Welcome to Timeless Truth with Pastor Jim Thomas. In season 2, Pastor Jim is leading us in a study of Mark. Today’s passage is Mark 9:14-29.
- The path of Christian discipleship includes both mountaintop and valley experiences.
- Acknowledging our weakness and inadequacy is the beginning of faith.
- When all human hopes have failed, there yet rises great hope for all who turn to and trust in Christ.
“If you want God’s grace, all you need is need, all you need is nothing.”
Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods
“What convinces me – he sent more than fire from heaven, he himself came from heaven in Christ.”
John Lennox
4. Sometimes things get worse before they can get better. V20 & 26
5. The object of your faith is always more important than the amount of your faith.
“When we look at the true God, and wait on him, we find that, when there is mounting up to be done, we can do it with eagles’ wings; when there is running to be done, we can do it without weariness; and when there is walking to be done, we can do it-worthy of the Lord-without fainting.”
N. T. Wright, Small Faith-Great God
6. Spiritual disciplines (like prayer and fasting) help us focus on the greatness and grace of our God.
“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”
Karl Barth
“Praying is not like using a coin-operated machine or a cash dispenser. The struggle involved in prayer lies in the process of coming to discern God’s will and to desire it above everything else. Then God will work things out providentially according to his will, for which we have prayed.”
John Stott, Romans
Prayer is a request.
God is good, all the time. God knows more than we do what will result in His greatest glory and our highest good.
We can trust God with every outcome, large or small.
