The sermon, based on Mark 11:22-26, emphasizes faith in God rather than faith in one's own ability to receive blessings. It critiques the misuse of these verses by prosperity gospel and word of faith movements, which claim that sufficient faith can guarantee material prosperity and healing. Instead, the sermon highlights that the passage is about trusting in God's promises and His power, not the power of individual prayer. It references Jesus' own prayer in Mark 14, where He submits to God's will despite His desire to avoid suffering, illustrating that perfect faith does not mean avoidance of hardship. The sermon also discusses the historical context of Jesus cursing the fig tree and predicting the temple's destruction, underscoring the idea of judgment against hypocrisy. Believers are encouraged to pray according to God's promises, maintaining faith even when facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, and to demonstrate their faith through forgiveness, reflecting God's forgiveness toward them.

Please turn with me to the Gospel of Mark. I'm muted. Am I on now? The Gospel of Mark, Mark chapter 11. If you have a Pew Bible, you'll be able to find that on page 1009.

Page 1009. Mark chapter 11, and we'll be beginning in verse 22 and Jesus answered saying to them have faith in God truly I say to you whoever says to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted to him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they will be granted you. Whenever you stand praying, forgive. If you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.

But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions. May God bless the reading of His word. Amen. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for this, your word. We ask that You would bless its reading, bless its hearing, cause us Lord to not just be hearers of Your Word, but also doers. Lord, what we need to learn that You would teach us this morning, what we need to believe, you would cause us to believe, what we need to confess, that we would humble ourselves and confess to you. Lord, we believe, but we say with that man, help our unbelief. Help us this day.

Give us the grace to be attentive, to hear your word preached, to recognize that this sermon, as all sermons, will not leave us unchanged. It will either harden us to the truth, or it will soften us into eternal life. I pray, Lord, for our children, that they would hear the good news offered to them, that they would come believe on Christ and be saved. I pray for the elderly among us, for any in this room that do not know Christ, that they will repent and believe your gospel. Help me now.

Help us. We are desperate for your help. And we thank you that you promised to give it to us. In Jesus' name and for Jesus' sake. Amen.

You can have a seat. You can have a seat. The quasi-historical theologian, Enigo Montoya, is famous for a great deal of quotes. But there is one that is very poignant that I will use here this morning and I'm just going to slightly modify it for our purposes together. You keep using that verse.

I don't think it means what you think it means. You keep using these verses. I don't think they mean what you think they mean. These verses in our text this morning have been used time and time again. They've just been abused to further the false teaching of things like the prosperity gospel.

That say, if you have faith in Jesus, He will bring you financial prosperity here and now. Or these verses have been abused to propagate the false teaching of the word of faith movement. If you have enough faith, if you just believe hard enough, God will give you anything that you want. Do you want to live another 20 years? We'll have enough faith and it will be done to you.

Do you want to be healed? Well have enough faith and it will be done. And if you don't get what you want, if you don't get that healing, if you don't receive what you've asked for, well these verses tell you that, well, it's because you don't have enough faith. You don't truly believe. I've heard several sports athletes recently talk a lot like this.

I just got to believe that something's going to happen and if I can believe and have enough faith I can believe hard enough well I'll get to that Super Bowl I'll catch that pass in the end zone I hear this a lot recently if I can just have enough faith I can will it into existence beloved that is not what Jesus is talking about in these verses. It is not, if you have enough faith, then God will give you a new car. It is not if you have enough faith, you will surely be cured of your illness here on earth. It is not if your belief is strong enough that you will score that touchdown or your team will win the game. You get the whole emphasis of this text wrong when you do that.

Because when you begin to make this text about your faith and your belief, you completely miss the point of the text in the first place, which is the object of your belief and your faith, namely God. What does Jesus say in verse 22? Have faith in God. In God. God is the mover of mountains.

God is the healer of diseases. God is the giver of every good and perfect gift and he loves to give good and perfect gifts to his children. But friends, these verses are simply not a name it and claim it proof text. Does not even Jesus ask fervently in Mark chapter 14 for the cup of God's wrath to pass from Him? Does not Jesus ask that just three chapters later?

Let me read it to you in Mark 14, and Jesus was praying, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you, remove this cup from me. That's his desire. That's the request from Jesus. And yet, not what I will, but what you will, Jesus prays. And here is Jesus Christ praying, If there's any other way to win the world, besides drinking the cup of God's wrath to pay for the sins of the elect, let there be another way.

That was the Lord Jesus' request. And yet what happened? God The Father did not remove the cup from the Lord Jesus, and Jesus went to the cross willingly. Jesus is the sinless Savior, is He not? Jesus is the perfect Savior, and therefore His belief was perfect.

His faith was perfect. And yet though he asked for it, the cup did not pass from him. Instead it was the will of God to crush him. It pleased the Lord, pleased the Father to crush His Son for the sins of His people. For your sins, Christian.

That's what happens to the one who says these words in Mark chapter 11. So clearly, Jesus isn't teaching in Mark chapter 11 here that perfect faith will get you out of suffering for the sake of the gospel. Jesus wasn't teaching here that perfect faith will make pain and death avoidable for the Christian if he just has enough belief. Clearly Jesus wasn't teaching that because there has never been another person who has experienced the suffering, pain, and death who has experienced that kind of spiritual agony, the greatest of all agonies, on a scale that Jesus did, and Jesus had perfect faith, Perfect belief. So when you hear someone quote these verses in Mark chapter 11, to back up some kind of, well, if you only have enough faith, then God will surely do it theology.

You need to say, you keep using that verse. I don't think it means what you think it means. This isn't a section of scripture talking about the power of your prayer. Talking about your ability to hand wrestle God into what you want. No, no, no, no.

This is not a section of scripture talking about the power of your prayer. It is five verses talking about the power of God. These verses are not about the power of your prayer and the words that you speak. Now these verses are about the covenant, promise, keeping, chesed, God. If you were in Sunday school, you would have laughed.

Okay? Chesed, it's about Him, His power, His power in Him keeping His word found right here. That's what these verses are about. How He in His power keeps his word and how you are to live and move and have your being and hope and pray in light of who he is and what he has promised. So yes you are to pray without ceasing Jesus says yes.

Pray persistently Jesus says yes. Pray in faith yes. Pray believing Yes. But pray and believe in God. In His power and in His covenant-keeping promises.

And you may be asking, well, Pastor Grant, how do you know, Pastor, that this is less about the power of my prayer and more about the power of God? I'm glad you asked. Because the answer is Jesus says so. Verse 22, look again at verse 22, Have faith in God. God is the object of this passage.

God is the subject of this passage. If you come to this passage and think that passage is about you, Wrong. I want you to remember something. You can't forget what has just happened in this narrative. You rip passages out of their narrative flow and you get bad theology.

You get heresy. You get damning theology sometimes. Don't do that here. We need to remember what's happened. Verses 11 through 14.

Jesus curses a fig tree for its hypocrisy. Verses 15 through 18. Jesus drives out that hypocrisy from the temple. And in verses 19 through 22, the fig tree is destroyed. What happened to the fig tree is promised to the Temple.

Destruction is promised. Judgment is promised. And Peter says in verse 21 of Mark 11, Whoa! You promised judgment on the fig tree. Mark makes a plain that Mark was listening.

You promised judgment on the fig tree, and as soon as we leave the temple, it happened. Look, Peter says, the fig tree you cursed has withered. It isn't a casual, oh look, victory you cursed has withered, cool. It's not what the Greek, if you look in the original language, it's way more than that. What does Mark say in verse 22?

And Jesus answered saying to them. Jesus answered. Which means, and this is true, I checked, that the Greek here implies a question. Peter isn't just simply saying, hey, look at that, Look at that fig tree. He's saying, whoa!

How did that happen? Look at that fig tree. How is this possible? Is it really possible that you will destroy this mighty temple in the same way that you destroyed this fig tree? Because of its hypocrisy?

How does Jesus respond? Verse 23. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea, Does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted to him." I want you to point out a word out there that I don't want you to miss. This mountain. What's the whole section about?

What location are all these verses set in? They're set in and around the temple. What has Jesus just exited before verse 22? He and his disciples have exited the temple. What is on the mind of the disciples, Peter included?

The temple. The temple, the temple, the temple, and where is the temple located? On a mountain. That's why we call it the temple mount. I cursed the fig tree.

Jesus says, I will. No one will eat fruit from you again, Jesus said to the fig tree. And Jesus said, what I said came to pass. Jesus keeps His promises. And the prophecy and the promise regarding this temple, this mountain, and its judgment for its hypocrisy, it will be the same as it was for the fig tree.

I promise, Jesus is saying. I'm making a promise. So have faith in God. Believe the promises of God. Believe in my promises.

That is the thrust of this text. I want you to notice something. In verse 17 of Mark 11, Jesus reminds these temple leaders that God has said, what in verse 17, look there, my house shall be called a house of what? Prayer for all the nations. That was a prophecy from Isaiah 56 that Jesus applies right now in Mark 11.

These hypocrites in the temple are robbing the nations of their prayer to God. You're robbing the Gentiles of their opportunity, of their privilege to pray and worship God. They're robbing them of their prayer. And now what is Jesus talking about in our passage this morning as he points to this mountain? Praying.

You see the connection. You've robbed the people of their prayer. And what does verses 22 through 26 talk about? Praying. Thought that was cool, It's not a coincidence.

The victory is cursed for its hypocrisy. The temple in Israel's hypocrisy is revealed. The victory is destroyed. What's going to happen to that temple? What's going to happen to this mountain that's robbing the Gentiles of their prayer destruction that which is hindering the Gentiles from praying will be no more one day so pray in faith Jesus says the Gentiles are being hindered but I will put an end to that.

So pray even though that which hinders you, even though the temple resists you, pray and I will deliver. That's what's going on in this text. You seen it at all? God's people are being kept from praying. So Jesus says, this mountain that's hindering you Looks massive, looks mighty, looks unconquerable.

This mountain, this temple. I'm going to cast it into the sea. This temple will be destroyed. So pray according to what I just promised. Believe in God's promises.

That which hinders your prayers now will be destroyed soon according to your prayers. You think maybe I'm doing a circle thing there. I'm not. The way God works prayer, He declares he's going to do something. His people pray it and he does it.

That's how it works in his sovereignty. Friends, it would have been really easy to say for Peter, Well, a fig tree is one thing, but the temple? I mean there is no higher might and authority in all of Israel than the temple authority. You think about the highest authority. Can you really bring down the mighty temple, Jesus?

Can you really bring down the mighty temple, Jesus? Can you really bring down the pinnacle of hypocrisy in this temple? Isn't that really hard? And Jesus says, nothing is too hard for me. He's already said that in Mark.

Nothing is too hard for Almighty God. This mountain, which you think is impossible to conquer, it will be cast into the sea. That's a promise. So pray it. That phrase, cast into the sea, in verse 23, cast into the sea, that phrase is found throughout the Old Testament.

Just look for it. Do a Logos Bible search for it. I was gonna say Google, but I just told you last week don't use Google. You can use Google. Talk to your pastors first.

Do a search for Cast into the Sea and you'll see time and time again. That's Old Testament prophetic language. And now here is the great prophet using the same language. You think everyone would understand it? Oh yeah, they would.

That phrase is used in Daniel 7 to talk about nations being conquered, judgment being issued. Isaiah uses that same language to describe the judgment of God upon a nation. In Jeremiah 51, the prophet says to Babylon that the great evil city of Babylon will be destroyed, notice this language, by mighty waves of the sea. The sea, Jeremiah says, will cover Babylon. That's Jeremiah 51, 42.

What happened? Babylon was destroyed by a military invasion. Evil Babylon was promised destruction by God with the language of the sea covering it. And like a mighty ocean, the Persians did what? They rushed in and swept away Babylon.

God took vengeance over his enemies and the enemies of his people, the enemies called the Babylonians. That happened and God promised it would happen and God delivered on that promise that the sea would cover Babylon. And now here in our passage in Mark 11 is now God in the flesh, the great prophet Jesus, once again promising judgment on his enemies and your enemies, the enemies of his church. He's promising Judgment and destruction on this temple. I hope you see what Jesus is doing for his disciples.

Do you not? You see what he's doing for you, Christian? He's telling you, God has kept every single one of his promises. He has never failed you He did not fail in his promise to bring judgment upon Israel and Judah when they were hypocrites He did not fail to bring judgment upon Babylon Will he now fail to bring down the promise of destroying the temple? Is now this going to be too hard for him?

He's used the same language time and time again. No way. This will not be too hard for him. So trust him. Trust him.

And pray according. Trust God. Trust His promises and pray accordingly. You know, Jesus knows what's coming. Jesus knows what is coming.

God knows what is coming for the church. Not only will the Jews and Judaism seek to rob the Gentiles of their place of prayer, they will go out of their way to persecute the church from these chapters on. They will go out of their way to persecute the people of God. That's what's coming for these disciples, and their disciples, and the disciples after them. Intense persecution from the temple and its worshipers.

And if you doubt that, if you go, well, how do you know? Just read the book of Acts. Open your Bible this evening. Walk through the book of Acts to be well worth your time. And you will see this play out on a radical scale.

Radical and intense persecution of Christians from the Jews, from the temple authority. Well just look at how Paul, once Saul, persecuted the church. He persecuted the people of God. Where did He come from? Who sent Saul out to go get Christians and drag them to jail?

Who sent Saul to rip families apart? The temple did. Here is Jesus with His disciples knowing what is to come for His followers. And these same leaders in this temple that Jesus is pointing at, this mountain, these same leaders on that mountain, will hand Jesus over to be killed. They'll put Jesus to death.

And what's going to happen when they stir up the crowd to kill Jesus? Well, the great shepherd's going to die. Jesus knows this, and his sheep will scatter. His sheep will be dismayed. His sheep will be discouraged.

And following their Savior, his sheep will then be abused and tortured, hurt, and some even killed by these hypocrites that killed Jesus. And Jesus is telling them beforehand, have faith in God. Believe that His promises will come to pass. God has promised vengeance. God has promised to conquer and destroy these hypocrites in this institution called the temple that seems so mighty against you, the church.

It seems so mighty against the cause of Christ and His Gospel. It seems impenetrable. It seems unconquerable. Keep praying. Keep trusting.

Keep relying upon God. The temple doesn't get to have the final word. The final word comes from the new and true temple, Jesus Christ Himself. And His word, beloved, is unbreakable. It's unbreakable.

I want you to see this. Here is Jesus with his disciples in Mark 11, knowing the great tribulation that lies ahead for his followers. He knows what's coming. For Christians, for the church. And so here is Jesus saying in essence, take heart.

I have promised to deliver you. Just as the fig tree perished, so too will these hypocrites, so too will this mountain. It seems untouchable. It seems mighty. It will be cast into the ocean just like Babylon.

It will be cast into the ocean just like Babylon. It will be cast into the ocean like the enemies of God all the years before. For as mighty as this temple is, God is mightier still. So pray. Pray in light of that.

God always keeps his promises. Remember the fig tree. I cursed it and as I promised it withered and died, I have promised a far greater destruction on this temple. So pray. Pray believing in God's promises that are never failing and demonstrate that you believe those promises as you pray.

Demonstrate that you believe those promises as you forgive. Demonstrate that you actually believe them. And so in the time that we have left I want to show you how Jesus provides us with two principles for praying in the midst of tribulation. So this is dealing with a particular tribulation, a particular temple, but the application is so obvious to us. God's promises are true.

Trust them. Pray them. And you will not be disappointed. Jesus provides two principles of praying in the midst of tribulation, in the midst of hardship, in the midst of overwhelming odds. Principle number one, pray, believing in God's promises.

I've been trying to show you that Jesus is talking about a specific mountain and a specific hardship that the disciples will soon endure after the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and Jesus is addressing a particular mountain the temple and the fist that that temple will try to bring down upon the church Snuff out this little movement called Christianity. We'll show it. Persecution and great opposition's coming. And again, just read the book of Acts if you need to be reminded of the kind of evil done to Christians. And Jesus, who is Himself God, He promises to Peter, this mountain, in verse 23, this mountain will be taken up into the sea.

This mountain will be destroyed, as I said. You will be delivered, so believe the promises and pray those promises. Beloved, here in this text is a really simple principle. Here is how you are to pray. Read the promises of God, hear the promises of God, understand the promises of God, and then believe them and pray them.

Our world is awash. It is completely awash with so many asking, I wish God would speak to me. If only God would give me a word. If I could just hear from God, just turn my life around. If only God would tell me what to do.

Beloved, God is speaking. He is speaking every single day. The problem is just not many are listening. He speaks in general revelation, Right? Through the rustling grass I hear Him pass.

He speaks to me everywhere. He speaks to us in general revelation, but He speaks specifically, specially, in special revelation to you every moment that you open this, your Bible. Every single day. Do you know that this morning God is speaking directly to you? Do you know that yesterday if you had the discipline to open up your Bible and read it that He spoke words to you?

You heard from God! How then should you pray? You should hear what God says through reading your Bibles. Through hearing God's word being preached, you hear what God says through his living and active word, and then you respond to him in prayer. That's how a conversation goes.

You don't get to do all the talking. Some of us want to. Some of us love to talk. I understand, I get it. You hear from God, He tells you something, and then you respond in prayer.

And then you turn back to His word and you say, Can you talk to me some more? You hear from God and then you respond to Him again in prayer. Your prayers are to be based largely on the promises of God found in these 66 books. Each one of them contains promises for you Christian, and each one of them are yes and amen in Jesus Christ. So are you worried?

Are you worried? Well there are promises that your Heavenly Father has given you to look at, to read, to hear. Look at the lilies of the field. Has not God clothed them in all of their splendor? Look at the sparrows.

Does He not care well for them? How much more than child of God, whom God the Son purchased at the cost of His own life, how much more then will God your Father in heaven care for you? Believe Him. Believe in Him. Believe in His promises.

And then as you hear the promises, orient your heart around that promise. Orient your heart around the promises of God and then adore Him. And then confess your sins to Him. Confess before Him the ways that you are sinfully anxious. Confess the ways in which you haven't trusted in His care for you.

That the birds are beating you in their trust of God. The lilies of the field are more trusting than you are. Confess these things to him. And then thank him for his forgiveness and loving kindness and abundant blessing in Christ Jesus. For there is another promise that if you confess your sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

And then entreat Him, supplicate, entreat Him to help you according to that promise. Lord, please I read in Matthew 5 the promise of You caring for me. Lord, work it into me. Please. That's how you pray.

Are you sick? Are you nearing death? Is a loved one nearing death? Is all around your soul giving way? There are promises for you.

There are promises in scripture. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. There is a promise that His grip on your soul is unbreakable. And it is so firm that no one can snatch you out of that grip.

That's a promise. And even death itself cannot rip you out of His grasp. Nobody, no thing can snatch you away. There is the promise that your greatest sickness, sin, has been forever cured, has been forever dealt with, your guilt has been taken away, your shame covered, your condemnation conquered, all by the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross for you, Christian. Your justification was secured in His resurrection, in the resurrection of the Savior.

And these promises are for you. Read them, hear them, seek them out. Call up your pastor, pastor give me a promise. And then pray them accordingly, believe them. Pray them accordingly.

Pray the promise that though you may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is with you. Pray the promise that goodness and mercy are on either side of you all the days of your life. They are your daily companions. That when all earthly companions must leave your side on the day of your death, when you approach that threshold called death and eternity, that every earthly companion, even your pastor, has to let go. There is one who will not let go.

As a promise, that there is one companion that will not let you go. He will be with you. When you pass through the waters of death, He will be with you. When you pass through the waters of death, He will be with you. When the rivers of sin and condemnation threaten to overtake you, He will not let those rivers overflow.

He will not let those rivers overflow. That's a promise. Believers, these promises are for you. In every 66 books, just look for the promises. Pray the promises, believe the promises.

They have not yet failed. Not what? Pray the promises. And then cry out to God, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.

Perhaps you desire the salvation of a loved one. Perhaps that's the desire of your heart. So you want to pray for the desire for the salvation of a loved one. Maybe you're wondering this morning, how do I pray for the lost? Well, what are the promises?

What are the promises? It's God's desire that all men should be saved. That's in the text. Pray accordingly. Pray that all would repent and trust in Jesus Christ.

You can pray that way. Pray as Jesus himself prays, says, tells you to pray. Pray that more laborers would be sent out into the field for God is bringing in a harvest. He's bringing the nations to Himself. That is a promise.

So pray accordingly. And then leave the results up to the sovereign God. Leave the results up to Him. If He can save you, oh, He can save anybody. I've seen you.

Seen me. I mean, do you not yearn with all of your heart? I do. I know you do. Parents in here, do you not yearn with all of your heart for the salvation of your children?

Oh, beloved, that's a good thing. That is a yearning place there by God Himself. It's a good desire. How do I know that's a good desire? Because there's a promise.

God Himself says, and Isaac said it earlier this day, God Himself promises, know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His loving kindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. So pray. Plead these things. Trust these things. Trust this promise.

And then leave your children with the Lord. Keep praying. Keep trusting. Keep coming back to promises like this. Lord, work this into me and work this into my children.

And then leave them with the Lord. And there's another promise for you. All that He does is righteous and good. His wisdom is unscrutable, and all that He does is right. And beloved, He has never failed.

I need you to hear the promises of God this morning, beloved, and believe. I need you to build your life upon the promises of God. And when the winds of opposition and persecution and hardship and calamity come to knock down your life in great gusts of tribulation, you will not be the foolish man who built his house upon the sands of self-help. No, no, you will be the man who built His house on the rock called Christ and His very precious and magnificent promises. And He will see you through.

When the persecution came for the disciples and the disciples' disciples throughout the book of Acts, what did they do? What did they consistently do in the book of Acts? It says multiple times they met to pray. They met to pray in light of what God had told them. So remember when Peter was thrown in jail in Acts 12?

You remember that? If you're reading the narrative of Acts, you get to Acts 12, and oh, looks like it's the end of the line for Peter. He's a goner. He got guards all around him. He shackled.

Iron gates set up. Multiple jailers. He's a goner. And so the church, they nevertheless met together in secret to pray. And their faith was pretty weak, to put it nicely.

Do you remember that narrative? It was so weak that when Peter was miraculously released by an angel, literally the walls came tumbling down, and he goes, And he knocks on the door of the secret prayer meeting. Their faith was so weak, they go, can't be Peter. No way it was Peter. They didn't even believe it was Him when He showed up knocking.

Their faith, their belief was weak. But God was not weak. Have faith in God. Have faith in God. These churches in the New Testament, they were meeting together to pray and the instruction from the Apostles were clear.

They were to remember the truth. They were to remember the promises. Peter would say that time and time again in his letters to the churches. Remember the promises. Remember the truth.

Remember the promises. Time and time again. In fact, when we preached through 1 Peter and 2 Peter, that was a huge theme we pulled out. Remember, remember, remember. Remember the promises.

Pray the promises. Trust the promises. Remember the promises, Paul says, throughout his letters. As he quotes Old Testament prophecy, after Old Testament prophecy. He quotes Old Testament promise after Old Testament promise.

You wring out Paul's letters you know what you get? If you hold up, you get Paul falls out and you just got a whole bunch of Old Testament just sitting there. What are those things? All those bolds in the New American, those all capitalized, those promises of God in the Old Testament. What's Paul doing?

Remember the promises. Trust the promises. Pray the promises. Here's how the Old Testament saints prayed. Abraham was justified because he believed in the promise.

Noah justified because he believed in the promise. Promises. Promises believe the promises. And pray the promises. And so here now in Mark 11, Jesus is saying, I will destroy this temple in my perfect timing.

Don't you doubt it, beloved. Even when the temple seems almighty, bank on the promises that there is one more almighty than it, for God will grant it to you, Jesus says. There is one more mighty than the temple. Believe it and God will grant it to you. It may not seem like it will happen.

The temple might seem like an impossible thing to topple. Its might, its power is too much to overcome. Maybe even for the gospel, you might think. It's going to squish the gospel message out. No, no, no.

Believe that you will receive what has been promised and it will be granted to you. Keep praying, keep trusting, keep promising. And what happened? The promise came true. Friends, that's exactly what we see happening in 70 AD.

Jesus' promise came true yet again. The judgment of God came upon the temple and Judaism in its destruction, and the Gospel went forth in power. So too you Christian. Listen to me, beloved. Listen to this.

All things for which you pray and ask according to the promises of God, believe them. Have faith in the God who made those promises. Believe in the promises of God and He will grant you those promises. He is unfailing. Now, lest there be any misunderstanding, not always do you think a certain promise you think well if he's gonna grant this promise is gonna turn out and look just like this that's not the way it goes you're not God if you treated your children if your children said but you promised you go that's not what I meant when I promised you ever done that Promise to do something and your kids pull back the promise and you go, nothing to do with the promise I made.

So get the promises right. That's what I'm trying to do for you in this text. This promise was about a particular mountain, a particular reality, but there are promises throughout the scripture that are yours and they are yes and amen in Christ. And I also want to say this who had the most faith? I've already talked about this at the beginning of the sermon I'll talk about it here at the end.

Whose prayer in all the world was the most pure and undefiled and most precious in the sight of God. Jesus. There is no one who can offer a better prayer than Jesus Christ. Do you agree? Good.

And what was it that Jesus himself prayed in a perfect prayer? Not my will, but thine, be done. Thy will be done. Some people think that's a cop-out. Well you got to tell Jesus that.

Now there is a way to make it a cop-out. There is a way to just not believe the promises and say, oh well, I don't really believe in those things, so your will be done. Well, that's a different heart. That's a whole different heart issue. There's no belief there, there's no faith.

Not will, not my will, but thine, should be the prayer of every single one of us in this room every day. Lord, reorient my desires. Reorient the desires of my heart that they might align to yours. Take my will and make it thine. May it be no longer mine.

Thy will be done. And how do we know the will of God? When you say thy will be done don't you think it's just some a blind statement. His will is contained right here. So when you pray that you know what you're saying to God, thy will be done.

Okay, I need to hear what your will is. Hear the promises and then pray accordingly. You see what's going on? Some of us need to repent of the way that we pray. We need to pray more rightly.

Read the Word of God, trust in the Word of God, take God at His Word, and then ask for His Word, His will, to be done. That's how you are to pray. Number one, believe in God, believe in His promises. Orient your prayers in your heart and your life around those promises. Humble yourself and ask for His will to be done.

And number two and the final principle, demonstrate that you believe them. Pray and then demonstrate that you believe those promises that you were praying. This is really simple, but it's radically important. Jesus says so in verses 25 and 26. Look there with me in Mark 11, 25 and 26.

Whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father, who is in heaven, Forgive your transgressions. Just think about what was going to happen. Christ was going to judge the temple. He was going to deliver the church.

Christ had promised to destroy the faithless temple and save the faithful. And he tells his people, don't you dare get haughty. Don't you dare get proud when I do this thing. Don't you think that in and of yourselves you're any better than that temple business. You need to say instead, but by the grace of God.

There I go. Don't become hateful. Don't become unforgiving. You were Gentiles. Church, many of you, all of us in this room as far as I know, You were lost.

You were you were godless pagans without hope without God in the world and God Rescued you when you deserved it not a God forgave your iniquity When what you deserve for that iniquity was eternal condemnation in hell And so don't be like that servant. Don't be like that servant who was forgiven this great huge debt from his master. And he said, thank you, I believe in that forgiveness. And then he turned around and he said, but I don't believe in this one. He turns around to his fellow slave, who owes him a much smaller amount, hefty amount still, but much smaller than what he was forgiven from the great master.

And he turns to his fellow slave and he chokes him out. Oh, don't be like that. For to you will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. If you don't forgive, if you choke out your fellow servant, you prove, you demonstrate that you don't really believe in forgiveness. You don't believe in the promise.

You don't really believe it. If you did, you'd be mastered by it. These Jews and their temple is gonna be destroyed. And it's going to cause all kinds of pain and loss and difficulty. Not for the church, but for the enemies of the church.

And the temptation will be for the church to laugh and to jeer and to say, ha ha ha, you got what was coming to you, buddy. You got what was coming to you, didn't you, Jews? And Jesus said, don't talk like that. For those enemies hitting rock bottom, Those enemies might see their need for Christ as the temple is destroyed. And those same enemies might trust in Christ and become your very friends.

Those enemies who flogged your Christian brothers and sisters, those enemies like Saul, who loved, who tore your loved ones away from you and put them in shackles. Those enemies who shattered families. Those Saul's might become Paul's. By the grace of God, it would become a child of God like you. They didn't deserve it, and boy you didn't either.

And in that moment, Church, Jesus is saying, you need to demonstrate that you really get the promises. You need to demonstrate that you really believe what God has said about forgiveness, about how He's forgiven you when you were His enemy, and you didn't deserve it at all. You deserve hellfire. And extending that forgiveness that God has given to you vertically, horizontally, towards those that were once your enemies. And if you don't, verse 26 says, if you don't do that, God will treat you the way you treated your enemies.

That's scary. It's the exact same thing that Peter says in 1 Peter 3, 7, but just a different vein of thought. A lot of people have trouble with 1 Peter 3, 7. 1 Peter 3, 7, it says, husbands, treat your wives rightly, so that your prayers will not be hindered. You're kind of wondering at that.

It's the Same exact principle here in Mark 11, 25, and 26. Your wife is the weaker vessel. And so when you refuse husband to honor your wife in her weakness, your prayers get hindered. Why? Why doesn't God listen to your prayers when you treat your wife poorly?

Answer! Because God is treating your weakness the way that you are treating her weakness. That's why. You are showing God how you think as a husband weakness ought to be treated. I want you God to listen to me in the same way I listen to my wife.

I want you God to pay attention to me the way I pay attention to my wife. That's what Peter says. It's the exact same way here. In Jesus's words, Jesus is saying, if you don't do this, You are saying to God, I want you to forgive me, God, the same way that I am not forgiving these men. I want your forgiveness, God, to look like my forgiveness.

I want you to have mercy on me, God, as a sinner and an enemy of God in the same way that I extend mercy to my enemies. You see that? This is massive. And this is the way that God has told us to live and move and pray. This is how you're to pray beloved.

Believe in the promises of God and then believing them so much that those promises come out of your fingers the promises come out of your mouth they come out of the way you pray it comes out the way you forgive your enemies when they come and ask for it in repentance and confession. Friend, are you an enemy of God this morning? All of God's promises are unfailing. We've been through that. I hope that's been hammered today.

All of God's promises are unfailing, even those including those made towards sinners who haven't repented. You will perish, God promises, in eternity in the lake of fire, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. That's a promise. And we have made the case all morning long, God keeps His promises. But friends, there is also another promise.

There's another promise for you that all who beat their breasts and cry out to God, have mercy upon me, a sinner. For all who turn their eyes upon Jesus, and they trust in his death in their place for their sins they trust in his righteousness in the absence of any of their own to that person God promises justification God promises to justify So you think on what is impossible for man. A man cannot remove the mountain of debt that stands against him. He cannot remove the mountain of his iniquity. It is too great, it is too mighty.

It stands like an almighty fortress to condemn him. But Almighty God, who is an almighty fortress, God alone does what was impossible for man, what was impossible for you. And He has taken the repenting and believing man and woman's mountain of sin And he's placed it upon the back of his son on the cross, where there the son dealt with it. And God has since taken that dealt with sin, and he's cast it into the sea, never to rise again. This is good news, beloved.

This is a promise. I hope you see the main point of this passage because it's the main point of the sermon. God has promised. God has never failed in his promises, so believe them and pray them. Jesus promised to bring deliverance by destroying the temple and he did it.

And that reminds me of another story. That reminds me of another promise that Jesus had made. Does it remind you of what? That he would be betrayed, he would suffer, he would die, and then he would be raised. And in that moment of his death, how sure it must have seemed in that moment for all of the followers of Jesus to say, oh, finally, finally the promises of Jesus Christ have failed.

Look at him up on the tree. Look at him in the grave. Look at that great big stone. Look at the guards There's no way Surely God in the flesh Could not keep his word now Surely all the victory and all the deliverance that Christ has promised has been dashed to pieces. It's just impossible.

Just a pipe dream. Wonder of wonders. Three days later, it was declared by our blessed hope, the promises of God are unbreakable as He rose up out of that grave. Beloved, Have faith in God. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this, your word. Cause us to hunger and thirst for it. Thank you for the Bible. Master us, Lord. Make this our treasure.

Make Christ in his word our hope and peace. Make it what we long for all the days of our lives. Work into us all of your precious and magnificent promises. Oh, that we might not sin against you, that we might know how to live in this world, and that Lord, we might have hope, confidence, and peace no matter what seemingly impossible opposition we might face, for we know the promise. The earth and all that is in it is yours, and you will have the obedience of all the peoples in it.

Hallelujah and amen. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.