Well, hello friends, and thank you for joining me in our daily reading from God's holy word. Today we're reading Mark chapter 9 verse 14 Through the end in the transfiguration God the Father said of Jesus. This is my beloved son Listen to him now in this lesson Jesus heals and teaches and in each instance invites us to Distrust ourselves and put our trust in him Before we read let's pray our Father in heaven We ask you would speak to our hearts and help us to hear Jesus in his name. I pray amen Amen, Mark chapter 9 beginning of verse 14 and when they came to the disciples They saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them And immediately all the crowd when they saw him were greatly amazed and ran up to him and graded him and he asked them What are you arguing about with them and 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 So I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able And he answered them oh faithless generation how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you bring him to me? They brought the boy to him and when the spirit saw him immediately it convulsed the boy and he found on the ground enrolled about foaming at the Mouth and Jesus asked his father how long has this been happening to him and he said from childhood And his 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 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 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 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? They went on from there and passed through the Galilee and he did not want anyone to know for he was teaching his disciples saying to them The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him and when he is killed after three days He will rise but they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him and they came to Capernaum And when he was in the house he asked them what were you discussing on the way?
But they kept silent for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest and he sat down and he called the 12 And he said to them if anyone would be first He must be the last of all and servant of all and he took a child and put him in the midst of them and taking him in his arms He said to them whoever receives one such child in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives not me but him who sent me John said to him teacher We saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he was not following us But Jesus said do not stop him for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me For the one who is not against us is for us for truly I say to you whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ But will by no means lose his reward Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin It would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea And if your hand causes you to sin cut it off It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell to the unclenchable fire And if your foot causes you to sin cut it off it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell And if your eye causes you to sin tear it out It is better for you to enter the kingdom of god with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched For everyone will be salted with fire salt is good But if the salt is lost it's saltiness How will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another Amen In each of these passages, Jesus is inviting us to distrust ourselves And to depend upon him to distrust our own ability our own agenda our ambitions for ourselves Our antagonism toward others and our attitude towards sin First distrust your ability Jesus heals a mute and deaf boy with epileptic like sejurs brought on by an unclean demonic spirit The father couldn't heal his son the disciples couldn't either Jesus could and did they ask him why couldn't we and Jesus says the only way is by prayer You can't think you can you must appeal to god. Don't trust your abilities trust god The father wanted Jesus to heal but said if you can if you can as if maybe Jesus couldn't So Jesus said if I can all things are possible for the one who believes He says not the strength of their faith But the strength of the one in whom they put their faith that matters The man asks what we all should I believe lord help my unbelief So distrust your ability either to do miracles or trust in the lord second distrust your agenda Then Jesus again foretold his sufferings and death and resurrection And again the disciples didn't understand and were afraid to ask they were so to understand so to ask for help committed to their own plans for Jesus Not god's plans how like them we are faith and unbelief are common to Christians We should pray lord help me align myself with you and your agenda Third distrust your own ambition But then the 12 were arguing about who is greatest among themselves Here they are so proud so ambitious for recognition so upside down on the meaning of greatness Jesus sets them straight if anyone would be first he must be last of all and servant of all True greatness you see isn't ruling but serving it doesn't aim high But low and isn't this why Jesus is preeminent in the church because he came not to be served But to serve and to give his life as a ransom for all But so invested in themselves are the disciples that they then distrust others who were serving Jesus As if Jesus can't have followers we know nothing about and Jesus says leave them alone Don't stop them So we should distrust our antagonism of others who are serving him And finally we should distrust our attitude towards sin Jesus confronts them about temptation Because if you have a high opinion of yourself and want glory on earth who knows how many little ones you might trample As you climb for glory and how evil that would be and how deserving of the fires of hell says Jesus We should be so distrustful of our ability and our agenda and our own ambition and our antagonism to other serving Jesus that we would rather Lose our hand or our foot or our eye then trample on others and cause them to sin We need his attitude towards sin and temptation to replace ours So that we might say Lord keep me from presumptuous sin May they not rule over me Lord spare me from sinning against others even the least of your children Lord help me rather to live at peace with them Let's pray Father ahead and make it so teach us to deny ourselves take of our cross and follow Jesus and his name I pray amen Thank you again for listening in and I hope you'll join me next time