Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Oh, it's so good. In a world that shifts and changes, and you never know what's going to happen tomorrow. You feel like you're standing on sand so many times.
[00:00:10] It's good to know we got a guy, isn't it? It's good to know that God is in control. And there's no time that he wakes up and says, oh, I didn't see that coming.
[00:00:21] And he is for us, and we are on his side. And that is good, good news.
[00:00:27] So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we are grateful. We're grateful, Lord, that you have every moment of our lives planned. You know every hair on our head. You know us better than we know ourselves. I'm grateful, Father, that we are on the winning side. We are on the side of the Savior, who has risen from the dead and given us victory, who has given us his spirit, who has given us power to overcome strongholds, who has given us love and grace and acceptance in the beloved. I am grateful, Father, that we belong to a family that exists around the world and throughout time. Brothers and sisters who follow the Lord Jesus Christ, who want to serve him and be his managers of the things on this earth. And so, Father, as we look at this again one more time today, open our eyes and our hearts.
[00:01:21] Encourage us.
[00:01:22] Remind us, Father, who is in charge and it's not us.
[00:01:26] And help us to take solace in the fact that you have given us this great responsibility of being your managers while we're here.
[00:01:34] But ultimately, Father, that you are the master and you control everything, no matter how shifted the sands may be under our feet.
[00:01:42] Thank you, Father, for all of that. Thank you for our time this morning. May you be pleased in the way that we now respond to your message to us this morning. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. Good morning, everybody. My name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here at Village Church east, and it is my privilege to get to talk to you a little bit about why this lamp is up here.
[00:02:07] Don't you love that lamp? I know.
[00:02:10] This is one of my favorite things. And you'll find out why that is, but not right now. All right.
[00:02:18] We're continuing our study in this.
[00:02:22] It's a topical study, but it's on the subject of stewardship. It's on the subject of being responsible managers of what God has given us in our lives. It's about how we use our time here in a way that pleases him.
[00:02:37] I've really enjoyed this. It just kind of leapt out to Us, as we were sitting down and doing some sermon prep, that this is a time that we should spend in this. And I'm really excited that we have. Let me bring you up to speed in case you're jumping on board with us or you're just joining us online. We've talked about a manager's rationale, and that's simply I'm going to be a better person. I'm going to be a better manager when I'm settled on who owns my stuff.
[00:03:04] If I think that I own this stuff, it's going to get a little stressful, a little fearful. I might have my stuff tomorrow, and then what am I?
[00:03:12] But if I know that all the things I have are his, my attitude, my whole Persona changes because I realize I'm managing his stuff. Number two, we talked about a manager's reasoning. Trusting God breaks the grip of fear. If I know that all things are his and all things in my life work out for good to those who love him or are called according to his purpose, I can trust him. And I know that tomorrow is going to be a good day for me if I keep my mind focused on him.
[00:03:45] We talked to managers. Reward.
[00:03:47] We talked about this was last week. We talked about how serving God can complete a life. And today we're going to be talking about a manager's refinement.
[00:03:57] How do we get refined as managers? How do we get better at doing whatever God calls us to do, wherever that is?
[00:04:06] My life is, you know, unique. I'm going this direction. Your life is unique. You're going in this direction. But all of us ultimately want to serve God in the way that we live our lives. And so we want to make sure that whatever projection we're on, whatever rails we're following, we're doing it in such a way that our faith can grow and our trust in him can grow. We're going to talk about that a little bit today. First, let me bring up to speed. I always like to give a little bit of background on the passages that we're talking about.
[00:04:36] We're going to be in Matthew 17 today. You're welcome to turn there if you'd like to in your Bibles or on your devices.
[00:04:42] But we're going to be in Matthew 17 today talking about one of my favorite stories that Jesus goes through with his disciples. His disciples are extremely frustrated, and you're going to find out why. And then Jesus is extremely frustrated with his disciples, and you're going to find out why. It's a great story. You will not Walk out of here frustrated, okay? But in this passage of Scripture, there's a lot of frustration going on. In Jesus ministry. You can break it down into three parts. His early ministry, which takes up a good portion of most of the Gospels. The Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those are the story. That's the story of Jesus. So we call that the Gospels, the good news.
[00:05:22] So the early ministry is. We don't have a lot on that, but it takes up a good chunk of scripture.
[00:05:28] And then we have his Galilean ministry. We have more on the Galilean ministry. And that's where he starts calling his disciples. And he starts kind of breaking out of the mold and telling people who he is. He starts making enemies that way. Because people, you know, when you walk up to somebody and they say, oh, by the way, I'm God, you're going to have some kind of a reaction to that, right? And so Jesus starts talking this way and people start reacting. Then you get to the third part of his ministry, and that is the turning point. Most of the gospels deal with the third part of his ministry.
[00:06:04] Most of the gospels deal with his. Basically the Passion Week that we're about to go into that occupies most of the gospels of Jesus Christ because so much happens in that time period.
[00:06:18] Matthew 17 is the turning point.
[00:06:21] When you go from the first two parts of Jesus life to this part. This is the phase three moment where he now is beginning to prepare his disciples to take over for him. Because he's not going to be here, right?
[00:06:37] Jesus Christ is going to die. He's going to be buried. He's going to resurrect on the third day, and he's going to ascend to the Father. He tells his disciples this at least six times.
[00:06:49] And he begins to tell them that in phase three, the phase that we're talking about now. And his disciples are, to put it into a 20, 26 term, freaked out because they think that Jesus is going to be with them forever. And he's telling them, all of a sudden, I'm not. I'm going away.
[00:07:09] So the disciples were about to enter one of the most terrible moments of their lives, life without Jesus. And they think to themselves, well, Jesus is going. You know this, because they're arguing about who's going to sit beside Jesus when he reigns on his throne. You remember that they. They argue about all these things because they think he's going to be around with them forever. Now in phase three, he begins to tell them, oh, by the way, there's more to the story and I'm going away. And they are beginning to understand.
[00:07:38] They hear what he's saying, but they don't comprehend it.
[00:07:42] And I don't think they want to comprehend it.
[00:07:45] By the time we get to Matthew 17, he's only weeks away from being crucified on the cross.
[00:07:51] And what he's trying to do is trying to pass on to his disciples, his future managers, the keys to the kingdom.
[00:08:00] Basically, they're now going to take over because he is going away.
[00:08:06] And they have to be good managers, they have to be reliable managers, they have to be consistent managers.
[00:08:13] Imagine if you would, if you had a business and it's worth multiple million dollars, you have sunk your life into this.
[00:08:22] I mean, every free moment. You've sacrificed your family, you've sacrificed your time, you sacrificed your body, you have sacrificed your health. You have put everything into this mission.
[00:08:34] And now, you know you're going away. Maybe you got the news you got cancer and you only have a few more months, years left to live. But you know, the end is coming. Maybe you're gonna come up and you're gonna retire and you know, I gotta have a few good years left in me. So you're gonna retire now. You gotta pass on this wonderful little baby that you've created, this business. You've gotta pass that on to somebody. Who do you look for?
[00:09:04] What kind of a person would you wanna pass on this.
[00:09:08] This thing that you have worked yourself to the bone? What kind of a person would you look for? Well, Jesus is very much in the same circumstance. He is going to be leaving and he has to pass on the ministry of the gospel to these 12 questionable individuals.
[00:09:28] He wants them to be tried and true, just like you would. You want somebody who knows what they're doing.
[00:09:35] You want somebody who is trustworthy.
[00:09:38] You want somebody that will have the passion that you have.
[00:09:41] You want somebody that has a maturity in the way that they deal with people and other companies.
[00:09:47] You want to make sure that you have prepared them for what's to come, right?
[00:09:52] You want to make sure. Most of all, I think you want to make sure this person is consistent.
[00:09:59] Would you hire somebody to take over your business? All right, let's say multi million dollar business.
[00:10:06] Would you hire somebody that shows up? Yeah, maybe Monday, maybe Wednesday.
[00:10:14] Definitely not the weekends. But they come in Thursdays every time, and they hit it out of the park. Thursday's their day to. But they shine. But they might not show up on Friday.
[00:10:25] You can't count on them on Saturday. And then Monday comes around Again. And you're going, well, I don't know. If they show up and then they do show up, and they hit it out of the.
[00:10:33] But then they don't show up on Tuesday, and they got an excuse for not showing up on Wednesday. And then Thursday comes around and you're going, where are you? Are you even coming in? And they're going, oh, yeah, I'm coming in. And they hit it out of the park. And then they come in on Thursday and they, you know, they sleep all day in the office. And then they come in on Friday and they take the office vehicle and ram it into a tree. But then they come in on Saturday for the first time and hit it out of the park. All right.
[00:11:01] Would that be a kind of person that you would want to leave your baby, your business to? Would they hit it out of the park?
[00:11:09] Would you leave it to that person? And the answer is no, you'd be crazy. Why? Because there's no consistency.
[00:11:19] They are good when they are good, but when they are not good, they are not good. And I guess that's consistent. But it may not be the kind of consistency you're looking for.
[00:11:31] The disciples had been doing amazing things for Jesus. He had given them the power to do a lot of the things that he was doing.
[00:11:40] In fact, in Matthew 10, he told them, I'm going to give you the ability to cast out demons.
[00:11:46] And they're like, wow, that's a big one.
[00:11:50] That'd be fun to do. Yeah. So demons have to listen to us. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Yeah. So from Matthew 10 to Matthew 17, they are doing miracles. They are casting out demons. They are having a blast. But in Matthew 17, something happens.
[00:12:08] Thursday hits, and they can't cast a demon out, and they are frustrated.
[00:12:18] And that's the story we're going to talk about today. So here we are.
[00:12:21] Same assignment, different outcome. And why? Because. Not because they lack the ability, but because they lack consistency. Let me show it to you. In Matthew 17:14, and when they came to the crowd, a man came up and kneeling before them, said, lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.
[00:12:48] And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.
[00:12:53] We talked a little bit about, actually, this story at our men's conference that we had, and it's kind of interesting. He falls into the fire and he falls into the water, and you think to yourself, that's kind of a weird thing, right? But if you think in Jesus Day, fire and water kind of all the time. You can't cook without fire and you can't drink without going to the lake or going to a well. This kid falls into fire and he falls into water, which means he is constantly hurting himself. He's constantly harming himself. And the heart of a father would be, I gotta get my son to stop hurting himself. Right? That would be the heart of the dad. So the dad throws himself in front of Jesus and he says, listen, I brought this kid to your disciples and they're losers.
[00:13:40] They're not doing it. I don't know what's wrong with them, but they've done it for all these other people. I've seen it done and I've brought them to. I brought my son and they can't do it. Couldn't you help me?
[00:13:53] So I want to tell you some things that are going on here. A manager can be given authority but still lack consistency.
[00:14:02] The disciples had the authority and they had the experience. They'd done this before, but they lacked consistency in this respect. They failed. They expected to succeed and they fully thought this would happen again. But it didn't.
[00:14:19] So followers of Jesus can have authority on paper.
[00:14:23] Followers of Jesus can have authority on paper, but weakness in practice.
[00:14:28] You know what that means? That means that you can be a follower of Jesus.
[00:14:32] You're going to heaven if you get hit by a Mack truck, right? You can be a follower of Jesus. You use his name, you witness in his name.
[00:14:41] But there are parts of your life that are weak, that are not strong.
[00:14:50] You're a believer on paper. You're a follower of Jesus on paper, but weak in practice. And that's what's happening with the disciples here.
[00:14:59] And so a part of this is, listen, your past successes don't guarantee your future ones. There has to be something about our lives that is consistent so that we continue to be the on fire followers of Jesus in the future that we were in the past.
[00:15:20] There's a link here that the disciples have lost.
[00:15:24] And I think we do too sometimes. God loans us responsibility.
[00:15:29] God loans us stuff. Everything in our lives. We've talked about this as managers. Everything in our lives, our car, our homes, our family, our children, everything that we have, our computer, our job, everything we have is on loan to us from God. And God expects a return on his investment.
[00:15:48] So everything that we use should be bringing him glory to consistently.
[00:15:53] Not just a one time deal, but a consistent devotion of these things to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:16:02] Now you want to see how Jesus responds. The disciples are Frustrated because they can't cast this demon out. And they have been doing this left and right.
[00:16:09] But this is Thursday and they're off on their game.
[00:16:13] Jesus response is really interesting. Jesus answered in verse 17.
[00:16:19] This is not a kind response.
[00:16:22] You read it. You read it just so you can hear what Jesus said to his disciples. Which he loved. Which he's about to hand over the multimillion dollar corporation to where he's about to say, the church has got to grow and you're going to take it over and I'm leaving. This is how he responded to them. He used these words, will you say them with me? The yellow words. O faithless and twisted generation, On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being, I can't live without you and 1 being, yeah, you're kind of a pain in the rear end. Where would you put that?
[00:16:58] 2.5.
[00:17:02] We could be generous. 3.
[00:17:06] It's not a compliment, right?
[00:17:09] Oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me. Now. Unless you read this wrong, please understand.
[00:17:21] Jesus is not angry with his disciples. He's simply stating a fact. How long do you need to depend on me being with you?
[00:17:31] Get it?
[00:17:34] Jesus is helping them understand they have to grow up.
[00:17:40] They are going to be responsible whether they understand what Jesus is saying or not. He is leaving and they have to be responsible. They have to be consistent. They have to be faithful.
[00:17:53] And so he looks at them and says, oh, faithless and twisted generation. Don't you understand? I'm not going to be with you forever. This is like a father saying to his child or a mother saying to her daughter, listen, I'm not going to be with you. I all the time.
[00:18:06] You're going to be on your own. I need you to be the kind of person that I would be proud of.
[00:18:12] I need you to be the kind of person that God would be proud of.
[00:18:16] I can't be with you all the time. And Jesus is, even though it seems harsh, he is gently helping them understand he's not going to be able to hold their hands forever.
[00:18:28] He's going to be gone and they are going to have to pick up and carry on with a consistent faith that carries them through.
[00:18:37] He rebukes their lack of faith.
[00:18:40] And he's saying, listen, you're not always going to be able to look beside you and see me there.
[00:18:46] I'm not going to be with you at all times. Now just to illustrate this even further, here's the Greek Word. The Greek word is olopous.
[00:18:56] Alpisteia.
[00:18:58] Well, it's oligopistia. Oligopastia, which means nothing to anybody and is very difficult to pronounce. But what it means is little faith.
[00:19:12] It does not mean no faith. It means little faith. I think I got a. Do I got a slide with that on there, Callie, so you can see how difficult this word is to pronounce Anyway, may or may not be up there.
[00:19:25] There it is. Yes.
[00:19:26] Oligopestia. You want to say that. I know you do. Right. You can go ahead and say it. Right. It's oligahpistis is faith. That's easy to say, but this whole oligos stuff in front of it, all it means is you have little faith.
[00:19:43] It's not that you don't have any faith.
[00:19:45] It's that you have little faith. And little faith doesn't mean like.
[00:19:51] Like the way you fill a jar. It doesn't mean little faith like a culmination of it, like how you fill a glass. It means little faith, like unused, untested, undependent upon faith.
[00:20:08] You have a little faith.
[00:20:12] This is a kind of faith that trusts God in crisis but forgets about him all the other days of the week.
[00:20:20] This is the kind of faith that will get you into heaven, but shuts the mouth when you know you should be talking about him to your friends or neighbors. This is the little faith.
[00:20:32] We depend on him when we're desperate, but we drift when we're comfortable.
[00:20:38] That's what this means. It doesn't mean, like, the capacity of faith.
[00:20:44] It means it's not developed.
[00:20:47] Inconsistent faith leads to ineffective management.
[00:20:52] If we are inconsistent in our faith, we will be inconsistent managers.
[00:20:59] Now, I need to stop and ask you, are we commended for little faith in the Bible or not? Now think about it for a second. If you know your Bibles, is there anywhere that you can think of that we are commended for even a little bit of faith?
[00:21:22] Do you know any of those passages?
[00:21:25] The answer is yes and no.
[00:21:30] So if you said either one of those, you're on good ground.
[00:21:33] Small faith is all you need.
[00:21:36] A faith of a mustard seed. You remember that.
[00:21:40] That is not big. That is little. Have you ever had, like.
[00:21:44] Have you ever had the muffins at Starbucks that have the little black things on it that looks like droppings? You ever have those sesame seeds? You ever had the sesame seeds on things? All right, that's. Yeah, it's not. Starbucks is fine. Don't. Yeah, you're fine. But those little tiny Things that's about how big a mustard seed is. Is if you have faith like that, you're good with God.
[00:22:11] So, yes, little faith is commended, but little faith in practice is never commended.
[00:22:21] Having faith is the thing that we're after, but living by faith is the thing that we strive to do regularly.
[00:22:29] Little faith. Faith will dissipate if it's not daily dependent on the power source.
[00:22:36] That means my trust in Jesus needs to be exhibited every day. Church. My trust in Jesus needs to be exhibited every day. I may have the faith of a mustard seed, and that's fine. You're about to see how great that is. But before we get there, I may have the faith of a mustard seed. That's good, but it needs to be exhibited every single day. Day.
[00:23:02] This isn't about praying in the moment. This is about living a life of prayer, being in constant contact with my heavenly Father, living by faith.
[00:23:16] Here's how good it is. Verse 18. You wonder where that passage comes for the faith of a mustard seed.
[00:23:22] It's right here.
[00:23:24] Verse 18. Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him. And the boy was healed instantly. Well, of course, he's God. So there you go. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, which I would have said too, why couldn't we cast it out? We've done this before. It's happened before. We've been able to do this since Matthew 10.
[00:23:43] And he said to them, because of your what, church?
[00:23:48] Little faith. Again, it's not the. This is not talking about the amount.
[00:23:52] It's talking about how dependent they were on their faith.
[00:23:57] It's because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like the grain of a mustard seed, look at what you can do. You will say to this mountain, move from here and there and it will move and nothing will be impossible with you. It's not the amount of faith, it's the practice every single, single day.
[00:24:21] Because if you only use your faith when you're in tragic situations, you have what the Bible describes as, or Jesus describes as little faith.
[00:24:33] You still have faith, but it's not consistent.
[00:24:37] You hit it out of the park on Wednesday, but Thursday, no connection to God.
[00:24:45] This is what Jesus is describing as the little faith here. It's up on the screen. Just to make it so clear, little faith is not about the size of the faith. A mustard seed can move mountains. It's about the steadiness of it.
[00:24:59] It's not about the size of your faith. It's about the steadiness in it. Faith grows because it's planted in Christ and it's sustained because it's trusting daily to Christ.
[00:25:11] And God will multiply and grow whatever is grounded in Him, God does the work.
[00:25:17] So this is not about the dramatic moments. This is about daily dependence, consistent faith. Knowing that faith crosses every boundary of our lives.
[00:25:28] A genuine faith is a threat to the enemy church. A genuine faith, even the faith of a mustard seed, is a serious threat to the enemy.
[00:25:39] You follow Jesus in your life, even if you're the kind of person that hits it out of the ballpark on Thursday, but really kind of forgets about God on Friday, you're still a threat to the enemy because you have faith.
[00:25:53] But a practiced faith, a faith that takes you day by day, a daily faith that crosses every threshold of relationships in every part of your life, that's a faith that will make the enemy shake in his boots.
[00:26:13] Now listen, authority without faith will lead you to failure.
[00:26:17] So let me explain what I mean by that. There's a story very similar to this one.
[00:26:24] In the book of Acts and in the book of Acts, Paul and his team are doing ministry.
[00:26:32] And they are, guess what?
[00:26:34] Casting out demons. They're casting out demons. They're doing miracles. They're casting out demons. This was like a regular thing that Jesus allowed his disciples to do to demonstrate that they were from him and not from the evil one. They were preaching Jesus, they were sharing the gospel, they were casting out demons. But they came into this town where there was a group of witches.
[00:27:00] And these witches were used to being the ones that were adored for their magic.
[00:27:06] Now they've got competition.
[00:27:09] Paul and his apostles are coming in and they're doing some pretty magnificent stuff. You don't have the Internet. There's no TikTok, there's no Instagram. I mean, it's life that's kind of boring. So when you get a magician that comes to town, that's going to capture your attention.
[00:27:26] So these witches were constantly doing things that made other people go, wow, that's amazing. I love this.
[00:27:36] When Paul and his cohorts came to town preaching Jesus Christ, they started doing even bigger things, casting out demons, and they started gathering a crowd. And the witches in the town didn't like it.
[00:27:52] So they watched what Paul and his cohorts did and they tried to replicate it, but they were not followers of Jesus Christ. They were witches.
[00:28:04] So here's how the story goes.
[00:28:06] Just like in Matthew 17, these guys, they tried to cast out demons, but they were on the demon side. So they couldn't cast out the demons, and they got frustrated about it.
[00:28:18] And so the disciples are there and they see what's going on. And one of the most amazing stories happens in Scripture. It's in Acts 17, let me read to you. Or 19. Let me read to you. What happens then? Some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the name of Jesus. The Jesus whom Paul proclaims. They got the right Jesus. It's not just any Jesus. It's the right one. This is Jesus.
[00:28:51] I proclaim to you by the name of Jesus. The same one that Paul proclaims.
[00:28:56] Here's who it was. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva. Were you doing this?
[00:29:01] But the evil spirit answered them. And this will send shivers down your spine. The evil spirit answered them. Jesus I know.
[00:29:08] And Paul I recognize.
[00:29:12] But who are you?
[00:29:15] Isn't that crazy?
[00:29:17] The evil spirit who they were trying to cast out in the name of Jesus did not obey them. Just like in Matthew 17.
[00:29:26] The demon did not listen to them because he tells us himself, Jesus. I know, Paul, I know.
[00:29:38] I don't know you.
[00:29:40] And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them.
[00:29:46] And he mastered all of them and overpowered them. So that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. He attacked them and beat them up.
[00:29:57] Isn't that wild?
[00:30:00] These people liked the idea of Jesus, but they had no personal faith in him.
[00:30:06] They had no relationship with Him.
[00:30:09] They used the proper name of Jesus, but they had no consistent relationship with this Jesus. And when the demon heard them use his name, he didn't fear it at all. Because the people who were using it were not attached. They were not tethered to the power source.
[00:30:30] It was a tool for their own glory, and the demons knew it.
[00:30:35] So I want to tell you, Church, you cannot manage God's work without walking with God personally.
[00:30:42] You can't manage God's work without walking with God personally.
[00:30:49] Faith is not just using Jesus name.
[00:30:52] It's about living under Jesus authority.
[00:30:56] One more time, let me say faith will grow because of where it is planted and sustained. God will multiply what is consistently planted in him, entrusted back to Him.
[00:31:08] This is not a big faith that moves mountains.
[00:31:11] This is a consistent faith in a God who made the mountains.
[00:31:16] This is faith in a God who can move the mountains.
[00:31:19] This is not somebody standing in front of you with a white suit and bleached teeth standing in front of you saying, look at me, I have a faith that is so much greater than yours. Let me show you some stuff.
[00:31:33] If you see a guy like that run out the back door.
[00:31:38] Because a faith that moves mountains, the faith of a mustard seed, is a faith that can only function because it is tethered to the power source. All the glory goes back to God. It is not the person.
[00:31:51] That's what we learned from the book of Acts.
[00:31:54] So what empowers a growing faith?
[00:31:57] I would say this.
[00:31:59] It would be what is evidence that my faith is growing, that is tethered to the right place. I would say it is one word. Church. I would say that it is prayer.
[00:32:11] Prayer.
[00:32:13] If you're not praying, you are getting your your boost from somewhere else.
[00:32:20] Prayer reminds us we are connected to God. Prayer reminds us we can't operate without Him. Prayer reminds us we are dependent on Him. Prayer reminds us that everything we have belongs to him and we only are managers of it. Prayer is our resource for power.
[00:32:38] Now, if you're using your Bibles or if you're using your tablets, I'm going to have a little. We're going to do a little fun activity.
[00:32:45] Would you look for verse 21?
[00:32:48] Look for Matthew 17 and verse 21.
[00:32:58] Do you find it?
[00:33:01] There is no Matthew 17 in verse 21.
[00:33:05] It's Matthew 17:20. And then it goes to verse 22.
[00:33:10] There's no Matthew 17:21. Do you wonder why this is going to be fun? Here's why. Only in some manuscripts does verse 21 show up. It doesn't show up in all the manuscripts. So the writers of your Bible excluded it.
[00:33:27] It's only included in some translations. It's not included in all translations. It is excluded because it is not consistent. So they left it out. You want to know what verse 21 says? Some manuscripts insert verse 21. Here's what verse 21 says. This kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.
[00:33:46] Now I love that verse and I wish it were in every one. So here's what I did. I did you a favor. I looked for the other gospels to see if the same story was in the other gospels. And guess what it is.
[00:33:57] And guess what's included in the other Gospels?
[00:34:00] Verse 21. So let me take you to Mark 9, verse 29. Here it says, and he said to them, same occasion, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. Do you want to know why I love this verse? Do you want to know why Mark includes it? Do you want to know why I think it should still be in Matthew 17. It should. Because. Because. Because you cannot live a life of faith without a life of prayer.
[00:34:25] You can say you do, but your Thursdays will look a lot different from your Wednesdays.
[00:34:36] Consistency will not be the name of the game for you.
[00:34:40] Prayer exhibits a dependence on the source of our faith.
[00:34:44] Prayer proves who we are really dependent on. I could say that I'm married to Beth every day of the week, but never go home.
[00:34:53] And you would look at me and you would go, craig, do you think you're married to Beth? I say, yeah, absolutely.
[00:35:00] Where did you sleep last night? Jim's house.
[00:35:04] Not you, Jimmy.
[00:35:08] Well, did you go home the day before that? No. No. Well, how's Beth? Don't really know. I haven't seen her for a couple of months.
[00:35:18] Right. And you'd be going, and you're married to her, Right. Does she know you're married to her? You might start thinking I belong in the loony bin, right? Why? Because I am not tethered to my wife. I can tell you I have a relationship with her, but unless I'm living like I do, you're going to laugh every time I say it. In fact, you might think I'm a little crazy.
[00:35:41] And if you say, if you have a relationship with Jesus Christ but you're not tethered to him through prayer, I would say the same response probably applies.
[00:35:52] Prayer is not a technique.
[00:35:54] Prayer is an exhibition of dependence. Oh, I should have made a slide out of that. That's really good. Prayer is not a technique.
[00:36:02] Prayer is an exhibition of dependence. The best managers stay connected to the source. We attacked Iran. Do you know what we did the very first day we took out their communications.
[00:36:13] Do you know why you take out the enemy's communications first?
[00:36:17] Because it's chaos if they don't talk to one another.
[00:36:21] The same thing applies in our lives with Jesus Christ.
[00:36:24] Unless you're connected in a very real way with your boss, with the. You're a manager, he's the master. Unless you're connected to the master, how do you know what his will is for your life?
[00:36:43] Let me just ask you this. Do you think the disciples didn't pray?
[00:36:47] They probably prayed from Matthew 10 to Matthew 17. That's seven chapters, right? Surely they prayed in there at some point.
[00:36:56] They did pray. Sure they did, but they were starting to pray in a different way. They weren't praying like their life depended on it anymore.
[00:37:07] I think they started to get a little cocky. Look what I can do. I can cast out demons. Look what I can do.
[00:37:13] And they started getting away from a dependency upon the Father. And they didn't know they needed it. Not yet, but they would.
[00:37:23] They would. Because terrible times were right around the corner for these guys.
[00:37:28] Listen, church prayer is not an add on, it's an alignment.
[00:37:32] It keeps your heart, your motives, your power source. It keeps your head, head in the game.
[00:37:39] My life is about a lot of things.
[00:37:42] I have a wife. I just told you, I am a dad. I'm a pastor, I'm a friend, I'm a provider, I'm a servant. I have all of these different things in my life. But if my life is not engulfed in prayer, I am going to start doing some of those things on my own. It's going to look a lot like Craig and not a lot like Jesus.
[00:38:00] And I want to make sure that I am the best dad I can be because my, my tether is connected to my power source. I want to be the best husband that I can be because I'm responsible. My tether is connected to my power source. I want to be the best pastor I can be because I want to make sure my tether is connected to the power source. Because when it becomes about Craig and not about Jesus, I start losing steam, I start making mistakes and I start doing the show on my own.
[00:38:35] Prayer is about aligning my heart with Jesus Christ.
[00:38:40] I'm not demonstrating a dependence on my master if I'm not praying. So prayer is, by the way, the armor of God. You know the armor of God.
[00:38:50] Prayer is not one part of the Christian's life. It covers all of it. Do you know the armor? Helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, sword of the spirit, shield of faith. You know all this, right? Where does prayer fall in?
[00:39:01] Do you know this in Ephesians 6? Do you know where prayer falls in? What part of the armor is prayer?
[00:39:08] None.
[00:39:10] It finishes by saying, once you put your armor on, belt of truth, helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, sword of the Spirit, shield of faith. Once you put all that armor on feet girded with the preparation of the gospel of peace, you're dressed for battle. Then cover it all in. Guess what?
[00:39:28] Prayer.
[00:39:30] Prayer is not a part of the armor. It covers all of it.
[00:39:35] Ephesians 6:18. Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Prayer is me being constantly tethered to the power source. If you're a praying mom, if you're a praying dad, if you're a praying friend, if you're a praying worker, if you're a praying student, you will be unstoppable before the forces of evil. You will be invincible.
[00:39:58] There's nothing that can overtake you in this world if you're connected to your power source.
[00:40:06] But you have to become a person of prayer.
[00:40:11] And even, even if your faith is this small, you can move mountains.
[00:40:17] Verse 22.
[00:40:20] Jesus caps it off for them as they were gathering in Galilee. Jesus said, the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. They'll kill him.
[00:40:28] He's talking about himself. They'll kill him. He'll be raised on the third day. And they were happy and joyful, true or false, and they were what?
[00:40:42] Greatly distressed. Why is Jesus giving them this hands on illustration that they can't do this on their own? They have to be connected to their power source or they're not going to be good managers because he is not going to be there to hold their hand very much longer.
[00:40:58] And they were greatly distressed.
[00:41:02] They probably thought, if we can't cast out this demon, how are we going to plant churches?
[00:41:08] They had little faith, mustard seed faith. And they needed that faith to grow in Jesus Christ Church. I want to just remind you that you are so much better off than these disciples. We don't think we are. We think to ourselves. You know, it would be really cool if Jesus came in the door and sat right beside me today. That'd be really cool, right? You'd put that one in your diary, wouldn't you? You know, you tell your kids about that. I remember the day Jesus came in the door and he sat with me. But I want to tell you, if he's sitting with you, he's not sitting with Teresa and, and he's not sitting with Pat and he's not sitting with Jim and he's not sitting in the church down the street and he's not sitting in the church in China.
[00:41:46] He's in one place at one time. But when he ascended, he gave us his Holy Spirit. So that in 2026 you have Jesus not sitting beside you. But if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, he's sitting in your seat and he's sitting in all of the seats in this room and all of the seats in the room of the church down the street and all of the seats in the room of the church. Churches in China, because you have the Holy Spirit who is Jesus incarnate. He is Christ in us. The hope of glory. He seals us until the day of redemption. And the Bible says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. You are better off than the disciples because you have the Holy Spirit. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ who lives in you, you have the power of God at work within you.
[00:42:35] First John 4. Four little children. You are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
[00:42:43] This is a manager's refinement. Trust grows when it's consistent. Trust grows when it's consistent. It's so fun to say. Say it with me. Trust grows when it's consistent. And prayer is your evidence that you are connected to the power source.
[00:42:59] So what's real quick? Number one, check your consistency, not just your capability.
[00:43:04] Oh, that's so good. Check your consistency, not just your capability. You say you live in faith. That's great. What's your proof?
[00:43:13] It's not about what you can do.
[00:43:15] It's not about what you have done in the past. It's about who you constantly depend on.
[00:43:21] Faith is not proven by what you've done before, but by who you're depending on today. You can say you live by faith, but what in your life shows it?
[00:43:30] What demonstrates your dependence on Jesus Christ? Because it needs to affect every part of your life. Your dad life, your mom life, your student life, your child life, your work life. It needs to cross over every avenue of what makes us us.
[00:43:49] So here's a question to gauge it.
[00:43:51] Do you pray before everything happens or only when the fan doesn't work anymore?
[00:44:02] When do you pray?
[00:44:04] Because if you're the kind of person that goes, oh, I better pray about this. I've forgotten to pray for the last five days. That is a good indication that you have forgotten to connect to your power source.
[00:44:15] Number two, reconnect through daily dependence goes hand in hand. Consistency is built through daily connection, not occasional intensity.
[00:44:24] You don't grow strong in faith by believing more. You grow strong in faith by depending more prayer. Pray every time before you act.
[00:44:37] Read the word, let God shape how you think and pray every time. Surrender. Choose God's way and pray about everything.
[00:44:44] The Bible says. Listen, whether you eat or you drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Even as something as simple as eating and drinking, bathe it in a dependence upon God.
[00:44:57] These aren't religious habits. They are relationship habits. Faith grows when it's exercised, not just possessed. That actually is a good one too. Faith grows when it's exercised, not just possessed.
[00:45:10] So if your faith is weak, it may not be missing. It may just be underused.
[00:45:17] Number three.
[00:45:18] Remember who owns the work.
[00:45:20] The disciples thought that the issue was their technique.
[00:45:24] What are we not doing right? Should we dance in circles? Should we bang our heads?
[00:45:31] Should we shake a stick? What are we not doing right? And Jesus said, the issue is not your technique, you morons. That's not the issue. The issue is your dependence.
[00:45:42] You've begun to think this is what you can do. And you've stopped relying on me.
[00:45:48] And I'm not going to be here for too much longer.
[00:45:52] It's not a better method. It's not a stronger formula. It's a deeper dependence. Listen, church, you're not the source of power. You're just the manager.
[00:46:02] We are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we manage that power that God gives us to demonstrate our dependence on Him.
[00:46:11] Let me give you one more thing before I show you this lamp.
[00:46:15] This is so good. Trust will fill what fear empties.
[00:46:20] Trust will fill what fear empties.
[00:46:25] Fear will seek to come in and make you think you can't do. Do it. You're not able to do it. You're going to be embarrassed. You will lose if you do it. God is calling you to do something, and fear will sneak in and it will try to empty you of the joy of being a victor in Jesus Christ. Whatever God's asking you to do, he will give you the calling to do it, and he will give you the power to do it. All you have to do is demonstrate a dependence on him daily.
[00:46:56] Trust will fill what fear empties.
[00:46:59] Trust deepens through habits and patterns and repetition. The disciples did not lack the authority they lacked dependence.
[00:47:08] And if your life doesn't demonstrate a daily, hourly dependence on the power source, you may end up living more in fear than you should. And fear will always make you.
[00:47:22] Fear will make you scared of what you're going to lose.
[00:47:26] That's how it works.
[00:47:28] It'll make you scared of what you're going to lose. But if you live by faith, you won't be ruled by fear.
[00:47:36] My daughter Hannah brought this back from Morocco.
[00:47:40] One of my favorite things in my house.
[00:47:44] She carried this back and gave it to us on Christmas.
[00:47:50] I love this lamp. And it looks beautiful. Like it is, right? I mean, you're looking at it and hopefully you're going, yeah, that's a beautiful lamp. And it's. And it is. I love this lamp. Beautifully designed. It's beautiful when it's lit up. The bulb is strong. Everything is functional.
[00:48:06] And it looks gorgeous. Like it is. Right.
[00:48:09] How many of you would like for me to turn it on?
[00:48:13] Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. Yeah. Wouldn't you? Well, I'm not going to. I'm just going to leave it like this.
[00:48:20] You're disappointed, aren't you?
[00:48:23] I know you're disappointed because a lamp like this should be turned on.
[00:48:28] Jesus said the same thing about our faith. You have a faith that's outstanding. What kind of a person would hide it under shade? Turn it on, let people see it. Depend on me. And watch what I can do. Watch the beautiful thing I can make of your life. If it's not connected to the power source, it is never going to turn on.
[00:48:50] You have to keep this lamp connected to the power source. It's still a beautiful lamp, but it only works when it's plugged in. And it only works when it is dependently carrying an electrical current.
[00:49:03] And when it does, then it turns into this.
[00:49:07] Isn't that beautiful?
[00:49:09] Yeah.
[00:49:12] The disciples had a lamp.
[00:49:15] They had faith.
[00:49:16] They had the authority.
[00:49:18] But at this moment in Matthew 17, they were not connected to the power source.
[00:49:23] And their effectiveness went right down the tubes.
[00:49:26] God doesn't entrust his work to capable people. He entrusts it to people who consistently depend on Him.
[00:49:32] This is what God does.
[00:49:34] So your root issue, church, may not be the amount of faith that you have.
[00:49:38] The root issue may be just an underdeveloped trust in the Master.
[00:49:43] Maybe you should get used to keeping the cord connected to the power source, leaving the light on always.
[00:49:51] Is it possible to turn off the lights up here?
[00:49:55] Is that possible?
[00:49:56] Is there anyone in the back that can turn off the lights?
[00:50:01] I'll let you just see that. There. No, that's your light. But yeah, anyway.
[00:50:07] Oh, there it is. Yeah. Isn't that nice?
[00:50:13] Listen, Church, God has loaned you influence. He's loaned you opportunities. He's loaned you relationships. But his power can make all of those things even better.
[00:50:24] You have the faith. You have the ability.
[00:50:27] You have the power.
[00:50:29] Stay connected to the source and watch what God can do with your life.
[00:50:35] We go to communion. We finish our service with communion every Sunday. And the reason we do is because it's a great reminder to us.
[00:50:42] It's a great reminder that we have to stay connected. We have to. We do this on a regular basis because we forget what Jesus did for us. Us, what it cost him so that we could have this kind of a relationship with the Father.
[00:50:58] Jesus is the power source that allows us to connect to the Father.
[00:51:03] In fact, Jesus prays For us. Did you know that? That blows me away.
[00:51:07] Jesus intercedes for us on a regular basis.
[00:51:11] Even Jesus knows prayer is important. Do you know at times, Jesus would pray all night and he's God.
[00:51:20] He knew how important it was to be connected to the power source.
[00:51:24] When we do communion, you'll get a cup of juice and you'll get a piece of bread. The bread reminds us of what it took to keep us connected to the Father.
[00:51:35] It took Jesus body given on the cross, it took his blood. That's what the juice represents.
[00:51:45] Shed so that our sins could be covered. That's what it took. It cost him everything, but it costs us nothing.
[00:51:55] The gift is free.
[00:51:57] And if you don't know Christ as your Savior, I'd encourage you today. Don't leave before making. We can easily. If you thought this message was easy to understand, I pray that you did. We can make the gospel easy to understand for you as well. It is not complicated. Everything is simple. Everything is easy. We don't want you to walk out of here without knowing where you are with Jesus Christ.
[00:52:18] So if you want to talk to somebody, you can talk to me afterwards. There's a prayer booth in the back. Somebody will be back there to answer your questions.
[00:52:23] But even the juice and the bread that we take, it's just an easy reminder for us to remember it took Jesus life so that we could be given life.
[00:52:35] And if you give your life to Jesus Christ, his blood will cover every sin, past, present and future.
[00:52:43] And his body was what it took.
[00:52:46] That was the cost for our sins to be forgiven.
[00:52:51] So in a few minutes, we're going to ask you to stand. We're going to sing a song. If you would come to the middle aisle. This is the way we do it here. Just come to the middle aisle and walk down front.
[00:52:59] There's a tray here. There's a tray here.
[00:53:01] Grab two cups.
[00:53:04] The one on the top has the juice, the one on the bottom has the bread. Be careful when you pull it apart. Sometimes it spills.
[00:53:10] But just take it with you back to your seat and wait.
[00:53:15] And then I'm going to come up, I'm going to read a passage of scripture, and we're going to eat and drink together. Because we're all in the same boat here.
[00:53:22] I'm no more important than you are. I don't have a deeper faith than you do.
[00:53:28] My mustard seed might actually be smaller than your mustard seed, but it's a mustard seed and that's all it takes.
[00:53:35] And when you go back to your Seat. Just wait for me. And we're going to eat and drink together. Because Christ's blood was necessary to cover all of our sins.
[00:53:42] There's none who's righteous? No, not one.
[00:53:46] If this is something unusual for you, please don't feel like you need to participate. Just stay seated. Just allow people to move around you.
[00:53:53] It's not weird if you don't want to participate, but. But if you have questions about it, we'd be glad to talk to you about it. Why we do what we do here at Village Church East.
[00:54:04] This is your opportunity to be with God. God has spoken to you. He's brought you here for a reason.
[00:54:09] You're here because he wants you here. He wanted you to hear something today, to experience something today. So I want to give you a moment to talk to Him. In the quietness of the next moment, I'm going to ask everybody to bow their heads. And however God has spoken to you today, would you just respond to him. He hears every word that you think.
[00:54:28] If you would just take a moment and respond to him and thank him for what he's shown you. Respond to him. Surrender something to him.
[00:54:36] Offer yourself to him in a new way. Whatever needs to happen in your life, this is between you and Him. Would you just spend a moment in prayer, Father? God, I am grateful. I am so grateful that you gave everything so that we could have faith. Like a mustard seed.
[00:55:15] You don't look for the spectacular. You just look for the available.
[00:55:21] And so, Father, as we take a moment now and respond to whatever you have spoken to us about, I pray that you be pleased with our hearts. Some here just need to surrender. Some here need to dedicate their lives a little more consistently to their faith and allow you into the dark corners that maybe they haven't allowed you in before.
[00:55:45] Some just need an encouragement, Father, in the Word, to remind them that you are with us always, even to the ends of the earth.
[00:55:53] And so all these promises that we have in scripture, we accept them because of faith.
[00:55:59] And we ask, Father, that you would give us hearts that are more and more dependent on you, that trust you with not a few things, but everything.
[00:56:08] And that you would prove to us how beautiful you can make our lives, even as small as we might consider them. How you can light them up and change the world around us, even if we have the faith of a mustard seed, connect us to you like a tether that is absolutely dependent.
[00:56:29] And now may we respond with hearts that would please you.
[00:56:33] In Jesus name, Amen. Would you come and take communion please.
