

My faith is in that God.

Because,

Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

What kind of faith honors God?

A faith that believes, even though it doesn’t see, A faith that persists, even though nothing changes,

A faith that acts, even when it doesn’t make sense,

Do you believe that He’s able to do this?

Here is your life application…..

Life Application

Jesus can do more in, and through, you than you can imagine. This week think about where you have been holding back in life because you are not sure God will help. Pray, seek God’s will, and follow how He leads.

Let’s Pray…..