Pitiful Faith

Remain stand in. Mark chapter 9, verse 14, says that when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them. And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and run into him, saluted him. And he asked the scribes, What questioned you with them? And one of the multitude answered, said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath the dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples that they could has cast him out, and they could not. And he answered and said, Oh faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him, and when they saw him, straightway the spirit tear him, and he fell to the ground, and wallowed, foaming. He asked his father, How long is it a ghost since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And often times it had cast him into the fire and into the waters, to destroy him. But if thou cannot do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child crowd out, cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mind unbelief.

For just a few moments, I won't be long today, because the Spirit's moving and wants to do something here. I want to preach on pitiful faith. Pitiful faith. If I could subtitle this, I would simply say, I'm still here. I'm still here. Will you help me pray?

God, you have moved in, in such a sweet, precious way already. And God, I know you have laid the groundwork to perform the miracle today that you want to do. So God, I stand out of your way, asking, Lord, for you to take over, for you to do with your church what you see fit and willing. God, anoints to receive what you would take place in this room. In Jesus' name we pray, and amen.

The last, you maybe see, the last few months here at Center Point, we have experienced one amazing service after another. God has visited with us. He has touched our lives. Now, we must be careful, because I'm convinced that we can become so used to being in his presence, so accustomed to it, that it loses some of the awe and wonder that we should always maintain when it comes to being in the presence of God. So what I'm saying is simply this: Let us not check out and go on to autopilot right now. Let's not check out and go into autopilot. Let's stay engaged. Let us ask ourselves, Is God going to speak to me today? Because I believe he will. I'm expecting a higher height. I'm expecting the miraculous today. I'm expecting the miraculous today. I'm expecting the miraculous today. It has nothing to do with me. Nothing to do with me. I'm just a messenger here. But I feel and I sense in me that God's going to do something, so I'm asking, from the very beginning, for my intercessors right now to be engaging in the Spirit. You know who I speak of. If you're an intercede, if you're an intercessory prayer warrior, I'm asking right now for you to go ahead and start engaging in prayer. God's wanting to do something, so let's stay engaged for the next 30 minutes or so.

What do you know about God? Have you ever thought that you were limited because of your lack of knowledge of God? I've had those thoughts before in my life, but I've reached the point to where I'm convinced that it's not my lack of knowledge that is hindering me. It's the opposite. It is the knowledge I have of God oftentimes that causes me to struggle. And if you give me just a couple of minutes, I believe I can explain why I say that statement, and that is this: Have you ever heard, or thought about this? Hebrews 11 and 6 says, Without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

You see, this is knowledge that I have, to have faith in my life. I have to acknowledge that, that plays a part of what it is that God wants and desires of me. And I have to be careful, because it can be that very knowledge of that verse that can cause me to struggle inside myself, because I know if I don't have it, I can't please him. That when I approach God, I have to approach God with faith, because that's what his word says. So it has to be a part of what I deal with every day, to know and understand that faith is currency of heaven. We, we've read it plainly: According to your faith, so it be unto you. It was faith that always caused Jesus to stop in a moment. It was faith that he was drawn to. It was faith, it was, that caused him to operate and perform and be a part of the miraculous. Hebrews 11:33 says, it was because of faith, they subdued kingdoms, and that they were able to work righteousness, and obtain promises, and stop them out of lions, and quench the violence of fire, and escape the edge of the sword. All of these things are there. And remember, I'm talking about knowledge of God, having this and understanding that it was because of faith, all of these things took place. And, and it's, and it's getting my mind around that. I don't think it's, it's something that's too lofty or high for, for anybody to understand. I feel like everybody in the room understands that faith is something that God is drawn to, faith is something I must have if I'm going to please him. It was because of faith that it was done. It was because of faith miracles happened. It was because of faith.

But what happens if I'm struggling in my faith? You may be saying, Pastor Kevin, that's my problem. I don't know that I have enough faith. I'm struggling. I've prayed, but my prayers have gone unanswered. I've asked, and no one answered. I've knocked, and no one opened the door. I've sought, and I haven't found anything. Speaking to some individuals today who may be struggling in your faith.

Every time I read the story in Mark chapter 9, it always grabs my heart in a special way. The chapter starts out with Jesus being on mountain transfiguration, and something that's taking place there, special, with, with a few individuals. And it's a, it's a really neat story, more than I have to unpack today in this message. But, but he comes down from that moment with, with Peter, James, and John. He's had this, this special moment there, where there, where there was a revelation that took place in, and he shows up to a bit of a chaotic story. When I read the description given to us here in this passage, we see that a young man's life has been tormented since he was a child. Some spirit was controlling him, not just lacking something from a young age, but being controlled by something since he was a little child. The spirit tormented this boy, causing him to gnash his teeth, causing him to fall down in fires, causing him to foam in his mouth. I can only imagine the heartache and the pain and the embarrassment that had to do with this, not only in his life, but in the life of his father. When I see here and I read these words that are pinned, the love of a father trying to do everything he can to help find help for his son, but nothing he does seems to work. He's none the better for any of his efforts. So much disappointment, so much frustration the father has face, and just simply trying to take care of his son, just trying to be a good dad, but nothing helped. I'm not sure how it happened, but some way he came to the knowledge that Jesus was a healer. I don't know if it was stories that he heard about blinded eyes being open, or deaf ears unstopped, or stories about lame that were walking, and lepers that were cleansed, or water being turned into wine. Maybe, maybe it was one of his neighbors who the disciples stopped by when Jesus had sent them out two by two, maybe maybe it was a friend who went to him and said, Hey, you need to find out about this man Jesus. I had some of his followers stop by my house, and even the demons follow and listen to their voice. I don't know what it was, but somewhere along the way, he stumbled across the fact that Jesus was a healer, and he decided to have hope for just a minute. He decided to gather his son up and, and do his best to find out where Jesus was. He began to ask questions: Do you know where I can find him? Do you know where he might be? Do you happen to know where his disciples might be today, my son? I've been dealing with this for such a long time, and I've tried everything I've known to do, but nothing's been any better. But maybe, just maybe, they could help. Maybe today could be a different story. Whatever it was, something stirred him to bring his son to where the disciples were at.

Jesus, coming down off of that mountaintop with Peter, James, and John, he shows up. It was the remaining disciples that he had left to take care of business while he was on that mountaintop. It was those remaining disciples that this man brought his son to for help. But as we read, they could do nothing. He was none the better, none at all. Word must have gotten out, because it said the scribes were there disputing with the disciples. The crowd had gathered. It had turned into a show. It was a spectacle that had taken place. Jesus begins to ask questions: What's going on? What's happening here?

You ever been there in your life? You ever tried everything you knew to do, but nothing helped, it only seemed to make things worse? You ever found yourself in that kind of a situation where everything just blew up, and no matter how hard you tried, you were none the better? You, you figure yourself to be a reasonable thinking person, that you can, you know, you can add two and two and get four most of the time. You feel like you're able to, to do some things, but no matter what you do, you seem to run into a brick wall everywhere you go. Anybody ever had moments like that in your life, where you've just done your best, but your best fell short? That's where he is. That's where he is in this moment. Everything he tried just blew up. Jesus notices the commotion. He notices the crowd. He asks, What's going on? And it's in this moment that the father speaks for the first time, and he tells him, I can tell you what's going on. My son has been tormented by a spirit, by a dumb spirit, according to the King James Version.

I'm afraid there are many today that are being tormented by dumb spirits. I don't mean that as a put down. I mean those spirits don't have good intentions. There's a spirit in the world today that stands in direct opposition to all things that are holy and reverent. There's this spirit, ladies and gentlemen, we're having to deal with in this area. It's not a new spirit. It's not, it's just dressed up a little bit different. But it's the same old trick that's been there since day one, trying to make you and I believe that we are unworthy and we will never add up. I'm going to tell you a secret: You are unworthy, and you will never add up. And that's why I'm thankful that Jesus Christ died on Calvary's hill, so that he could qualify you and I. I don't have to do it on my own. And here's the secret: You don't have to do it either. He qualified you when he died on that cross. So no matter what lie comes out of the pit of hell, I'm here to tell you, you are a child of the king. And if I can encourage somebody today, I don't care how dark the night is right now, there's a God in this room who is well able to handle every situation you face.

My boy's sick. My boy's sick. He's been sick since he was a child. He's been plagued with his spirit. I brought him here because I didn't know what else to do. I've tried everything. I've exhausted every measure I could come up with. I spared no expense. There was no place I wouldn't go. There's no thing I wouldn't try. But everywhere I went, I come up short. I heard stories about what you have done. Friends of mine talked about how they seen you open a blind man's eyes. Heard a story about a wedding that you attended where they ran out of wine, and you turned water into one, things that seemed like they were too unreal to even believe. I've heard about what's been going on, and something inside of me began to hope for just a minute, that maybe, just maybe, these stories were true. One of my neighbors told me that some of your disciples had stopped by their house, and it seemed as though even the demons had to listen when they speak. So I, I decided to take my son out one more time, and I brought him here to your disciples, to see if they could help us in our situation. In our darkest hour, I brought him here, and they could do nothing. I'm none the better. It seems as though I maybe even have wasted my trip. In desperation, he cries to Jesus: But if thou cannot do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

I don't know when, every time I read those words, it just tears my heart. Maybe, maybe it's because I have children of my own. Maybe, maybe there's something inside that connects me with that father's heart, because I know that I would do anything to help my children if they were struggling in any way. Whatever it took, I'd be willing to do it. But I hear this: If you can do anything, can you just have compassion on us and help us? And it's because of this passionate plea that Jesus begins to lay out the groundwork for a miracle. Jesus says, If thou can believe. What a word. What a word to say to that father. Have you ever noticed that sometimes it seems like the questions Jesus asked are harder than what we're dealing with in our life? What a question to ask this father. Obviously, there's something inside of him that caused him to drag the boy out one more time. Why, why, Jesus, would you ask? Why would you ask him about his belief? Why, when you know that he's struggling? Why, when you know that he's weak? Why would you know that he's faced disappointment time and time again? Why would you pick on him? Why would you point out? Why would you come? Why would you say, If thou canist believe, all things are possible? In my mind, this was a knife to the heart of this father. It had to cut him deep. It was a sore spot in his life. When Jesus begins to ask in this line of question, it cut through and got right down to the very root of the issue.

We see in verse 24, and straightway, immediately is another way to say that, he says, and he cries out with tears, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. I'm hanging on by a thread. The only reason I'm here is because I had just a momentary moment of glimmer of hope, but there's unbelief in here. He's saying to him, I believed enough to get him here, but there's a whole lot of unbelief inside of me right now. I feel like somebody in this place feels this way today. You identify with the way this father responded. Jesus, this is the issue. This is the problem. I don't know if I have enough faith. He was aware of the current condition to which he was responding with, I'm not sure if I have what qualifies at faith. He admits, I'm struggling. For you to tell me that if I can just believe, I'm telling you I'm struggling inside to believe. Nothing has worked out for me, and you're telling me the one thing I need is to believe.

Anyone here struggling with your faith? Anybody here struggling in your confidence? Anybody here struggling? Anybody here to sing that no matter what you do, it's never enough? You've tried time and time again, only to come up short. This is where he was. Over and over again, he kept coming up short. His son was knowing the better. No doubt he is beginning to doubt. His struggle with faith, I feel this anguish. The man knows what the problem is, but he doesn't know what to do about it. We know when we are weak in faith and not living for God the way we should be. We know. I've been low before. Anybody ever been low before? Anybody ever thought, Are my prayers even making a difference? It doesn't seem like they're going anywhere. Do I even matter to God anymore? This man was low in his life, and Jesus asked him to believe.

Reading this story, I began to think to myself, Why did Jesus ask such a specific question? And then it stood out to me: He did not say to the man, If you can greatly believe. He did not say to the man, If you have mountain moving belief. There's nobody asking. He didn't ask him, on a scale to 1-10, how much belief do you have? He just simply said, If you can believe. His qualification was this: If you'll just bring what belief you have in this moment. You don't have to be a lot. I just need to know if you have any belief in you, because if there's something in you, I'm only asking you to bring what you have. He doesn't ever ask you to bring what you don't have. He doesn't say, I need you to stop by the faith store and pick up a pack.

He simply says, If you can believe. If you can believe. Well, I can believe. I may not have a lot of belief, but I can believe. Oh, he had something there. Something brought him to the moment where he was at.

I know there are those who are in this room today that are frustrated. You're angry at God. You're mad, because things have not worked out the way you want them to, or you've lost someone or something that was close to you. Someone did something, and you're angry at God, angry at the church, angry at me. But what God is saying to those who have pitiful faith today, whose lives are pitiful, God is saying to you, You may be pitiful, but bring what you have. That's all I'm asking you to show up with. Whoo, that's all I'm asking you to show up without asking you to bring your neighbor's faith. I'm not asking you to bring your mama's faith. I'm simply saying, Bring what you have to me.

When I look in the scripture, Shamgar had an ox goad when the enemy had swords, but he showed up, and God wrought a great victory through him with an oxycode. I don't even know what it is, but it doesn't sound impressive. David showed up with a rock and a sling against the giant, and what happened? The giant fell. Samson had a jawbone of a donkey. The widow had just a little bit of meal and a cruise of oh. Moses simply had a staff, and a, what am I saying? God only asked for what you have.

I'm afraid far too often, too many of us think we have to have some kind of giant thing in our bag in order for us to be overcomers, when God says, simply says, I just want to know what you got on ya.

What's in your pocket? Whoo, what do you got with you right now? Do you got some faith? Anybody got just a little bit of faith here today? Anybody got just a little bit of belief today? Because we serve a God who says, All I'm interested in is what you showed up with today, because I can take your little and I can do a whole lot. We, you can be seated. We, we miss the point too often, because we think, I got to have all this stuff, and if I show up wesley well equipped, well then I'm ready to fight. And here's the problem with that, the fallacy in that way of thinking is, it's dependent on me to show up with a weapon, when your responsibility is only to show up and believe in the one who can deliver, the one who can bring the victory. Now, there's responsibilities in the scriptures, and we can get into those things, but I'm talking to someone in this place today who's feeling low. Anybody ever felt low? I mean, like low is a snake belly, eating dirt kind of low. You know that's low. Anybody here today may be willing to admit, I'm going to look this way, but maybe you just want to acknowledge, while I'm still not facing you, that I feel low. See, there's, there's something about acknowledging this out loud. I love that this father didn't beat around the bush. I loved it when the question was asked. It says, straightway, immediately, he answered, with tears streaming down his face, I believe, but help my unbelief. Oh, he shows up, and he's like, I don't got much. I mean, I got a little bit. I got a little bit of belief in here somewhere. Somewhere. I've exhausted everything I got. He's going through all his pockets, and he's saying, I got, I got a little bit, but please help me where I'm deficient. Please look down on my pitiful state. If you can't do anything, have compassion on where we are. And I love that Jesus is standing there simply saying, Just believe. Oh, why would you poke out where I'm struggling? I'm not asking you to have a lot. Just give me what you got.

Why is it that we think we must have giant faith before God can do even the smallest things? What is faith? Listen to me. Listen to me. What is, go with me for just a minute. Think about it. What is faith? We know, we know, Bible scholars, Hebrews 11:1 tells us. What is it? Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not see. Now, let me ask you a question here today: How many of you, when you are down and out, when you are low as a snake's belly, how many of you hope for better when you're in that condition? Ain't a trick question. How many of you hope for better when you're down and out? Every hand in the room ought to be up. But look, what is the definition? What is the definition of faith? You think you don't have enough, and God says, when you're down and out, that's faith. I got nowhere else to go but up. I'm hoping something changes, faith. I haven't seen it yet, faith. It's the evidence these hope for. Oh my goodness. Faith is when I don't have a thing. I've had my fair share of feeling low, and when I feel low, it just seems to go hand in hand, like my faith is low also. But is that the case? Are these two things directly connected? No, they are not directly connected. Oh, our enemy will tell you they are tied together. He'll spew those lies into your mind and tell you that just because things aren't working out, you don't have enough faith. That's why you're struggling and going through this. But go back and look at the definition of faith: substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen. That's the very definition of when I'm down and out.

When I'm feeling low, all I tend to do is hope for better things I haven't seen yet. Now, let me ask, and you may be saying this, All right, Pastor Kevin. All right. I don't know if I have that much faith. Let me tell you how you can know if you have enough faith. You ready? Look at me. I want everybody look at me, because this is mind blowing right now. You ready? For some of y'all to be a small explosion. You ready? You don't know if you have enough faith? Are you ready? Here's steel here. You're still here. You're still here. That's how you know you've got enough faith. You're still sitting here. If you're sitting here, then you've got enough faith.

Oh, somebody needs to be looking at the devil right now and tell him, I'm still here. Somebody needs to look a doubt right now and say, I'm still here. Somebody needs to look at sickness right now and say, I'm still here.

No, no, no, no, no. Don't sit down on me now. Somebody needs to get out now and have a Holy Ghost party right now. I'm talking to you. I'm not talking to somebody else. Somebody needs to exercise what little bit of belief you got right now, step out in the aisle, and tell the devil, I'm still here.

Somebody needs to tell doubt, I'm still here. Somebody needs to tell that diagnosis, I'm still here.

No, no, don't stop. Don't stop. God's fixing to do something on. I'm still here. Hang on, don't move. Everybody stay where you at. Don't move, don't move, don't move. God's fixing to do something. Eddie, you all get ready. Listen to me real quick. God's getting ready.

I feel this, March, was in March, Renee, y'all met Renee. Renee Ray's hand, precious lady. Renee's been with us about five months now. That's her husband Larry. Great people. In March, she goes in not feeling good. Things aren't right. You ever know when things aren't right? We know when things aren't right. We know things went right for Renee, wasn't right. She goes into the doctor. They start running a test on her. They find a mass in your lung, something in your stomach. It ain't good. They come out and they say, It ain't good. I've been there. When I worked at hospital, I had to go into delivery. It ain't good. She goes in and have a PET scan. It's cancer. It's in her lymph nodes.

It's their lung in the mass. It's in her stomach. They're talking about having to take out half her stomach. Renee starts making plans what to do, her and Larry. I mean, their world got rocked.

It's about four weeks ago, three, four weeks ago, when you were standing right about there, we were having one of them, you know, Holy Ghost services like we do around here. We were swinging on the chandeliers and kicking sheetrock in. And I started over here. Now, you may wonder why I go through the altar and do what I do. When I go through the altar, I'm asking God, You lead me to the person I need to pray. So it isn't because I don't like you if I pass you by. God just didn't tell me to pray for you in that moment. So I'm just making my way through the crowd, just like this, going on. And Renee's over there praying, and Stacy's with her. Stacy Spencer's on your, on your left side. I come up. You're just about in the same spot. I come to right about here, and I look at it. I was like, Oh, Renee's, God's working hard. And I go to right here, and the Holy Ghost said, No, no. So I backed up, and I put my hand on your head, and you started speaking in tongues. Oh my goodness, God was all over you. And you told Stacey to make sure I'm telling this story straight. You felt warm from the chin all the way to your knees. Is that right? God touched her.

Monday, she's talking to the oncologist, and the oncologist says they got the next round of biopsies in, and there's no cancer in her body.

They went from removing her stomach and setting up treatments, to tell her, Yeah, there's a little bit of something there, but it's not cancer. Renee's saying, I'm still here.

I'm telling you, I've been shouting since you gave me that phone call. God started stirring something inside of me. I'm here to tell you something: I don't know how much belief you walk in here with, but whatever you got is all you need. So here's the deal: God's wanting to do a healing in this place. So Wes, you and Taylor, for the Elkins, you come up here. A couple of the men are saying, Y'all get right in the front. Somebody grab a big thing of oil over there. Stand right here. We're an apostolic church. We believe in the miraculous. We believe in the healing power of the almighty God.

We're going to start. If you need a healing touch in your life, I would get up here around these ministers and let them pray for you. If you need the Holy Ghost, God filling you with his spirit, come over here with Jason, big tall guy, get beside him, and God's going to do something in this place. Here's the deal: I'm not going to dismiss. If you need to leave, you can leave, because God's already told me he's going to do something awesome and miraculous in this church service. So they're going to start singing. This altar is a place to be. I'm telling you, somebody needs to have a Holy Ghost time and say, Hey, I'm still here.

It's prayer time, church.