Help My Unbelief

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. In the name of Jesus.

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So we live in a day where there is a major false doctrine as it relates to faith.

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I'll give you an example of it. This is the crass version of it. The crass version of it comes to us via the tele -evangelists.

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And it goes something like this. God is capable of healing your every disease.

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God can financially bless you. God can take your broken and crippled relationships and he can mend them.

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He is capable of doing anything. And you need to just believe that God can do anything.

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But there's this little caveat. You must prove to God that you have faith.

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And the way you prove to God that you have faith is write a thousand dollar check and send it to Benny Hinn Ministries.

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Does anyone see a problem with this? You'll note that this kind of description of faith causes you to put faith in your faith.

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Isn't that a weird thing? Faith in your faith. And faith then becomes the currency that you then purchase blessings from God.

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I have faith. I've proven it to you God. I sent the check to the right tele -evangelist. Therefore now

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God you owe me. You owe me healing. You owe me blessing. Because all things are possible with you.

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And you'll note that they over and again the tele -evangelists use verses like our gospel text that say that anything is possible for the one who believes.

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So if anything is possible for the one who believes, well, I'm believing for an Aston Martin.

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That's just a sexy car. I'm believing for, well, some finances to help improve some of the things that are falling apart in my hundred -year -old house.

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You kind of get the idea. I'm going to believe for these things. And see there's a problem here because we must understand something here.

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Is that faith number one is a gift given by God. It's not something that you kind of muster up within yourself.

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Ephesians 2 .8 .9 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

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This is the gift of God. It is not your own doing so that no one may boast.

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You sit there and go, well, what is the gift of God? Salvation. Faith itself is given to us as a gift from God.

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You are incapable of believing God and believing in him until God raises you from the dead spiritually.

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So faith itself is a gift that is given by God and faith is like eyesight.

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Faith always is looking at something. What is your faith looking at? Who is your faith looking at?

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And what promises are you believing for? Kind of the questions that we need to consider.

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So when we see Jesus say, all things are possible for the one who believes, the one who has faith, we must understand this concept in light of what

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Jesus says in Matthew 19. A couple verses from Matthew 19. Here's what it says.

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Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, this is verse 22, truly

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I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.

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And again I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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Now the disciples in their day and age, they considered somebody who was financially rich to be blessed by God.

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And so Jesus here has just said something that is explosive and so they said, it says this, when the disciples heard this they were astonished and they said, well then who can be saved?

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And Jesus looked at them and he said this, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

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So all things are possible for the one who believes because with God all things are possible.

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In other words, who is your faith looking to? The one who is capable of doing all things.

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But he hasn't promised that it is his will to do all things, which is kind of the sticking point.

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So here's the idea then. In Matthew chapter 12 verse 20, we read these important words and it says this, a bruised reed

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God will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench.

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So as we work our way through our gospel text today and we're going to frame this in light of one of the

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Old Testament patriarchs, Gideon, we're going to note this, that this is a fellow who has faith.

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He actually believes, but he's a lot like all of us and that is that he struggles with doubt.

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Because here on this side of eternity, on this side of Christ's return, we all have a sinful nature and your old

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Adam is an unbeliever through and through. And your old Adam wants to chase after his or her favorite desires and they're all sinful.

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And at the same time being brought to the waters of baptism or hearing the gospel, you've been brought to penitent faith in Christ and you've been regenerated and you are truly alive in Christ.

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And so these two are in conflict. You have a believer inside of you and an unbeliever inside of you and they seem to be constantly doing this.

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And sometimes your life is going great. You feel like you're experiencing God's blessings and other times you are, well, the target of the devil's schemes and temptations and you feel like your life is being buffeted and you oftentimes might cry out, where are you

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God? Why does it feel like my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling and hitting me back in the face?

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Where have you gone? Are you even there? And so, you know, we struggle with these things.

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And so the interesting thing about our gospel text is that Jesus doesn't chastise this fellow for not mustering up enough faith within him in order to earn the impossible.

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That's not what the story is about at all. In fact, we find over and again that God is kind and He's patient and He's gracious to us in the midst of our weaknesses.

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Now let me frame this from Judges chapter 6. If you want to turn with me, we'll spend a little bit of time in Judges chapter 6.

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And I'm going to start in verse 11, a little bit of context. Shortly after the children of Israel got into the promised land and the first generation of those who witnessed the miracles there in Egypt as well as in the wilderness, they had died.

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It was shortly after that that Israel began to engage in idolatry and God chose to punish them by selling them into slavery to the

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Midianites. The Midianites had overpowered them to the point where the text actually explains how they couldn't harvest their grain or take care of their sheep without the

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Midianites coming in and taking everything. They were like locusts. And so they took their grain, they took their sheep, they took their goats.

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I'm surprised they didn't take the kitchen sink. And because God was punishing them, they were powerless against the

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Midianites. And this went on for many years. And now it says this in verse 11,

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So as we come and take a look at this example, this is a great example of a man who has faith and still struggles with unbelief, still struggles with doubts.

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And so here he is in the midst of hiding from the Midianites that he's threshing his wheat, and the angel of the

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Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor.

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I've heard many awful sermons on this text and everybody focuses in on the fact that the angel of the Lord said to him, oh mighty man of valor.

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The emphasis is on the wrong syllable when you say that. No, the emphasis should be on the Lord is with you.

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If the Lord is with you and has called you to something, yeah, he can call somebody who's hiding and behaving like a coward a mighty man of valor because that's

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God's prerogative. And so Gideon said to him, please sir, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all of this happened to us?

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And where are all of his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us saying, did not

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Yahweh bring us up from Egypt? But now Yahweh has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.

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And note here, this is a fascinating verse, verse 14 says, and then Yahweh turned to him and said.

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You see verse 14 of Judges chapter 6 helps us identify who that angel of the

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Lord is. It's none other than Jesus, God himself. And so I'm convinced if you were to go back in time and you could film this, the film crew would say, that guy talking to Gideon looks a lot like Jesus.

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You know, because he is, right? So Yahweh turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian.

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Do I not send you? And you'll note,

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Gideon is not a fellow who is a great man of faith.

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He is a lot like all of us where he believes and struggles with doubts.

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And as you read the story in its entirety, over and again the

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Lord is patient with him and works with his doubts and his unbelief. And so he says, do

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I not send you? It's a lot like Moses. So he said to him, please, Lord, how can I save Israel?

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Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh. I'm the least in my father's house. And Yahweh said to him, but I will be with you.

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By the way, that's enough, is it not? I'll be with you. And you shall strike the Midianites as one man.

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And notice, the Lord isn't asking him for permission, isn't seeking his buy -in.

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He's just basically saying this is what's going to happen. And because he's God, he has the prerogative to do that.

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So he said to him, if now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.

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Interesting. He knows who he's talking to and yet he needs a sign. Please don't depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.

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And he said, I will stay until you return. So Gideon went into his house, prepared a young goat, unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour, the meat he put in a basket, the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and then presented them.

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And the angel of God said to him, take the meat and the unleavened cakes, put them on this rock, pour the broth over them, and he did so.

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Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, touched the meat and the unleavened cakes, and fire sprang from the rock, consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes, and the angel of the

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Lord then vanished from his sight. I would say that's a sign. And note, immediately

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Gideon knows exactly to whom he has been speaking. And then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of Yahweh, and Gideon said, alas, oh

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Lord God, I've now seen the angel of the Lord face to face, and his fear is that he's about to die.

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So the next verse would read, according to Gideon's fears, thus perished Gideon. But no, so Yahweh said to him, shalom, peace to you, do not fear, you shall not die.

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So then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh and called it, Yahweh is

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Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Aborizerites.

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So you notice, he believes, and he doesn't believe. He believes, and his belief is kind of wobbly and shaky, and he has these doubts.

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And over and again through the story of Gideon, we see God telling him to do something, and him needing a sign, despite the fact that he knows who it is who has sent him.

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And over and again, the Lord is patient with him, is kind with him, and gives him the signs necessary, builds the faith that he had given him.

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And eventually, as the story progresses, and you can see this and you can read this for yourself, Gideon and his army of 300 overthrow the

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Midianites. Or should I say, God overthrows the Midianites through merely 300 men, because it's the

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Lord who is the one who does the impossible. Now all of that then frames our concept that we're going to look at in our

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Gospel text, so turn with me back to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9. Here's what it says, when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and the scribes arguing with them.

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A little bit of a note, in the preceding portion of this portion of Gospel of Mark, Jesus had taken

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Peter, James, and John, and they went up on a mountain, and there Jesus was transfigured.

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So this is the Mount of Transfiguration. And they heard the voice of the Father, this is my son, listen to him.

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And there was Elijah, there was Moses, it was quite the spectacle. But the other nine disciples, they were at the bottom of the

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Mount of Transfiguration. So coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration, there's a commotion, and the other nine, the remaining nine disciples who were there, they were part of a great crowd, and they were in an argument with the scribes.

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And we're going to find out what that's all about. So immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, they were greatly amazed, and they ran up to see

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Jesus and greeted him. And so Jesus asked them, what are you arguing about with them? Now here come the details.

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Someone from the crowd answered him, teacher I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute, and whenever it seizes him it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.

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So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.

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Now this is what we call an awkward moment, because Jesus himself had given authority to his disciples to cast out demons.

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And so while Jesus is up on the Mount of Transfiguration, this fellow shows up with his son, and his son who is oppressed by a demon, and the disciples say, in the name of Jesus we cast you out, you demon.

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And the demon said, and it's not supposed to go this way.

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And of course they then get into an argument with the scribes, and you can almost hear what the scribes are saying, oh you couldn't cast it out, oh

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Jesus is a phony, Jesus is a fake, you guys are charlatans, we've caught you now.

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And so they get into an argument with the disciples, and things are not going well, it's utter pandemonium.

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And so think then about this father. This father had enough faith in Jesus to bring his son to have him delivered from this demon.

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Jesus isn't there, the disciples are acting in his name, and nothing happens? Maybe his faith was misplaced.

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Maybe Jesus isn't the Messiah. Maybe all these miracles are all just lies.

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Maybe he's a scam artist. And so you can see that because of this, the doubts are arising.

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He's the one who's speaking, so I asked your disciples to cast it out, they were not able. And so Jesus answered them, oh faithless generation, how long am

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I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me. So they brought the boy to him, and when the

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Spirit saw him, immediately convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground, and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.

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Now a little bit of a note here, a little family history. My kids, when they were, two of them, when they were little, we have a genetic thing in our family, where small kids in our family, if they get a fever, they can have seizures.

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I've seen seizures before, and it's absolutely terrifying. And one time, our daughter Faith, who's now on her honeymoon, she actually, when she was a little tight, she had a fever, and she had a seizure in church.

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And that was a harrowing moment. But I assure you, that as soon as she went into that seizure, everybody's attention was on her.

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Rightly so, right? Rightly so. So what that, that being the case, consider this,

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Jesus' attention isn't on this kid, who's convulsing, foaming at the mouth.

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You know, he's, his attention is actually on his father, which is a little bit strange, but it actually shows the real kindness of Jesus here.

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So he's foaming at the mouth, and Jesus then asks his father. And you can see this kid just kind of rolling around, doing his thing, and he looks at his dad, and says, how long has this been happening?

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Really, we're gonna do this now? I mean, aren't you gonna, you know? And so he says, well, from childhood, it's often cast him into the fire, in water, to destroy him.

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But if, if you can do anything, have compassion on us. And there it is. See, there it is. There's that unbelief speaking.

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Faith would have said, Lord Jesus, I know that you can deliver him, if you will, if you desire it, if it is your will, please do so.

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And we have many instances of those types of prayers delivered to Jesus while, during his earthly ministry.

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Lord, I desire my sight, if you will, you can make me whole. And Jesus says, I will, and he makes them whole.

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But here this guy says, if you can do anything, there's doubt speaking. And Jesus just zeros in on this.

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And see, he said, if you can, if, all things are possible for the one who believes.

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And the reason for this is because all things are possible for God. And then the man is now convicted.

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Because ultimately, unbelief is a breaking of the first commandment. That we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

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Doubt is, well, not loving God, not trusting God, not believing in him, not thinking he acts for our good, not, you see how it works.

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And so the father's convicted here. Jesus just puts his finger on the problem. And immediately the father cried out,

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I believe. Please help my unbelief. Ah, this is a good prayer.

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But this is a dangerous prayer, by the way. And I've heard it said a million times, but it's absolutely true.

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Be careful what you pray for. If you pray for God, Lord, help me with patience.

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Oh boy, you have asked for something very difficult. And oftentimes the way God teaches us patience is by throwing us into the fires of difficulty, where we learn patience, you see.

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And so Jesus hears his prayer, help my unbelief. And immediately he springs into action to help this fellow's unbelief.

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Jesus is now going to answer his prayer. But things are going to get darker before the light comes on.

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So when Jesus saw that the crowd came running together, of course everyone's wanting to see what's going on here with this kid who's convulsing, he rebuked the unclean spirit saying to it, you mute and deaf spirit,

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I command you come out of him and never again enter him. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, this is like the movie

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The Exorcist or The Exorcism of Emily Rose. This is the Hollywood moment here. It convulses him terribly and it came out.

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But the boy was like a corpse. So that most of them said he's dead.

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Now in order for that to happen, a little bit of time has to have transpired just a little bit, just enough.

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So screams, convulses, and now his son is still as a corpse.

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It doesn't even look like he's breathing. Maybe the color of his skin has changed to that deathly ash color.

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And everyone's standing around, he's dead. And in that split moment, you can almost see what's going on here in this sense.

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People are going, Jesus really isn't the Messiah. He cast out this demon and it killed the boy.

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Oh my goodness. He, oh, and you just consider all of the implications. Talk about your life flashing before you in a moment.

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All your doubts come flooding now in. And of course, you sit there and go, will there be a lawsuit?

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Will Jesus be arrested for killing this kid during an exorcism? It all kind of comes flooding into your mind.

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But Jesus doesn't care about any of that. He's answering this man's prayer. Help my unbelief.

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So despite the fact that this boy looks dead now, Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up.

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I love how the Greek here is. And he anesti. Anesti. Anesti is the same word used for arise in the resurrection.

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When on Easter Sunday, we say Christ is risen, right? In Greek, it would have been Christos anesti, right?

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He's risen. And you know, Christ is risen. And we answer, he's risen indeed. So here it says, Christ took him by the hand, lifted up, and he anesti.

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He arose. What a kind Savior we have.

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Who though we have doubts and we wrestle with unbelief, he hears our pleas for mercy.

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Lord, we believe, but help our unbelief. And see, this is where we then must come back to the promises that we have in Christ.

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You see, Jesus hasn't promised us in this lifetime health, wealth, prosperity, success upon success, victory upon victory.

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He has told us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. Follow him where?

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To death. You see, the wages of sin is death.

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And we all are making payments to death every day. And we know just how far short we fall of the glory of God.

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When we read out God's commandments for our lives in the Ten Commandments, we over and again are pricked in our consciences and caused to reflect on the fact of just how far short we fall.

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And the devil comes along and knows the doubts and the anxieties that we have and whispers into our ears, do you really think you're saved?

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You think Jesus is going to save you? You should be terrified on the day that you stand before Christ.

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You should be shaking in your boots. How much do you want to bet you're going to end up in hell?

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And this is how it works. And you start to have these doubts and you have these anxieties.

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And what do you do in the midst of all of that? You have belief and at the same time unbelief. And so you come to church and you hear that sinner pastor of yours say your sins are forgiven.

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You come to church and you hear him preach a sermon and you sit there and go, I know that's what it says, but is it true?

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Is it real? Am I really saved? And so we wrestle with these things. But know this.

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The God laid on Christ the iniquity of us all and that he bled and died for all of our sins, including the sin of unbelief.

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And that we see in texts like the story of Gideon or here in this text, that Jesus is patient and kind, or as we learn from Moses, that the glory of God, that he is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and pardoning iniquity.

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And he knows your weaknesses. He knows your doubts. And yet he still answers these prayers.

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Lord, I believe help my unbelief. And so he will not cast you out.

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As Scripture says, a bruised reed he will not break. A smoldering wick he will not quench.

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And so when we look at these stories, then in light of that reality, we see here that Jesus didn't chastise this fellow because his faith was down to the smoldering nubbins.

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Instead, it's a beautiful picture we see then where Jesus takes this man's smoldering faith, takes his hands and cups the candle, and does this.

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He breathes on it and fans it back. So let us recognize our weakness.

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Let us confess our doubts. But at the same time, let us consider the sign that God has given us, that even our doubts have been forgiven by Christ.

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Because the same Jesus who came down from the mountain when he was on the Mount of Transfiguration, he was there discussing with Moses and Elijah his exodus, his leaving of the earth.

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And as our Old Testament text so beautifully said, at this point now Jesus's face is set like flint.

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He's on his way to the cross to bleed and to die for our sins. And the fact that he rose from the grave is the sign that his sacrifice was accepted by God so that we can be forgiven of all of our iniquities, all of our shortcomings, all of our weakness, and all of our doubts.

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What a great sign God has given us in the death and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.

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And so you can know with confidence then that there will be a day that comes, and that day will come for all of us if Jesus doesn't come back soon, where people will gather around our bodies, your body and mine, and they will say, he is dead.

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She is dead. I've already seen it happen a few times here at Kongsvinger.

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But that day is coming for all of us. But do not worry because the one who conquered death says that he's returning in glory and he will raise you from the dead.

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Figuratively, he will take you by the hand and he will say to you, Anesti, arise!

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And you will arise, and you will be with him forever, because you are forgiven.

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You are bled for. You are died for. Now we've got this last thorny bit of, well, last issue that has to be dealt with.

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You see, Jesus had given authority to the disciples to cast out demons, so Jesus and the disciples have a little private meeting now at the end.

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So when he entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? This is a little bit murky.

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It's also very helpful. Jesus said to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.

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And my immediate response are, there's kinds? There's different kinds? Ah! Right? We don't know much about the demonic realm.

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But we do know this, that the same solution for this father who had unbelief problems is the same solution for us.

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Should we find ourselves in the unenviable position of being in the, well, given the responsibility of driving out this kind of demon, then know this.

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Know this. It's driven out by prayer, which requires belief. Belief in the one in whom nothing is impossible.

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And so the solution always comes back to that faith that has been given to us. And so should we find ourselves in the midst of the worst kind of demon?

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This may not even be the worst kind. I don't know. Do not worry. On your knees, asking

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God, if you will, you can deliver us and you can save us. That's the prayer of faith.

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And so the solution is always the same. Faith in Christ. Faith in the real promises.

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Trust in him and even faith in him and trusting in his promises in the midst of our doubts that are bled and died for.

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And our Jesus does not break a bruise reed. He does not snuff out a smoldering wick.

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Come to him in your weakness and he will answer your prayer. Help my unbelief.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Ave. NW, Oslo, MN 56744. And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Ave. NW, Oslo, MN 56744. We thank you for your support.

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