“Everything Is Possible for One Who Believes” | Mark 9:14–29

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good morning, good morning, we talk morning, good morning, do you and man? Oh man, yes, it's twice this week. What I told you is coming. Jeff, it's the immense talent. I'm not sure that we can handle it. Chris, you did not believe me, but I hold it out. Man too. Good mornings. Today's Thursday and I we we say good morning on Tuesday. And by the way, I wonder if people who have a habit of listening this in the evening are like, come on, man. Good afternoon, good any evening. Yeah, well, I mean, like seriously, they're probably thinking themselves, like, why do you always assume right bad assumptions. Well, yeah, the majority of people do watch in the morning. Yeah I know, I know they do. But anyway, way, we are the Bible Guys, and we're in the middle of a podcast or excuse me, I said that twice now in the middle of a series about a podcast. What if Jesus had his own podcast? And so today's saying is something that Jesus said, Everyone is possible. Everything is possible for one who believes. O good one tongue tied. I like that one, though, it's possible for one who live Yes, yeah, so before we get into that though, Chris, you know our longtime listeners know this is true. We scour the internet for the very best every week, every week, the very best news. We try, trust worthy intellectual information we can find for our people. Yeah, we try it. We try other ones, but it always brings us back to the Babylon B. What's the single greatest source of information on the whole Internet. I agree. If you don't look at the Babylon B on a regular basis, you are totally uninformed and ignorant people. Wow, wow, why. Do why do people? What do people think? Are our superpower? Where's this come from? It comes from the fact we spent time with the Babylon B. That's it, ok think, yes, yeah, so this one talking about deep research. There's been the geniuses at the Babylon Bee have doing some very deep textual research and they came up with this this thing, nine movies that should be part of the Biblical canon. Oh, I love it. You like this? I love it? Okay, So here's what it says. As great as the Bible is it's severely lacking in movies. Wow, it's very lacking in movies. Adding in some of the greatest films ever could have ever made could bring some much needed excitement to the collection in the Holy Scripture. Okay, now, I didn't glance at this until just now. Yeah, and I've decided this could be my favorite Babylon b e. Okay, the Babylon b has come up with the following list of movies that should be made part of the Biblical canon. Oh one, the Matrix, of course, the one coming from another world to save mankind. It fits right in. Yeah, and I can go on and on about this. Yes, I believe you. It's all biblical. You know Zion the Hidden City. Trinity is her name, right, he's the one. Yeah. They're not even trying to hide it. Yeah, No, they're not, they're not. Okay, I don't know this one. Robot Jocks. I don't know what. I don't know that one either. It's a post apocalyptic tale about scores being settled by giant fighting robots, which is basically an exact piction of the end times. I do, I haven't seen it. I don't know. UHF I don't know that one. Either, I don't. I don't know if I have seen that or not. It's arguably the greatest story of redemption in finding purpose? Not do you know? January sixth, No, don't know that one. Let's move on. How about Brave Heart of course? Okay, Braveheart, an epic tale of swords, blood and dismemberment on power with the Book of Judges. Yes, yes, okay, Conan the Barbarian, of course, I know that one. Yes, it's a sandal wearing hero slaughters a giant serpent. Sound familiar. That's great. That's a good Field of Dreams. Of course, that's good. The only movie that allows men to cry. Yet, Oh, that's really funny. The Lord of the Rings extended editions. Yes, except for the boring parts of the Two Towers. That yeah, that's that's a And then number nine, Raiders of the Lost Arc, the single greatest movie ever made, features all the face melting by the Arc of the Covenant left out of the Old Testament. Nice, and you love that. That's one of your favorite movement? That's right? Is that your favorite movie? Probably? Not only would it make the Bible more complete, but it also give megachurch pastors the perfect list of films to show clips from for for their annual at the Movies sermon series? Nice which other movies should be cannonized? Post your suggestions so let us know. So, So there was a member Youth Specialties. Yes, so when we were in I remember them when we were in the nineties as pastors of high school. Just crossed them up yesterday to some of these pastors. Did you know they were? They were a great, big company that used to supply all these different great ideas for youth ministry. And one guy wrote a book from satur Back Church and it was about incorporating movie clips in every sermon. Yeah, and you. Remember that I do. And so I remember like he would literally give you the time codes on the VHS, Yes, and you'd fast forward into the VHS and you'd hit play remember, and I used an okay, So do you remember mister Hollins Opus, Yes, Okay. Do you remember at the end when he walks into the high school theater and then everybody uh hes all his the impact that he made throughout his whole life. Okay and everybody okay. Well I set it up for that clip, and I was following this idea of like teaching the Bible from this, and you know how sometimes VCRs what they'll do is they'll rewind a. Little bit, just a little bit, and yeah, yeah, okay, so I said it exactly where it is, I shut it off, and then when I hit play, it had played like the previous like five seconds and they call the son, calls the dad. And a bad name, a bad name. Oh no, and it's a total cust work, right, and and uh and and so and. So that's that's right in the middle of your Bibles. Yes, okay, So so literally in the middle of my Bible. Aston I'm like, watch this, I plus press play and the bof there goes the customer and I'm like, oh my goodness. I'm like, I'm don't get get fired. It was really funny. But hey, let me just say this real quick too. Did you ever watch The Big Bang Theory. I've seen a couple of episodes. Okay. Did you hear about or know about how they critique Raiders are Lost Dark? No? Okay, so they are all three for of these nerds, right, They're just like these nerdy guys who are like geniuses and they love sci fi and they love all these different things, and one of the things they love is Raiders the Lost Dark. So they play it for Amy and Amy is also, you know, incredibly intelligent, and and she watches it and he goes, so did you love it? And she goes, yeah, it was great. She goes, except for the gaping plot hole. And and so Sheldon goes, Amy, there's no gaping plot hole in Raiders of Lost Ark and she goes, well, she goes, yeah, there is the fact that Harrison Ford is irrelevant. He has served the purpose in the movie. And she goes. He goes, what do you mean, and she goes, well, if he wasn't there this, everything would have happened the exact same. The Nazis would have found the arc, they would have had their faces melted off, and they were, and then the government would have stored it in uh, the would have gotten it well anyway. Without having an American at the spot, it just would have been left there because all those Nazis would have died and the other Nazis wouldnt have known where it was because it was a top secret project. So so Harrison Ford got the government. That's the alls he did was he protected the whole world by getting it into a US government warehouse. He was the only American there. It was only him and the girl that survived. Okay, well, anyway, then you. Just Amy's wrong, okay, all right, yeah. Well that that is his only contributions. Then it is right, that's it. Nine minutes of almost dying. And the other thing was he happened to be tied up. Yeah his eyes closed, right right? Yeah? Okay, all right, so there it is. I'll give you that. I like it. Well, that's how most of my life. Just keep my eyes closed and land on my feet. There it is. Well, hey, talking about keeping your eyes closed and landing on your feet, what I don't know? Mark chapter nine, Yeah, that's not it at all, No, because it's the transfiguration. Yeah, oh, speaking of. Bright things. Nine is transfiguration. I have Mark chapter nine as Jesus heals a demon possessed boy, verse fourteen. Oh we're in verse fourteen. That's the reason, Yes, Jesus heals the demon possessed boy. Yeah. Okay, Well how about this transition? Okay, talking about melting your face off, all that's terrible. I don't know. I don't have a transition for that one. All right, well, hey, we'll just we'll take them melting the face off things. Okay, So we're gonna read Mark chapter nine, yep, Verse fourteen through twenty nine, and it says when they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them. They're coming down off the mountain of transfiguration. Yep. This is Peter, James, John and Jesus. They saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were arguing with them. And when the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe and they ran to greet him. Remember he's kind of glowing. You were still glowing? Is he? Oh? I would imagine they were in awe. You were thinking, you're thinking Moses. Might I be getting confused? No, I had this idea that he was still glowing. Okay, yeah, I don't know. Anyways, when the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe and they ran to greet him. What is all this arguing about, Jesus asked, and one of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He's possessed by an evil spirit that won't let him talk. And whenever the spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground, and then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn't do it. Jesus said to them, you faithful, faithless people, how long must that be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me. So they brought the boy, and when the evils spirit saw Jesus, that threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mount. How long has this's been happening, Jesus asked the boy's father. He replied, since he was a little boy. The spirit often throws him into the fire into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us if you can. What do you mean if I can, Jesus asked, Anything is possible if a person believes. The father instantly cried out, I do believe that helped me overcome my unbelief. When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak. He said, I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again. Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him, and the boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said he's dead, but Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up. Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, I couldn't really cast out that evil spirit, and Jesus replied, this kind can be cast out only by prayer. And by the way, ships read praying fast. Yes, I was just going to say that. Another another gospel records that it's him saying this can this kind can only be cast out by prayer and festing. And uh, by the way, my favorite part of you reading that is you, added the whisper of the crowd saying he's dead. Yes, this is you, this is you reading? This is you? Said, I remember ran through the crowd as the people said he's dead. Jesus took him by the hand. I didn't even know, yeah you did in the story man, that's you were in it. Yes, so that's so funny. Yeah, so I'm embarrassed. Embarrassed. Why that's great reading right there. You know. Isn't that what we do anyway? Isn't that part of our job description to make these words come to. Life and make them come to life? Yeah? Yeah, that's funny. So anyway, the uh, the Jesus heals the demon possessed boy, So let me just bring this up, shall we? Yes? Please? Whenever you travel, which is a lot, So you travel like probably one hundred days a year, yeah, right, out of three hundred and sixty five, and you're gone to how many different countries in a year? This year, I'll be in like twelve or thirteen fourteen countries. Okay, And the number of times that I travel is not very much. I've only been to one country outside the United States, the Dominican Republics here yeah this year. Well, yeah, I went to the Dominican once or twice. They going twice. Just got back a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah, so anyway, so considerably less than you. But however, in my previous job, in my previous church, I traveled all the time and been the twenty countries or whatever. So I've also experienced that whenever you're overseas there demonic possession and evil spirits and cast out demons. It is a regular party outside of the United States, And so people who live here they hear this scripture and it's like, this is unrelatable. Yes, like other than like a movie, which again I'm a movie guy, So a movie about a priest performing an extorcism, which we've seen on different movies, if you've seen those kinds of movies. But other than that, we don't run into this even in conversation. But yet when you travel it's almost everywhere. Yeah, okay, so you had a theory that one time that you said it, and I remember thinking to myself, that completely makes sense to me. So why do you think it's prevalent outside of the United States? Is this the front lines conversation? Yeah, this is this is the demonic. Yeah, so there's I think that there's a limited number of demons created obviously, right, there's a limited number of angels, limited number of demons. Only God is everywhere, that's right, can't be everywhere all the time. So he's marshaling his troops because they're spiritual warfare happening, and so he's doing battle, I believe, mostly on the front lines of where the light is pushing against the dark man. And so as the Gospel moves into new countries, then I think that there's more demonic activity in those areas prior to the Gospel getting there, and then when the Gospel is there. The other thing is a lot of countries have completely sold out their heart and soul to demonism. The countries that have engaged in voodoo, for instance, they're not even shy about the fact that it's the devil, right, Yeah, they understand it, they believe it. I've talked to voodoo priests on a number of occasions, a couple who've actually become Christians. But I've spoken with voodoo priests who've said, oh, one hundred percent, it was the devil. The devil gave me all my power, right. And I had one I have a friend, his name's Joseph. He was a very awful witch doctor in East Africa. So it's not full on voodoo, but which doctor work is very similar. And he said, the devil gave me all my power. He could make it thunder like he could demand thunder and it with thunder. Right, he would curse people with blindness. He would do all these horrible things to people. And he sacrificed even He said, the demons will give you power, but they demand more than they give. And he wound up human sacrifices of his wife, his two children, and his mother over a period of time in order to be able to get this demonic power. And he started crying, and he said, the devil will give you power, but he always takes you far more than he gives, right, And he said, what kind of man does this so really horrible? Anyways, nations that have wholeheartedly given their hearts over to the devil, it doesn't surprise me at all that there's more demonic activity there. He just free to run. There's really nothing to holding back in that environment. The Bible says that that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. Right, So another place, the Bible calls Satan the God of this world, small g God of this world. And so without the power of the Holy Spirit, without the light of the Gospel, without Jesus, there's nothing to hold back evil. And so then in those places, I think the devil just plays it, does what he wants to do, just tears into humanity because he hates the image of God. He'll never defeat God, but he hates those that are made in the image of God and the object of God's love and affection. Hates them, and so he just runs rampant and wild among them. In places where the Gospel is still existing and is bright and is functioning, I think we see less of it, not that it doesn't happen. I believe here in America they're deemed possessed people. It's just less frequent or less visible to us than it is in the places where they're just totally dialed in to the demonic things all the time. Yeah, yeah, And that makes sense to me, And honestly that's my experience as well. So I went to the island of Haiti four different times, which is the same island as the Domnican Republic, which means I've been on that island quite a bit. But on the Haiti side, now you can't even cross the border. But but here's just roving gangs, just it's it's horrific. What's happening in Haiti? Yeah, horrific. Yeah, And here's what I know. On the border. If you were to be standing on the border, you can look to the left, assuming that you're facing north, and you can look at Haiti and it is all brown. It's like desolate and dry and brown. And then you could literally stand on the border and look to the right in the Dominican Republican it's all green, and it's almost crazy. It's like, this is the same island. It's the same climate, it's the same vegetation, it's the same everything, same conditions. So why is it? And I'm telling you if when you're in Haiti everything is so dark. I remember going to the village of SEUs Matlas, and I remember being in conversation with people who are just like you said, voodoo, which you know, masters, what do you call them, tru witch doctors, witch doctors, voodoo leaders. But yeah, completely talking about embracing voodoo. And you see it everywhere too, So you see the things hanging right from the windows, and man, it's just incredible. I don't know, so so true. Even in Cuba, inside the capitol building, Uh, there's a statue of a fallen angel and it has a spot at the base all the way around so it's a multi angled base that has all the different provinces, the names of the provinces of Cuba, and the people who believe in Santoia come and they make little sacrifices through the slots on their side. Right. That's in the capitol building of Cuba. Wow. Right, which I've been to. Yeah, yeah, I didn't see that. Yeah, yeah, it's in their capitol building. Yeah. Reason why it is because they were it was under construction. We weren't allowed. Oh yeah. So Santaia is essentially voodoo with Christian words spread over you know, stretched over top of us Catholicism. Yeah. Yeah, and so yeah, it exists all over the world. So here's it's not a surprise to me that Jesus would encounter demons. The light is bright and so the demons would be more visible in that situation. Right, that's what's happening. But I love this. This is one of the whenever I'm sharing the gospel, I'm preaching the gospel and crowds, especially if I have a sense that people struggle with the idea of do I have enough faith to be a Christian? This is my favorite passage to deal with because this guy comes to Jesus. He goes, hey, if if it's possible, could you have mercy on us and help us if you can? And he says if I can, and he. Goes, what do you mean if I can? It's one of the coolest responses to yeah, mobile, what do you mean if I can? Hey? Do you know who I am? Do you know who you're talking to? Well, so Jesus is being confronted by this demonic, of course, and this man steps in and goes, hey, if you can, would you would you have mercy on It helps out and Jesus is kind of powering up in this moment. He's like, what do you mean if I can? Right? He says, man, everything is possible, anything is possible for some beliefs, and the father instantly cries out so you can hear the just the agony. He's crying out to Jesus. He's so desperate, and he says, I do believe that helped me overcome my unbelief and I love this. You know, people ask sometimes how much faith do you have to have? Well, Jesus goes on. He casts a demon out and heals the boy right, defeats this demon. It says never come back right, so full on defeat against this demon. So how much faith do you have to have to have God act on your behalf enough to ask? Because this guy doubted and admitted it out loud. We have a hard time admitting that we doubt. We feel like if we admit to God we're struggling with doubts, that God's going to give up on it. It's gonna be mad at us. Right, this guy looks Jesus in the face says, I'm not positive you can, but if you can, would you help me out? And Jesus says, anything's possible if you believe. And the guy said, I do believe, would you help my unbelief? And Jesus heals his son defeats this demon. So the amount of faith it takes to have Jesus move on your behalf is enough to ask. That's it. That's it, I do believe, would you help my own belief? So the people at our Stony Creek campus heard one of our pastors, Dave Wilson, just three weeks ago from this filming. And Dave has this statement that he had written and it says, it's not the size of your faith that matters it's the size of your God. And it's a play on words, but it's basically it sort of debunks the idea that people think I just need more faith, more faith, more faith. And it's like, no, you just you just have to have a little faith. It's just stronger faith, right, It's just and and the way to fix that is not to say, oh, my goodness, I lack a quantity of faith. It's to say, no, I lack perspective on who that is, right, right, So it's saying no, you don't. You don't need to increase the size of your face. You need to faith, you need to increase your view of God. And so, yeah, you just believe in God, which is why you know he says how long do you have to put up with you? It's coupled with if I can, right, if I can, what do you mean if I can't? And then he says, this kind of demon can only be cast out through prayer and fasting. And I think that it's really interesting how it's another it's another indication that there are there are different levels of our relationship with our heavenly Father. And I think that when God calls us to do greater things, it's because those people are on a different level. Which, by the way, I've said this in the past before, I believe the only reason why he asked Peter, James and John to go up on the mountain with him for the Transfiguration is not because he chose them. It's because they chose Jesus. They kept asking, they kept they pursued him. In other words, they wanted the next level. We want to understand, we want to know, we want. To know more than the average, we want to know more than the crowd. Because guess what, nobody else came up and asked him to explain those parables. Nobody else pursued Jesus like they did. So Jesus rewards them with next level experiences like the Transfiguration, right, and then other places as well, and so and so again. This is another indication that Jesus is saying, hey, you want next level experiences, and it's then it's next level faith. And this kind of casting out of this demon can only happen through prayer and fasting, and it's and it's an invitation to say, you want to go to the next level. You want you want to you want to be right there believing who I am, what I can do, knowing more about me, knowing me personally, and then try fasting, try more prayer, try communion with your heavenly Father. And I think that fasting as something that we often overlook, you know, uh, probably because honestly, there's no commandment to fast. There's there's a commandment to pray. Right, Jesus has an expectation that we would fast. Yes, it's totally there when you when you pray, that's right. So there's an expectation, but there's no like, there's no thou shout for these many days that you know this, there's there's no there's no It doesn't lay out necessarily on on exactly how to fast. We just know that biblical traditional fasting was going without food, right, And it's and and and it's basically giving up something you love for something you love more, which is every time you're hungry, you pray and you say, God, I love you, I want to pursue you more than I want this next meal. God, I want you your presence and your power in my life. And it's a demonstration of saying God, I'm sacrificing something in order to get something else, right and that's what that's what fasting is. So it's it's again, it's this next level pursuit of your relationship with your heavenly father and order to experience the next level kinds of things. So of course this passage in the New Living translation doesn't include the word fasting correct just prayer. Some translations include the word prayer and fasting the general meaning and prayer fasting is a dual thing that's mentioned multi times in scripture. So the principle is true here and there's no other way. So when you find Jesus, he goes up in the mountain to pray, he goes out into the desert to pray. This was a regular occurrence in Jesus' life. And so the worst time to dig a well is when you're thirsty and everybody around you is thirsty. Best time to dig a well, best time to be tapped into the source is before the problem comes. And so Jesus didn't have to run off and go and pray and fast in order to have the power to cast us out in the moment these thirsty people, these hungry people show up, and he was already full of the power of God. He just casts out the demons, right, and so this is what your family needs, if your mom and dad, if you're a brother's sister, you need to be that person that's building this spiritual well, this spiritual resid of war in your life so that when you're confronted with evil, so that when you're confronted with a problem, you're ready to face it and not have to run off and hurry up and let me hear up and go get right with God. Right, just be walking in the powers of spirit all the time, and you'll see God do amazing things. That's what happened for Jesus. It's like going out into the battle with no armor on. He said, time out, time out, time out. Gotta go get dressed right exactly. Do that. That's great. So all right, well, hey, that's all of our time. So hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on the Bible, guys,