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August 31, 2014
*Intro* – Did you ever have a teen-ager explain your phone to you?
I guarantee you it won’t be long before you say, “I didn’t know it did that!”
The truth is that modern mobile phones have monstrous capabilities that most of us never tap.
But guess what?
God also has monstrous capacities and capabilities that most of us never tap.
The trouble is we are unbelieving believers to one degree or another.
And our unbelief ties the hands of God.
Every worry is a declaration that God is not big enough, powerful enough or loving enough to take care of me?
Every outburst is a declaration that I am better able to defend my rights than God.
Every disobedience is a declaration that I know better than God.
And so, without meaning to, I trim His sails; I limit His scope.
With each such instance I drop anchor in unbelief, and live like who I was, instead of who I am.
We all do it; we do it every day; we do it without even thinking.
Our text today urges us to tap a big God – by faith.
Context.
The disciples just had the ultimate mountaintop experience!
Peter says they were “eyewitnesses of his majesty.”
But while we need mountaintop experiences we cannot live there.
We are needed in the valley.
But look at Lu 9:43: “And all were astonished at the majesty of God.”
That was the reaction to Jesus healing one of the worst cases of demon possession in the NT.
And the word majesty?
– same word Peter used.
Peter saw it on the mount in Jesus’ person; the crowd saw it in the valley in Jesus’ work.
The majesty of God wsa in both places.
Meaning – it is possible to bring the majesty of the mountaintop to the valley.
We used to sing, “Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.”
It can happen.
It is intended to happen.
It is only limited in scope by – guess what?
Our UNBELIEF!
We have a big God; we believe He can do anything – except what touches our lives.
Then, we either believe He can’t or He won’t.
Or we lost heart because He won’t do it the way we think it should be done.
We are walking, talking oxymorons – believers who do not believe.
Unbelieving believers.
Just like the disciples!
When Jesus says in v. 41, “O faithless [without faith] and twisted generation” He’s not talking to the crowd.
His disciples are the culprits.
In their unbelief, the glory would never have descended.
Thankfully, Jesus was there and it did, and it still can.
Here’s what we need to know.
*I.
Our World is Bound*
V. 37, “On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him.
38 And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.
39 And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out.
It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him.”
Luke is putting up flashing, neon lights saying, “Note the difference!”
The contrast between the mountain and the valley is stunning.
Glory on the mountain; tragedy in the valley.
God’s majesty on the mountain; Satan’s cruelty in the valley.
A God-pleasing Son on the mountain; a demon-possessed waste of a son in the valley.
A sovereign Father on the mountain; a helpless, tortured father below.
One son a destroyer of demons; the other destroyed by demons.
The 2nd son restored to his father, delivered by the1st son.
What contrasts.
Without Jesus you live in the valley without hope.
The boy below is a shattered wreck.
He cries out, convulses, foams at the mouth.
Some have suggested he is an epileptic.
But the Bible clearly indicates demonic possession.
Matt adds the demon often threw the boy into open fires or pools of water trying to destroy him (Mt 17:15).
Mark adds that he was deaf and mute.
Covered with scars; unable to hear or speak; his eyes betray his terror at every new attack.
It is about to destroy the boy; it is about to destroy the father also.
They are helpless in the face of this relentless enemy.
God is picturing for us a world in bondage.
We’re not demon-possessed, but even as we enjoy the good life, apart from Christ we are hopelessly enslaved to sin.
Jesus said to His comfortable, middle-class audience in Jn 8:34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
In our fallen, broken world right is declared wrong and wrong is declared right.
Apart from Christ, our bondage is every bit as real as that of this boy.
And sin will take you down just as surely without Christ.
But sin’s bondage is invisible.
We expect comfort as the norm.
Trouble surprises us: “This isn’t supposed to be happening to me! Lord, why are You letting this happen to me?”
We wonder if God is in control.
If He is in control, “This shouldn’t be happening to me.” God shrinks in proportion to our misguided expectations that life here should be like life there.
I heard a preacher on TV one night say, “If you’re a Christian, you should have something to show for it.
Now, you ain't gotta have what everybody else got, but you should have a life where you're comfortable."
Where does the Bible teach that?
It doesn’t!
A lot of Xns are not comfortable this morning – many not even safe.
Why?
Because we live in the valley, in a fallen world.
In that environment, God allows adversity for 1,000 reasons – sometimes discipline, sometimes to help us focus, sometimes to benefit others.
Sometimes to grow us.
When God is big in our eyes, He can get His purpose accomplished.
But when He is small, we’ve tied His hands.
To unleash a great God, we must do what Jesus said to the father in v. 41, “Bring your son here.”
He invites us, too.
Bring me your children, your job, your vile temperament, the grudge you hold, your finances, your marriage.
Bring it to me.
It’s either a big problem or a big God.
Why not a big God?
*II.
Our Ability is Bounded*
The disciples forgot, as do we, when we go into battle alone, we’ve already lost.
V. 40, “And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”
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