Unleashing the Power of God to Help Others

Unleashing the Power of God to Help Others 

Matthew 17:14-20

Jesus’ Diagnoses 

Jesus’ Answer    

-- Why Imperfect Faith Fails 

-- When Imperfect Faith is Enough

And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.”

Matthew 17:17

And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?

Numbers 14:11 

Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Matthew 15:28 

The world is full of half believing unbelievers, and of half unbelieving believers. --Reinhold Niebuhr

Why Imperfect Faith Fails 

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith.

Matthew 17:19-20a

And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

Mark 9:28-29 

When Imperfect Faith is Enough 

For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.

Matthew 17:20b

And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.  And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.  And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”  And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

Mark 9:20-24 

Jesus wants the disciples to stop groveling in shame or inadequacy because of their almost always weak faith, and he wants them to believe that even their elementary faith and prayer throbs with power.  God intersects the part of us that believes.  (Mark 9:24).  

Thus faith in Jesus is a steadier spiritual, psychological, and even physical reality than self-confidence, which goes up and down depending on performance. --Dale Bruner  

We tend to locate our problem in less deep locations — in our temper, weaknesses, habits, lusts, addictions, moods, vanities, and ambitions. But in fact the root of all such bitter fruit is our failure to believe God.  --Dale Bruner     

Faith “properly placed” unleashes the power of God so that we can be effective in helping others.  

Why am I so powerless in helping others? 

Is my faith properly placed? 

What gets in the way of faith “properly placed”? 

Our number one enemy to the life of faith and prayer is self-righteousness. 

When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.

Matthew 8:10 

We can pray without faith. But we cannot exercise faith without praying.