I do believe; Help me Overcome my Unbelief*

Title:  I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!* Sermon from *43 Matt Hoffmann sermons
Text: Mark 9:14-29  22 And Jesus said to him, “‘Everything is possible for one who believes.”  Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”.”   INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, Alexander the Great had supreme confidence in his friend and physician.  When the physician had mixed him a potion for his sickness, a letter was put into Alexander’s hand warning him not to drink the mixture, since it was poisoned.  He held the letter in one hand and the cup in the other and in the presence of his friend and physician he drank up the drought.  After he had drained the cup, he bade his friend look at the letter and judge of his confidence in him. Alexander had unwavering faith in his friend that did not include any doubt.  He said: “See now, how I have trusted you.” This is the assurance that the believer should exercise toward his God.  But so often it’s not the case.  Unbelief whispers in our ears calling us to hesitate and falter in our trust in Him.”
I.    Today our text from Mark 9 gives us words that express the tension that is more normal than Alexander’s faith in the doctor.
	A.  These Words spoken first by a man who had the courage to be truly honest with himself, and honest with God.
				1. Stripped of all pretense, he speaks so plainly, “I believe, help my unbelief!” This is real, gut wrenching truth, and it speaks to life in a real, gut wrenching world.
						a. The statement itself is loaded with tension. There is pretense in this man’s faith and unbelief. But he doesn’t hide it.   b. And I’m glad that he doesn’t, because don’t we all live with this kind of tension in our lives? We live as those who have the saving blood of Jesus poured out for us, and giving us the promise of forgiveness, life and salvation. And yet, don’t we still live with the daily struggle against sin? Don’t we still live in a very real world full of very real disappointments, and failures, and temptations? The truth is, in this world, we don’t always win.
				2.  What I love about the account of Jesus healing this boy is WHERE we find it in Scripture.  It’s important that we understand that this account is always found immediately following the Transfiguration of Christ.
						a. Why does this matter? Well, the Transfiguration of Jesus is where we are transported, along with Peter, James, and John to witness a preview of the heavenly reality that is waiting for those who have been redeemed by Christ’s grace.   b. But here’s the deal. At the VERY TIME that all this is going on, something very different is happening to the 9 guys who didn’t go with Jesus up that hill. It wasn’t other-worldly, it wasn’t heavenly. It was harsh reality,..
	B. The men walked down the mountain of Transfiguration, “And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them.” A heated argument is raging all because a man brought his boy to be healed of a demon possession, but the disciples were unable to help. So the scribes rushed in to take advantage of the situation, to make the disciples look silly, and trivial in front of this big crowd. It had to be a truly crass scene.
				1.  Grown men, religious men, shouting at one another. Men throwing theological arguments back and forth, all the while, one man in the crowd can hardly watch.
						a. You see, his heart had been broken once again. He knew the feeling well. But yet it never seemed to make it less raw and dark, no matter how familiar he had become with the disappointment after so many years. If he were just fighting to help himself, and for his own problems, he would have given up years ago. But he wasn’t fighting for himself, he was fighting for his son, trying to help his boy. He would allow himself to get his hopes up, knowing that more than likely they would be dashed, because his son needed him to, so he would always try one more time.   b. But so far, nothing had worked. So far, he had no reason to have faith that anything could work. It’s not that people didn’t want to help, it’s that no one knew how. His son’s problems weren’t normal. He had demonic, induced epileptic fits.
				2. It only makes sense that this man had a bruised faith. His faith had a fresh wound on it when Jesus comes because to the disciples had failed to make any kind of difference at all. The evil spirit still gripped the boy as tightly as ever. It takes courage for him to even ask Jesus to help, and in his pain, you can see why his request of Jesus starts out guardedly: “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” If you can…
II. Jesus responds to the heart of the matter, ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” He says, the question isn’t about what I CAN do, the question is, “do you believe?” He doesn’t say this to be mean, or to challenge the man. Jesus says this because he knows what it will bring out of the man is something beautiful. A powerful confession of sin and a wonderful confession of faith. Both being exactly what this man so desperately needs.
	A. Desperation is the right word. The years of emotion well up from deep inside; all of the hopes that fell down so hard, all of the nights of tears, are forced to the surface, through his vocal chords, and come crashing out of his mouth:  and He said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
					1. It was the only thing he could say. It was all he had left in him to say, all that was left of his battered faith. All he had left laid bare, in just a handful of words, “I believe, help my unbelief!”   2. But where this man was weak, he found that Jesus was strong. That Jesus still heard his cry, and responded to weakness of faith in strength of love.
						a. And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”   b. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
		B. In the end, we see what really matters. What matters is that Christ is strong, not us. What matters is what God can do, not us. What matters is that we come to realize that we can’t help ourselves, that we aren’t as in control as we thought.  Cartoons at times will have a scene where a character, let’s says Wild E. Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons, falls off the edge of a cliff. As he falls, he grabs hold of a twig sticking out of the side of the cliff. He hangs there for a short time. Then the twig snaps and he falls. It doesn’t matter how strong his grip was. When the twig breaks, he falls.  It doesn’t matter how strong we are; all that matters is how strong God is.
					1. Where are you today? What do you think when you hear those words, “I believe, help my unbelief?”
						a. If you’re like me you’ve had doubts. You’ve had hopes built up and then smashed. You’ve wondered at times if God even hears you when you call on him. We’ve all been there. Because we are real people, we live life in this real world, and we’ve experienced real pain, and real fear, and real heartache.   b. This man’s simple words strike us so deeply because they are our words. They are honest words, they are real words, the words we’d like to shout ourselves, but are maybe too afraid what others might think.  The questions swirl in our minds.  It is really OK to admit that I have doubts? Is it really OK to say I need help with my faith? It is it really OK to be completely transparent about my struggles? The answer is YES!
					2. This is life, and this is what the journey of faith looks like sometimes.
							a. And this is a remarkable description of what happens in Holy Baptism: A sinner, who by definition is a child of the devil, is brought to the Lord God commands the evil one to release the sinner.  The sinner is killed. The sinner is raised to new life in, with, and by Christ Jesus. The father's confession, "I believe, help my unbelief" is the daily life and struggle of the Baptized. It was the struggle of the disciples. It is your struggle and mine.   b. I would love it if the path of the life of faith looked like you were baptized and launched out of a cannon in a straight line, and straight up to heaven. How great would that be! But that’s not how it goes for any of us.
			C. This is what the real journey of faith looks like sometimes. Sorry, but it’s true. Actually, I’m not sorry. Not sorry at all. Because something important happens in these dark moments.
					1. In these dark places, in these shadowy corners of our hearts we come to an important realization: That faith can’t be all about us. We have to fix our eyes on something greater, on someone greater.
							a. Help, faith, salvation. These things aren’t rooted inside of us. They are gifts given to us from our God. They are gifts rooted in our rescuer, our Messiah, our Savior. They are gifts found in the bloody soaked sacrifice on the cross for our sins, they are found in the empty grave clothes that once wrapped the body of the killed Christ now risen.   b. If you feel that all you have to offer God is a bruised, and battered, and beaten faith. It doesn’t affect at all what he has to offer you. It doesn’t matter if you feel that you are on the edge of your faith. It doesn’t matter if you struggle with deep doubts. It doesn’t matter if you have doubts about how long you can hold onto your faith in the storm.
					2. Because Christ will NEVER let go of you. Christ never has doubts about you. He never has questions about what you’re worth to Him. He knew what it would cost to make you his. He knew the price he would have to pay. He knew how far you’d wander from Him, he knew how much you would sin, he knew how much it would hurt.
							a. But he also knew he didn’t want to live without you. So he made your salvation real. As real as a cruel wooden cross. As real as a cold stone tomb, a place of darkness and death, that he would turn into a symbol of light and life for you.   b. And he hears you, he knows you, he loves you. Even in those moments when all you can say is what that man said so many years ago, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!” Understand that even this is amazing. Even this is a gift from God. Even this is a blessing.
CONCLUSION: It takes courage to be that honest. To say out loud that things aren’t perfect, that my faith isn’t perfect, that I need God to intervene in my life, even now. Can you say those words? Can you let down your guard? Can you trust that the cross is enough for you? Can you look past yourself to find comfort in the empty tomb, in what Christ has done for you? Let’s say it together: “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!”   Christ’s response is always the same. “I know, I love you, You belong to me.” AMEN
*Reference: Raw Honesty Matt Hoffmann 43 Matt Hoffmann sermons Topic: #345 of 715 for Sermons on Doubt Scripture: Mark 9:14-9:21