The sermon, delivered by Scott Brown, focuses on the biblical passage from Matthew 17:14-21, where Jesus heals an epileptic boy after the disciples are unable to do so. The incident is used as a basis to explore themes of faith, prayer, and fasting. Brown emphasizes the importance of a strong, well-nourished faith, particularly in times of crisis. He discusses how different Gospel accounts emphasize various aspects of the incident, such as human drama, the presence of Jesus, and the role of the devil. The sermon critiques a 'faithless and perverse generation' and underscores the necessity of prayer and fasting as foundational practices for cultivating faith capable of overcoming significant challenges. Brown also emphasizes the need for parents to be vigilant about their children's spiritual well-being, suggesting that prayer and fasting are essential tools for spiritual warfare. The sermon concludes with a call to cultivate a culture of prayer and fasting to prepare for the challenges of life, both individually and as a community.

The sermon text this morning is from Matthew chapter 17 verses 14 to 21. And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him out to your disciples but they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?

Bring him here to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, Why could we not cast it out? So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief. For assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.

However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for your word. O Lord, for you invite us to your banqueting table and you feed us richly from your word, Lord. Father, I pray this morning that you will help us to see and to hear.

Oh Lord, for unless you or Father enable us, we can receive nothing. Lord, we thank you for the privilege of sitting under the teaching of your Word. Oh Lord, I pray that you will bless God, you will fill him with your Holy Spirit now. For his words may come from you, that your words come through him to us. Father we thank you for the privilege of hearing your word and seeing.

And Lord I pray this morning for those who cannot hear and for those who cannot see. Lord, that you will open deaf ears and make blind eyes to see through the preaching of your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. This morning I prayed that we would have a sober and spirit-directed consideration of our faith. What kind is it?

How strong is it? Is it faltering at this very moment? Because the Lord Jesus here is speaking about faith that moves mountains and this example in a very dark moment in a father's life where he where he cries out to God and and he says Lord have mercy on my son. And this story is about faith. It's about the kind of faith that you have in a crisis.

How big it is, how ready it is, how well nourished it's been, so that when you come to a moment, do you have faith in that moment? And so this morning I'd like for us to try to think this through, first of all, by counting your problems. You know that song? Count your problems, name them one by one. Count your problems.

See what the devil has done. Well, you know, count your problems. You know, name them. Seriously, I'm really asking you to consider outlining your problems, your concerns, name your fears, what's broken, ask your soul, why art thou cast down my soul? And then tell your soul what is disturbing it.

And it matters very much how we relate to our problems, our concerns, our fears. And then how do we apply our faith to those things? You know, do we freeze in the midst of our fears? Are we paralyzed by them? Are we just, do we just fall into discouragement and despotency?

Now, this passage of Scripture speaks to all these things that I've just mentioned. Now, before we move directly into the text, I'd like to mention five things, five observations about this text to help you understand what's happening here before we begin to take the phrases one by one. First of all, all three of the synoptic gospel writers include this incident, But they emphasize different things. Mark emphasizes the human drama, the things going on relationally in the story. Matthew emphasizes really the mighty presence of Jesus Christ as he comes and he supplies faith to the faithless.

He supplies belief to the one who doesn't believe. What a blessing that is. How many times has Jesus Christ come to you and you are saying like this man, I believe it helped me in my unbelief. Jesus did help that man. In his unbelief, what a what a remarkable thing that's happened over and over again in my life.

Luke emphasizes the role of the devil, but God's power over the work of the devil. And in Luke, we read, Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and cured the child and restored him to his father and they were all astonished at the mighty power of God." So the different gospel writers have different emphases. Mark has 16 verses on it, Matthew has eight, and Luke has seven and a half. So they have a different emphasis and a different focus. The second observation about this passage is that our Lord is teaching His disciples and us how to deal with really extreme problems that come into your life So much so that you cry out With every fiber of your being Oh Lord Save my son heal my son the most pernicious damaging problems are presented here for us today.

Some of you have problems like that right now. And the heart of the passage really is found in seeking the contrast between verse 15, where we learned that it was severe, and verse 21, where Jesus says, this kind, this kind, this is a particular kind of extreme pernicious problems and it requires a special kind of faith, a ready faith. So there are degrees of problems that we have. They're not created equal. And with great problems, there's a requirement of great faith.

And this faith takes cultivation. It has to be nourished before the time of the requirement of the faith. Here's another observation. Our Lord is also teaching us what is at work in the unseen world because you cannot understand what's happening in the world. You can't understand what's happening to your son unless you understand what is happening in the supernatural unseen world.

The world of the Prince of the power of the air, the world of the devil. And God has placed his people in the earth that also includes the presence of demonic forces, demons. And this is a reality. This is your Father's world and this is the glory of God interacting in the midst of a fallen world and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in that world. How thankful we ought to be that there is this power of the Lord Jesus Christ working in this world and the most pernicious, difficult, damaging problems are there before him.

And then another observation is this. The Lord is illustrating all of this with a very graphic story, and it's a real life story that just depicts the fallout that takes place when there's a breakdown of faith among the people of God. In this case, it was a breakdown of the faith of the disciples and that man and the whole generation. So it tells a story. What does it look like when there's been a breakdown of faith in a heart, in a family, in a community, in a religious setting, and in an entire generation.

And then another observation is this. Some of the most famous statements in the Bible are in this passage. Again, I mentioned it's in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And you have that statement in Mark, Lord, I believe, help me in my unbelief. Matthew doesn't record that, but Mark does.

And then that other statement in Matthew, if you have faith as a mustard seed, then you shall say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. And then there's that famous statement, this kind does not come out but by prayer and fasting. These are very familiar verses of Scripture. So some of the most well-known phrases in the Bible are right here in the midst of this story. So here's the scene.

The first thing that you see is the failure of the disciples in verses 14 through 16. And When they had come to the multitude, the man came to him. Now what's happening is that the scene in the Mount of Transfiguration has drawn away Peter, James, and John and the Lord Jesus Christ. They are up in the mountain and the other disciples are down in the valley, down in the city. That's the scene.

And they are coming down from the mountain. That's what it says in verse 14. They came down from the mountain and a man came to him, Jesus. So the three disciples of Lord Jesus come down and they meet the other disciples who are in this situation. And then a man came kneeling down before Jesus, saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic who suffers severely, and he often falls into the fire and often into the water.

So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him." So there's this enthusiastic and controversial reception. These nine disciples are engaging the scribes and the Pharisees, and it's typically not a happy discussion going on between them. And so there's this tension, there's this difficulty going on. The Mount of Transfiguration has just happened, the glory of God has been shown there. And here, Peter, James, and John, they come down from the mountain and they see all this morass of sin and controversy and brokenness in this family and all this argumentation going on between the scribes and the Pharisees.

And what happens here is that we notice that the disciples are actually caught in the midst of this moment with what Jesus calls unbelief. And this actually begins a long period of instructions in chapter 20, where the Lord tells several stories that we won't have the ability to go through. But what you find here is this descent from the mountains to the valley. There's the glory of God, the grace of God, and then there's the smoke and the fire and the blood and the controversy and the downfall that's down in the city. And it's the way the world really is.

And you can't stay up on the mountain with Moses. You've got to come down and heal the sick and raise the dead. You've got to come back down and do the marriage counseling. You've got to come back and deal with people's real problems and pray with them and cry out to God with the people who are saying, Oh Lord, heal my son. This is the world that we are meant to exist in, that we would be, that God's people would be mixed in the problems of humanity and not deprive themselves from it at all, but to be agents of healing and reconciliation, to go into every situation and teach them to observe all things that Jesus Christ has commanded.

So You must come down to the place where the devil must be overthrown and where the leaven of the kingdom of heaven must grow, where it's expanding like this mustard seed. And so, you know, here we've spent this glorious time at this conference. We are on a mountain, you know, and we're going to go down. We're going to go down into the city again. And what we have with us is the arsenal of all things that Jesus Christ commanded us.

And so here we have this scene going on. And then there's the man that comes with his son. A man came to him, it says, kneeling down to him. So there's this very emotionally charged moment where this man is kneeling down, you know, in a, in a, in a, almost worshiping him. And, And Luke says that the man tells him that it is his only son.

Maybe you just have one son. Well, that's what this man's life was configured by. He had one son. And then the boy's condition is revealed in verse 15 where he says, Lord have mercy on my son. And for he is an epileptic and suffers severely, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water." So there's this great cry for mercy, for compassion, for sympathy toward his son.

And this is one of the examples in scripture where you have fathers crying out for their sons It happens all over the place in scripture You have you have job and job chapter one where job is crying out for his sons and his daughters daily you You have David actually crying out for his hateful son, Absalom, and he says, Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son, in the terrible demise that had come upon his life. And then David, you know, crying out for the life of his infant son that was born out of his own immorality, the child born to Bathsheba. And then David praying for his son Solomon, that God would grant him a grateful, a faithful heart as he is going to assume leadership over the nation. And then Solomon, in turn, he goes and cries out for his own son over and over and over again in the Book of Proverbs. And he says, My son, give me your heart.

So there's this there's this theme in Scripture of fathers crying out for their sons and that's what's happening here You know in another place in Matthew you have the Syriacan woman Who's crying out for her daughter and she says oh Lord son of David have mercy on me this This cry of a parent for a child is so common in the world and I'm confident that every parent in this room is crying out for their sons and daughters in one way or another. It may be for something so pernicious and difficult and damaging and defiling that's going on in your son or daughter's life, and you're saying, Oh Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. Heal my daughter. Heal my son. This is what's happening here in this passage of Scripture.

That very same cry that rises out of your heart for your son or your daughter was being cried out right here before the Lord Jesus Christ, the scribes and the Pharisees and the crowd and, and most importantly the Lord Jesus Christ himself and that's the beginning of of all the blessing that we see in this passage so it's easy to put ourselves in this place. Mark gives us more detail about what's going on here. Verse 18 in Mark chapter 9. I'll just read it for you. And the father tells Jesus, he says, whenever it seizes him, it throws him down.

He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and he becomes rigid. And then they brought him to him, and when they saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth." So not only was this happening in this man's life all the time, now it's happening again right there before the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there the work of the devil was exposed, it was brought to the surface. This is always a blessing when the work of the devil is exposed and shown. This is the beginning of healing.

And so he asked his father, how long has this been happening to him? And he said, from childhood. And often he has thrown him both into the fire, into the water to destroy him. And then Mark says, and when Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, Death and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more. Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him.

And he became as one dead. So that many said, he's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up, and he arose. This is such a cacophony. You have this argument going on with the scribes and the Pharisees.

And then when the devil throws this little boy down, the whole crowd comes rushing up. It's like a freak show in many ways. It's a very confusing and worldly kind of situation that's going on all around the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is called an epileptic. And we're not exactly sure what this is.

It's translated as lunatic or perhaps to be moon struck as the dictionary calls it. There's some indication that the term was not used for the kind of epilepsy that we're aware of today. So I'm not really sure what this is but we do know this. We know a lot of details about it and as are revealed here. And there are these terrible incidents that are taking place with fire and water.

It's very dangerous. You know, if you've ever seen your son, you know, go up and, you know, and hang over a rail with 50 feet dropped down below because he's just playing. I mean, this is just terribly dangerous situations all the time happening to this boy. And this was all the result of the work of the devil. It almost reminds you of the story of the Gataring Demoniac, where he was cutting himself and shrieking and running around, terrifying everybody, breaking chains and really being a dangerous presence in the community.

And this little boy, he probably was covered with burns and scars from the work of the devil upon him. This is just the way that the devil works. He's always wanting to wound you. He always wants to scar you. He always wants to damage your emotions and mess up your relationships.

This is the work of the devil. You know, if there are any young people in here today who somehow think that walking with the devil is gonna, you're gonna enjoy this for some period of time, you just have to recognize who you're dealing with. You're dealing with one who wants to destroy you. Not every single part of you. Your mind, your emotions, your relationships, your body.

And then finally, his work will work such that you will be destroyed in eternal damning fire. And so the work of the devil is sort of exposed in a small way here. This is a foretaste of hell. This is a revelation of the work of the devil. And why it's so dangerous not to turn your heart in repentance toward the Lord Jesus Christ at a young age.

Because He scars you along the way. He damages you along the way. And how important it is to repent and believe in the gospel, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, that the times of refreshing would come in. Well, this story is also a parable of the beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven, how he delivers those who have been scarred, who have been damaged, who have been burned by the devil in this world. So it's a beautiful story.

The Lord Jesus Christ comes and rescues this little boy from the damaging, harsh dealings of the devil. And we also recognize that There really are levels of demonization here, because the Lord Jesus says, this kind, there's a certain kind, all are not like this. There are some levels of demon possession that are so horrible that they're like this here. With the Syrophoenician woman's daughter, the scriptures say that she was severely afflicted. So there's greater severity and lesser severity in the horrible death ministry of the devil.

He afflicts very harshly in some places and not so harshly in other places. But again, you see the brutality of the devil. You see the hatred of the devil. Now I want to give you five lessons from from this where we are right now in this passage. First of all, Number one, how the devil is no respecter of childhood.

How the devil is no respecter of children. Don't miss this. The Father said this has been happening since he was a little child. The devil does attack the very young. Don't think for a moment that that little baby in your arms is not outside of the ability of the devil to attack your child.

Child. Lesson number two is like the first one. How early, how early the devil moves upon children. Number three, the hostility that the devil has toward your children. You need to recognize that the prince of the power of the air is not just dealing with adults.

He's dealing with your little children. And therefore, your ministry to them, your prayers, the protective coverage of your very presence with them, your prayers for them, your prayers in the secret place in behalf of them, even when they're little babies. You know, I have all these little grandchildren around. I have nine grandchildren from age five down to zero almost. And I look at them and I marvel.

I marvel just how cute and happy and how much fun they are. But sometimes I look at them and I realize who they really are. And the hostility that Satan has toward children. That's the third. The hostility.

Number four. What parents should do, what should parents do when their children are falling? They should do what this man did. They should bring them to Christ. They should bring them before Christ.

This is what prayer does. You bring people before the throne. You make your requests known to God. You bring them before Jesus Christ. That's what you must do with your little children.

And then, number five, don't be naive about your children. Don't be foolish. You grew up in an anti-supernaturalistic world that made you think that there really are no forces, no unseen forces working on your little babies, and they are. You look at them and you kiss them and you hold them, And how often do you think of how the devil hates your baby? And what that means for you as a parent in terms of vigilance, in terms of heart preparation and prayer.

So, then the Lord asks a question, it's a searching question, and He asks His Father, how long has it happened? This is just the voice of compassion. The Lord Jesus is probing, He's wanting to, he knows the answer to the question. But he's a good shepherd and he's a counselor. He's a wonderful counselor and he has compassion.

And then you see the failure of the disciples because He says, I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him. He had these great hopes. He'd seen the healings in the countryside and the cities, and he had such hopes for healing him, But he brought him to his disciples and he was not being healed. In Mark, the Pharisees are mocking the disciples And they're saying, the disciples have no power. So there was this powerless moment that was upon them.

This is a society where just Christ doesn't seem to have any power at all. So with the failure of the disciples in the scene, now Jesus, in verse 17, if you'd look with me there, the Lord Jesus Christ diagnoses the problem. And this is perhaps the heart of the matter, where Jesus is explaining to this man and his disciples and the scribes and Pharisees and this crowd that had just rushed in. And Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?" So the Lord answers the crowd with this diagnosis that begins with, oh, this visceral cry from the heart.

Oh, and then he explains the reason. There's something going on in this generation. This generation, he's talking about the people alive right at that time. The people here who are alive now have a problem. Matthew uses this term, this generation, in the same way all through the Gospel of Matthew.

He's talking about the people there that are alive in that generation. And there's something wrong with that generation. We have many people who are sort of cultural commentators. They're trying to discern the times and see what's going on in the generation. And you sort of have different levels of it.

In this global society, we have this generation in your family. There's the generation that exists in America, there's the generation that exists right now globally, you know the, you know the nine billion people that are in the world, this generation, the people who are alive. And there is something wrong with this generation. There are two things wrong. Faithless and perverse.

Those are the two things that are wrong with the generation. And that has a lot to do with the failure of the disciples because remember Jesus is diagnosing the problem. This is the problem. Jesus Christ analyzes the heart of the matter. There's a faithless and a perverse generation.

And you just might ask yourself, what are the common marks of this generation, of our culture? We live in an era where the generations are divided up in categories. We put names on them. And so, you know, in our own thinking, we think about generations in a diverse way. We think of different things going on in different sort of subcultures.

That's how we think of it. But you know, your nation has a culture and The question is, is it a culture of prayer and fasting? Your church has a culture. Is it a culture of prayer and fasting? Your family has a culture, doesn't it?

And it's a culture of Prayer and fasting. Is it? Or what about you? The culture of your own heart. Is it a culture of prayer and fasting?

Or is it faithless and perverse? These two kinds of cultures are being weighed in the balances here in this passage. Faithless and perverse generation and a believing and prayerful and fasting kind of generation. Those two are set in opposition in this passage. So they were faithless.

They were without faith. So a whole generation has so little faith that it doesn't pray and it doesn't fast. The whole generation is just seeing with their eyes, not with the eyes of faith at all. And There are no mountains being moved in that generation. You know how great they were with their religion and how poor they were with their fate.

It was a culture of self-reliance. It was a culture of duty. It was a culture of cleaning the outside of the cup while the inside is full of robbery and extortion. It was a prayerless culture. I read something the other day about prayerlessness.

This writer was speaking of the sin of prayerlessness. Here's what she said, it's a sin against God. It is a direct disobedience to the command of Christ to watch and pray. It is a direct disobedience to the word of God, which says, pray without ceasing. It makes me vulnerable to temptation, because Jesus said, watch and pray so that you not fall into temptation.

It expresses independence with no need for God. It gives place to the enemy and makes me vulnerable to his schemes. It results in powerlessness. It limits my relationship with God. It hinders me from knowing his will, his priorities, and his direction.

It forces me to operate in the realm of the natural, what I can do versus the supernatural, what he can do. It leaves me weak, harried, and hassled. It is rooted in pride, self-sufficiency, laziness, and lack of discipline, and it reveals a lack of real burden and compassion for others. So here's the question. So here's the question.

What's the culture of your family? You know, I look back in my own family life, and I grieve at how little I gathered my family together for prayer. That's it. And maybe you're like me. And maybe prayer and fasting needs to become a far greater part of your life.

I know it's true for me. You know, here's how bad it is. I've been thinking about this passage and preaching it here. I don't know if it's three or four months. I'm not sure.

A long time. And I know the central message of this passage. And I awoke with my family this morning, and I didn't even gather them together to pray. I didn't do it. So when I came in here today, my heart is broken from my indolence and my lack of insight, lack of care for them and for me and for you.

And This is the issue that's before the disciples. So it's a faithless generation, or rather, unbelieving, and it's a perverted generation. And the word that Jesus uses, it's like twisting it out of, it's like twisted out of shape. It's like a piece of pottery that's just being handled carelessly by a craftsman. Just an ugly lump of yuck that's supposed to pass for a pot.

It's just not right. It's perverted, as he uses the term. And then he says, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I be with you? Now, when a culture is devolving, Jesus Christ is saying here that it's the culture's fault.

It's the generation's fault. They've allowed something to happen in their generation. They've participated in the creation of a whole culture that's not believing and it's twisted and it's perverted. And so the Lord's weariness of it comes out when he says, how long shall I be with you? You see his weariness, but you also see his patience because he's going to linger with them.

He is not going to leave them or forsake them. He is going to continue with them. And so when he says, How long shall I be with you? He knows in his heart that he will never leave them or forsake them. There's so much about faith in the Gospel of Matthew.

There's faith in God for necessities in Matthew 6.30, where the Lord says, If God so clothes the grass of the field which today is, and tomorrow is turned into the oven, will he not much more clothe you oh you of little faith there's there's faith for healing and in Matthew chapter eight verse ten when Jesus heard it He marveled and said to those who followed, Surely I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in all of Israel." This was the centurion. And he had a marvelous faith. And Jesus says, I haven't found faith like this in all of Israel. Say, hey, in that generation in Israel, there just wasn't much of it. There weren't many men like that centurion who believed in the authority of God to heal.

And that man said, you don't even need to come. You just say the word, he'll be healed. The Lord Jesus said, I haven't seen such great faith and the boy was healed there's faith in time of fear you know in Matthew 8 26 he said to them why are you fearful oh you of little faith And then he arose and he rebuked the winds and the sea became calm. This whole matter of faith just touches every area of life. When your son is sick, several miles away, when you're out in an ocean and the waves are threatening to destroy you, there's the faith of friends.

Remember the man who was let down through the roof in Matthew chapter 9. They brought the Lord Jesus, a paralytic, on a bed after tearing apart the roof. And the Lord Jesus saw their faith and said to the paralytic, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven." He looked at the faith of his friends. Now while it is true that it was a faithless generation, but it wasn't totally faithless, there were some people that had faith. Like these friends had faith.

What a blessing it is to have friends who have faith. So even in the midst of a perverse and twisted generation with no faith there can be lights of faith. Would you be that light? Would I? Could I?

Would I be that light of faith? We talked about the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew. Jesus turned around and when he saw her, I'm sorry, this is the woman with the issue of blood, be of good cheer, daughter, your faith has made you well. Your faith. So that woman who was sick herself spent all of her money on physicians, had nothing left, it was her faith that was used to make her well.

So while Jesus says this generation is the faithless generation, there were some lights of faith in it, and that's such a blessing. We could talk a lot about this whole matter of faith, and it really is the heart of this passage. But then the Lord Jesus in verse 18 disarms this demon, and he says, bring him here to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him and the child was cured from that very hour. And so here is this instantaneous deliverance from all these afflictions.

And it just shows us that nothing is out of reach of Jesus Christ. When you say, Oh Lord, heal my son, you have to recognize that nothing is out of his reach. When you say about your daughter, Oh Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. Remember, He does have exclusive, autocratic authority over everything. You are not alone, and your son and your daughter are also not alone in this universe." And then Jesus explains the way of victory here in verses 19 through 21.

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately. So you see the change in scene. They've been out in this cacophony, this city scene with all these crazy things going on with the scribes and the Pharisees, you know, pointing their bony fingers at them and the crowd they just rushed in to see something amazing. And the disciples, you know, they're totally powerless. The three that just came off the Mount of Transfiguration, they're just so full of joy.

And then Lord Jesus Christ Himself. There's this whole scene. And then that scene changes. And now Jesus is face to face, eyeball to eyeball with his disciples alone. Now he is discipling them and explaining them, to them the situation.

The disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why could we not cast it out? So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, just like that generation. And I don't believe this was salvific belief and unbelief. This was the quality of their faith in God. Because faith is something that grows over time.

And so they were down on the low because of your unbelief. For assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you. However, This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Now, verses 20 and 21 are left out of the ESV because the ESV does not embrace the principle of providential preservation and they look to whatever new manuscript gets discovered. But I read it because I believe it to be fully authoritative where he says What he says here, this kind does not go out but by prayer and fasting.

Now, a couple of observations here. He says that even a small amount of faith can accomplish much. Even the faith of a mustard seed. So, God works with, He can work with little faith. Well, He always works with little faith, because He finds so much of it in the world.

But it should also be a challenge for us to grow our faith. And then he talks about, you know, the smallest of faith, the faith of a mustard seed that can accomplish much. A mustard seed is small and then it grows into this big tree and it expands, it's just a picture of expansion. The way that faith is meant to operate in your life. And you can feed your faith and you can starve your faith.

And then moving mountains. He says if you have faith in the mustard seed you'll say this mountain move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible to you. So how come nobody here has moved any mountains yet? I'm sure we've prayed it. I mean, have you ever prayed that a mountain would move?

Probably not. But this is figurative. No one we're aware of has moved a literal mountain. Maybe you know someone who's done that. There's no record of Jesus moving any mountains physically.

There's no record of the disciples moving any mountains. There's no record of the apostles moving any mountains. When Paul was on his missionary journeys, he wasn't walking, you know, along the way. He said, you know, I really don't want that mountain there. I think let's just walk, you know, keep this trek easy.

They're not, they're not moving mountains. It's figurative. It's really just an illustration of the magnitude of what faith can do. And that he can take care of the problems that really no one can take care of. And it can seem like moving a mountain.

And that's why he says that this is a particularly mountain-like situation. So he says this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. So this kind required a gigantic use of faith. It was a particularly hard case. And it required a particular kind of faith.

Now think about this for a minute. There they are. They're right out in the middle of all this stuff, and they're not able to heal the boy and Jesus looks back to that moment and he says, he says, this doesn't come out except by prayer and fasting. Now When did they have time to fast? Would they go on a speed fast right there?

They come into the situation and say, oh, now this requires fasting, so I'm going to have a speed fast. I'm going to take a three-day fast and jam it into three minutes. Well that's not what happened. That's impossible. But what Jesus, I think what Jesus was saying is, you're like this generation and you've not been prepared through prayer and fasting.

You've not had a lifestyle of prayer and fasting. There's a whole generation out there that doesn't have this lifestyle. So there's a life of faith, of prayer, of fasting that prepares you for the moment, the taxing moment when the mountain appears before you. And if you're not ready, you're just not ready. And there will be no deliverance like this in these great situations.

Okay, I'm going to give you some applications here to wind up. First of all, Jesus is teaching us that faith is needed to change things. That prayer and fasting, as a result of faith, is often needed to move mountains. In this case, healing a young man. In this case, answering the cry of a father who says, Oh Lord, heal my son.

And this use of faith and prayer and fasting is one of the means that we take dominion. It is one of the means of the Great Commission. It's a way that we bring the rulership and the kingdom of Jesus Christ into the world. The Gospel of Matthew is the gospel of the kingdom. The whole theme of it is to declare that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Every chapter proves that point, that He is the King. He's the King over the waves of the sea, He's the King over the demons, He's the King over all sickness, He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And the gospel of Matthew ends with him sitting at the right hand of his father saying, All authority has been granted unto me. So this kind of faith, this is The authority that Jesus Christ desires to exercise in the world requires faith. And some things require great faith.

Now, How positioned are you before the difficulties that are before you? You know, there are appropriate responses for different problems that we face in our family life or in any area of our lives. And when difficulties raise their heads, We have a lot of different ways of reacting to them. You can act with resignation. That's one way.

That's an inappropriate way. You just say, oh whatever, and you close your eyes and you look the other direction. It might be anger. You might just respond in anger. You might respond with frustration.

You might just respond with apathy. You don't care. Who cares? You might just respond with fear. But here, the Lord Jesus Christ is showing how faith and prayer and fasting is the appropriate response to these kinds of situations.

There were times in our family life When Deborah and I felt like, you know, our children were being attacked by the devil. We would go up into their bedrooms late at night, and We would kneel beside their beds when they were asleep. And we would just cry out to God for them. There are only so many things you can do. You know, You can throw up your hands, you can be angry, you can kick the couch, you can give up.

There's so many things you can do. But the exercise of faith through prayer and fasting is such an appropriate way to respond to these kinds of situations. You know, this is why the Bible says, cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. He says, look at the birds of the air. He says, you know, observe the lilies of the field.

Make your requests known to God. These are things that you do to respond to these kinds of situations when in your heart you're saying, oh Lord, heal my son, and you're crying out. And so I really would like for us to consider the difficult situations that are before us. What national problems need your faith right now? What national problems need your faith?

Well, how about this? Isn't it just so easy to complain about having a choice between a Mormon and our current president. You know, it's just so much easier to carp and complain and kick the dirt. But how about this? Have we been a praying and a fasting people?

Have we? Why are we so surprised? Do we even have a right to be angry? Do we have a right to throw up our hands? Do we have a right to just fall into a righteous indignation about this?

Do we? No! We do not! Do you think that this is a prayerless generation in the church today? Well, how about your house?

How about your church? How about this whole generation? We have to discern our times and the problems that exist there rightly. And the appropriate response for us, at least one of them, there are many appropriate responses, by raising our voice, by biblical exposition, by providing the doctrinal argumentation to refute the works of the devil in our culture. Those things should happen.

I hope you're doing that. But prayer and fasting is such an appropriate response but yet we choose just having these powerless conversations of resignation about it you know what national problems need your faith that's the question I asked and you know what what is is it possible that some of the things going on in this generation are tied to the church's lack of prayer and fasting. I don't really know the answer to that question. I suspect that many of the defiling things happening in our culture is because we've not been a people that have been before Almighty God, praying and fasting and crying out. God through prayer, He reveals His will, He gives you ideas, He implants in your heart thoughts, plans, actions.

That's what he does in prayer. Why would we neglect such a great thing? And yet we do. This kind, this kind doesn't come out but by prayer and fasting. I mean, I think we're looking at our nation, we're saying, this kind, this thing, this stuff happening in our nation, this is bigger than anything we've ever seen.

Now is the time for us to pray and fast. Here's another question. What local problems need your faith, like in your community? What local problems that you just tend to throw up your hands or just complain about, get angry about, carp about, rather than address these things with what the Lord Jesus is speaking of here. Or how about this, what family problems are you that require this kind, this kind of response?

Isn't it wonderful what Jesus is doing here? He's helping us know how to live. Because He knows we're going to see this kind of thing, this kind of really big thing. You know, maybe you don't have a big thing in front of you and your family right now, or your church. It's on the way.

It's right around the corner. So, get ready for it. But we ought to be prepared for that day by creating a generation that's full of faith and full of prayer and full of fasting. There are lots of churches represented here. And you know, you who've been with us, you know, over the years, you know that we have been challenging a generation because this generation is being defiled.

It's a lost generation and many of us are just part of it. We are part of the flotsam and the jetsam and the wash on the beach of this culture. We're all results of it. But a new generation needs to rise. And there are thousands of people who are praying for a new generation, a mighty generation, a godly generation that comes out of the ashes of the current generation.

A new kind of boy, a new kind of girl, a new kind of father, a new kind of mother, a new kind of family, a new kind of church, a new kind of generation. That's what we're praying for. That's why we've gathered here. Because our hearts long for a new generation. And how does that happen?

Here's one way it happens. It doesn't happen exclusively but just by learning more about what you're supposed to do. It happens through hearts burning with desire for the kingdom of heaven to come down. People who will bring heaven down in their prayers, people who will deprive themselves of food. This generation matters.

And we've talked a lot about the honor and obedience of this generation. We've talked a lot about the worldview of this generation, Their understanding of everything. But what about this generation's exposure to prayer and fasting? Because the parents of this generation raised up a new generation. You know, I'm looking at some couples out here who have brand new little babies in arms.

They're all over the place. It's so wonderful. Well, what about that baby? Is that baby going to grow up in a home where there was so much prayer? Where it was just saturated with prayer.

There was an atmosphere of prayer. I talked about John Hyde, this prayer warrior in India. He grew up in a home where they say it was just a constant atmosphere of prayer and it affected him so profoundly he took it to significant lengths and you know they were they were doing these conferences in India and he was he was praying all day long one day all day long And it came to him that he would begin to pray for one convert a day that year. From that conference, the beginning of that conference, to the next year's conference, He prayed for one convert a year. And God gave him one convert.

The next year, I think it was, I can't remember the year, 1805 or 1905, and he prayed, he was praying for the conference, and it seemed right to him to begin to pray for two converts a year for the next year. And God gave it to him. The next year, It seemed like he should pray for four converts a day. And God gave it to him. Now here's a boy growing up in a home where his father was constantly gathering the family together to pray.

And it was just in his soul, it was just part of the way that he lived because it was just patterned and because it was real, because it was truly motivated by the love of God, it was in his soul. And he couldn't deny it later in life And he was used mightily in India. I Don't think we all have to pray like John had I don't think that the application is we all have to pray for one convert a year. And it may be, but the fact of the matter is, if you want to raise up a new generation, you have to have a new kind of family. And you have to have a family of prayer and fasting.

And because this generation is going to face difficulties that are categorized like this, this kind, this kind, a particular kind of problem where you have a Mormon and the current president, you have an enormous problem. And you want to have a generation that is dealing with that from their knees. What faithless indolence have you been accepting? I'm not asking this as some kind of a condemning question to you because I realize my own lack of regularity in prayer in my family has not been what it should be. But it's the right question when you're preaching from this text.

And a lot of times we're just acting like a bunch of hyper Calvinists, you know, that God's in control, doesn't matter what we do or anybody does, and so we don't pray. We're just running on autopilot. People who don't think their works matter at all, that's a wicked thought. People who think, well, God will do His will, therefore I will just sit here and watch it all happen. Have we been taking prayerlessness lightly?

Have we been taking the failure to prepare our children lightly? So the big question this morning is, it assumes a bunch of things. It assumes that we are people who are crying out and saying, oh Lord, heal my son. And we have things going on around us in our churches and our families and even in our own hearts. And so what we're saying here is based on this assumption.

And the big question is, do we have the latent power of God from a culture of prayer and fasting to meet those problems? Have we prayed sufficiently for our meetings when we gathered together? Have we been in secret prayer so that when we end in personal counsels, we have the wisdom of God? Are we a people who are prepared for the dark day? Now, in this passage, the lack of faith is the road to defeat and the Lord Jesus Christ though so amazingly is there in the midst of the unbelief.

And this is the other part of the story that just so amazes me. Here's a whole generation not prepared, and Jesus Christ comes in, in the moment, and He fills up their lack of faith. Jesus Christ is really the only hope that we ever have, whether we are prayed up and fasted up or not. But the truth is, it matters. It really matters whether we are praying and fasting people.

Our whole conversion begins with repentance and faith, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then that life of faith just continues on. And what I really wanted to try to say today is to consider your prayer and your fasting. Consider whether you are ready. Do you have a life So full of prayer that you're ready for the dark day.

The dark day is coming. The dark day is here. And in many ways, we're like the disciples. We say, Lord, why could we not cast it out? Why are we in this predicament?

And the Lord Jesus Christ dissects the situation with perfect discernment and He says, because of prayer and fasting. Now The wonderful thing about this whole text is that it really casts a vision for the power of faith. Like in 1 John chapter 5-4, We read, whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith, our faith. Now, I pray that, you know, as we experience the day, this day of delight, that we would live it in a way that we're continuing to build our faith. In all of our conversations, I would just encourage you to read Scripture together today, pray together today, maybe like you haven't so much in other Sabbaths.

Don't look on that as hypocrisy. Look on it as obedience. Go and do maybe what you haven't been doing and build your faith today. Now today is a, you know, it's a day of feasting. It's not a day of fasting.

It's a day of celebration and a day of delight. But let, let us not be a people who have deprived the next generation of a culture of prayer and fasting so that we might take the Minyan, so that we might address the issues, that there would be a faithful and a pure generation. And we can do that. We can do that together. God has given us homes and we have total control over our homes to do that.

There are many church leaders here. You can create churches like that. That is the beginning of the raising up of a mighty generation that's full of faith and full of purity. And I pray that God would give us the strength to do it. Would you pray with me?

Oh Lord, Lord, thank You for showing us the way the world really is. Thank You for helping us to see the truth of our own generation, the truth of our own churches, the truth of our own families, the truth of our own hearts. Lord, I thank You that You are here to rescue from our lack of faith, our unbelief. Oh, thank You that You came then, and even today, You can come today and raise us up out of the dust that we have been groveling in, and take us to the heights of faith, the beauty of holiness, for the transformation of this world, for your own glory. Oh God, I pray you would fill us with your spirit for these things.

Amen.