Mark 11:22-26

Have faith in God. Jesus answered, truly, I'll tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt in their heart, but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore, I'll tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your father in heaven may forgive you, your sin .

We'll have one more reading. And if you will, I asked you and urge you, please stand with me. This is the Lord's prayer from the Book of Matthew Chapter Six and it's going to be on the screen back behind me. This is verses 19 to 13 and if you will please pray with us in this manner. Therefore, pray our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. I eman , yeah, be seated. I want to thank McKenzie for that song as well. You , you'll see how without having any connection with it, how relevant that song is to even where God is taking us in the gospel of mark today and how pertinent is to the words that Jesus teaches us here.

If you have your bibles, I hope you have them open. Again, we're in mark chapter 11 and even though I had Al Rita longer passage, we're really looking at three verses today. Mark 11 2123 and 24 they include, Jesus has command, you just heard it, have faith in God. They include this picture that that um, I find puzzling this picture of taking a mountain and somehow leveling it or throwing it into the sea.

Something that we never saw Jesus do something that we've never seen his apostles do something I don't think we've ever seen anyone do. And then they include Jesus's exhortations when facing whatever it is that we are facing to believe and to not doubt when we pray. And like I indicated in your, in the bulletin there, in the introduction to the sermon, these are verses that are frequently misunderstood. They are frequently misused and sometimes they're even abused, they're misunderstood.

Maybe you like me have struggled with these versus is this a, is this a formula for how we should pray and what does it mean to pray with the faith that can cast down a mountain when we've never seen that. So they're there. They're frequently misunderstood. There are some times misused. And I've seen people sitting at the hospital bed of a loved one praying, praying in , in all the faith that they can muster for healing, for, for change in that loved one's condition .

Thinking of these verses and experiencing great shame and great guilt when that healing does not occur the way they have been praying for it. And sometimes these verses are even abused. There are unscrupulous people out there who, who will offer for a fee to you, access their faith to make your prayers realized.

And so I think the reason that these verses are often misunderstood and sometimes misused and even sometimes abused, is we don't understand them in the bigger context of what Jesus is teaching us here. And context is, is everything here? Jesus did not speak these words isolated. He didn't speak these, you know, suddenly switching from one subject to another. They flow out of what he's been teaching and what he's been doing throughout chapter 11 and really throughout the whole gospel of mark.

But let me give you just so we can put this in context, we look at what Jesus is actually teaching here. Let me again show you where this flows out of. There's a diagram coming up on your screen and this is kind of last week's teaching, but I'm just so you can see where this flows out of. This immediately follows this image of the fig tree and you see in that diagram there , the the fig tree is, is like a, a pair of bookends around what Jesus did in the temple when he entered Jerusalem.

You have in verses 12 through 14 Jesus cursing the fig tree. You have in Verse 19 through 21 you have that fig tree withering as a result of being cursed by Jesus. And in the middle you have what he was saying and doing when he entered the temple, the heart of the Jewish religious establishment. So what's going on here? This image of the fig tree and the temple, it really directly applies what he's teaching on prayer and what it means to pray in faith and not doubt.

In verses 20 through 22 through 24 remember the fig tree. This is a reminder, if you were here last week, if you weren't here last week, I'll hope to catch you up really quick. The fig tree really happened , but it is a real life parable. Jesus didn't do this because he was upset because he was frustrated. He did this to drive a spiritual lesson home. We see him in verse 13 he sees as he's approaching Jerusalem a fig tree and that fig tree is in leaf.

It's, it's blossomed with leaves, but as he approaches the fig tree, mark tells us he looks and he finds it even though it has leaves, there's no fruit, and we saw that. The point of that parable of that real life parable is simply this. It's true about the fig tree, but we're going to see it's true about other things as well. The point is that the appearance of that fig tree is different from the fig trees. True condition. The fig tree had plenty of leaves but it didn't have any fruits .

And so what we saw last week is Jesus uses this real life parable to examine. He examines the temple, the Jewish religious system, but really what do you use uses this for is to examine any institution, the Evangelical Church in the United States, any local church, central church, any believer, any man or woman or young man or young woman who claims to love God who claims to follow God. Jesus uses this as a lens to examine that institution, that church, that person's life.

And the question he asks as he looks at a church, at a system, at an individual life is, is the appearance different from the true condition when he looks at my life in your life, when he looks at Central Church, when he looks at the Evangelical Church movement across the world, he asks, is what I see just leaves or is there really fruit? And that's certainly the case of what he was doing when he entered the temple in those those verses 15 through 18 he was examining the temple.

There was plenty of leaves in the temple. There were sacrifices being offered. There were prayers being prayed, but, but that he exposes is that that's just empty ritual. There's no heart there. There's, there's religious professionals who are performing religious duties, but they're doing it out of road . They're doing it out of ritual. There's no heart there. There's no fruit being produced by what is happening in the temple.

And that can sadly be true of any nations religious establishment just like it was true of the temple, the religious establishment there in Israel, any nation that, that claims to know God and, and follow God can fall into a pattern like Israel did. Where all is it's producing is leafs . And there might be plenty of external signs that , uh , that a nation is supposedly Christian.

But when you look at whether real fruit is being produced, whether lives are being transformed, whether culture is being transformed, many nations that have started out perhaps producing just leaves or producing leaves never have produced any fruit. This is true of denominations. Whole Church denominations have started out as, as maybe promising fig trees. And you follow the path of certain denominations through the history in our, in our country.

And you see that many denominations have gone the way of this fig tree. Lots of leaves. They have services, they have buildings, they have professionals, and yet there's no fruit. They have abandoned the fruit of the Gospel. There's no real transformation happening either among their people or among what they do in the culture and society around them. And this can be true of any local church.

A church can start, well, a church can , can begin to produce fruits, but over time it can be become comfortable and even passive and fall into a state where all zits producing is leafs. There's services, there's programs, there's people dressing up. There's people serving in various ways, but there's no fruit. There's no life transformation. There's no penetration of the culture. There's no bringing loss people out of the darkness and into the light .

And so what happens when Jesus looks at any establishment, any institution, any local church, any individual life, and he sees year after year only leaves and no fruit. Where we see what happens in verse 20 the fig tree withered from its roots and by the way, I'll just state the obvious no trees going to live if it's withered from the roots up from where it gets its nutrients. Verse 21 Peter makes it very clear the tree didn't wither on its own.

The tree withered because God caused it to weather the tree that you cursed , that Jesus cursed has withered and again, what it's true of the tree is true of the Jewish religious establishment. It is true of any nations religious establishment. It can be true of any local church. It can be true of any of our individual lives.

When a tree produces only leaves and no fruit year after year, there comes a time when God's patience has ended and God will cause it to wither and that is exactly what happened with the destruction of the temple, essentially destroying the Jewish religious system and 70 80 when the Romans marched into Jerusalem. That is what has happened in many denominations throughout our nation in the history of many denominations. That is what's happened in many local churches.

That is what can happen to any local church. And that is what happens in the lives of many people who claim to be Christians but are all leaves and produce no fruits. So that's last week. And , and I know that ends on kind of a harsh note. That's a warning, but Jesus doesn't end with a warning. And Jesus continues today to go from that warning to now give us hope. How is it that we can be people, we can be men and women who produce not just leaves, but fruit?

How is it that we can become a church central church that produces fruit? The fruit of changed lives, the fruit of impacting our culture around us. The way, the way I've put it in, it's up on your screen here. Just very simply is this, if you do not want your tree to wither your individual tree, your own spiritual life, the tree of your local church, even the tree of your greater Christian culture.

If you do not want your tree to wither, if you want more than just leaves in your life and in your church, if you truly desire to produce fruit, then here's what Jesus says, and this brings us into verse 22 today, have faith in God. Now that seems obvious, but that's what was lost in Jerusalem. Plenty of religious activity, but all the faith, all the security, all the what we rely on was based upon are we doing the temple sacrifices? Are the priest dressing properly in their robes?

Are the prescribed prayers being prayed that is just going through the motions is just dead ritual in and of itself. Jesus says you can't have faith in the temple. You can't have faith in the priests . You have to have faith in God if you want to see fruit being produced. By the way, those lessons apply to us. We just like the Israelites . We are too quick to place our faith in a man or a person.

Some of you have placed your faith, whether here at Central, at other churches you've been at in a man in , in a pastor and and as great a pastor is that may have been whoever it is who comes to your mind. When I say that, that man probably inevitably let you down because he is just a man. His, your faith cannot be sustained by, by being put in a man. Let me take that a step further.

Let me extrapolate that some of you have placed your faith incorrectly in our next lead teaching pastor and our next lead teaching pastor is something that we're all praying for and we're looking forward to, but if we place our faith in that man, that man is inevitably going to let us down. That is not where our faith belongs. Our faith belongs in God. Jesus even says that. Don't put your faith in faith.

In other words, it's not up to me or to you to try and stir up a requisite amount of faith, the requisite amount of belief to overcome doubt and to accomplish fruits. I can't produce fruit in and of myself. I can only produce fruit. You can only produce fruit as God works in us. My faith is not in my faith. My faith is not in my ability to believe. My faith is in God. It's the lack of faith in God that had withered Israel .

It's the lack of faith in God that will wither a church that will wither a Christian culture. It's the lack of faith and God that will wither an individual Christians life, but the contrary is also true. It is faith in God that produces fruit. It is faith in God that produces the fruit of the spirit in your life, in my life. It is faith in God that produces the fruit of a church ministering and impacting its community with the Gospel for Christ.

It is faith in God, a loving, true, obedient relationship with God that produces the kind of fruit that Jesus is looking for. Jesus at this point uses this curious image to describe what faith in God looks like. He says, verse 23 it's the kind of faith that looks like taking a mountain and casting it into the sea.

Now, on one hand, we know that's a metaphor because Jesus himself never took a physical mountain, a geographical mountain, and had it a road or somehow leveled it and made it go into any body of water. None of his apostles did this. None of us have ever seen this kind of thing. We understand it is a metaphor. It's a metaphor by the way, that comes from the Old Testament, the old testament. I'll give you just one example of this.

You could write this down and look it up later if you're interested. Zachariah four seven Zachariah is speaking is God is speaking through Zachariah two as a ruble, the leader of the exiles who had returned to to Israel, to Jerusalem, Solomon's beautiful temple had been destroyed and God is now calling Zerubbabel and the people he leads to rebuild the temple. That is a Herculean task. That is an impossible task to rebuild that temple.

At that point in Jewish history and God speaks through Zachariah it as a ruble and says, what are you? Oh , mighty mountain. Before his [inaudible] , you will become level ground. That task, that insurmountable task of rebuilding the temple that is the mighty mountain. And God's saying, if your faith is in me, that mighty mountain will be leveled.

So it is a metaphor of facing what looks like through our worldly, through our human eyes, an insurmountable task, either personally in our own lives or corporately in our lives as a, as a church body, looking at as an insurmountable task, but in believing in God, putting our faith in God, seeing that mountain move , seeing that mountain leveled, what was the overwhelming difficulty, the overwhelming, the mountain of challenge that that Jesus and Jesus's disciples were facing at that time?

Well, it was at that point, it was the opposition of the Jewish religious establishment. There is no way that they were going to embrace the good news that Jesus was speaking. In fact, they were on a path to crucify Jesus. And so his disciples looked at Jesus's message going forward as in the face of that opposition as trying to get over a high mountain that is insurmountable. But I think there's even more here.

I think Jesus has both that metaphor in mind, but I think he has something even more specific. Because notice in verse 23, he doesn't just say move a mountain. Does he? He says this mountain, this mountain. He's very specific. What mountain is he speaking of? Now there's varying opinions here, but I'm going to give you mine , uh , which is, which is at least a number of Bible scholars opinions as well. Put yourself in context of where Jesus and his disciples were at the time.

They had been going back and forth from Bethany to Jerusalem and at the point that he's saying these words, they are descending once again down the of olives into, towards the city of Jerusalem. And probably what they saw is, is a scene somewhat like this. There's a picture on the screen, not with all those modern roads and buildings, but that's the same approach that is walking down the Mount of olives.

Towards the city of Jerusalem and in the middle of that, what you see is where the temple once stood. Where that gold dome is is where the temple stood when Jesus and his disciples had that same view back at the time that this was happening. And what you might notice may be a little hard to pick out in this picture is that temple is on a hill. That temple is on what they call a mount, the Temple Mount. I believe Jesus is very specific.

He's not only using this, this metaphor of an insurmountable obstacle. He's speaking about the Temple Mount. He speaking about the, the opposition of the Jewish religious establishment that symbolized by that Temple Mount that is the mountain that Jesus says, you look at it now, it looks like it can't be moved. It is going to be cast down. It is going to be thrown into the sea, which is exactly what we, what happened, what we saw last week in 70 80 when the Romans leveled the temple.

And so I believe he was speaking about the destruction of the temple that he knew was coming. He was saying you do have faith in God and what seems here to be such opposition would be an insurmountable obstacle that mountain will be leveled by God, have faith in God.

That's the context of verses 23 through 26 about how he teaches us to pray, how he teaches us to pray individually about insurmountable obstacles in our lives, how he teaches us to pray as a congregation about what seems to be maybe insurmountable obstacles. This isn't a formula for for speaking aware to faith. This is, this is a instead how followers of Jesus pray for the fruit that Jesus wants to see to be realized in their lives and in their church.

And just in the remaining minutes that I have this morning, I'm going to do one part of verse that that section and next week we'll pick up the other and you see it on the screen there. The faith in God that produces fruit is first of all this week, verse 23 and 24 that faith overcomes mountains of doubt and we'll look at that in a minute. Next week we'll come back and we'll look at verses 25 and 26 the faith and God that produces fruit overcomes the mountains of unforgiveness.

Both of these things, doubt and unforgiveness hinder us, hold us back from producing fruits, and Jesus speaks about what it is to overcome those this week. Overcoming doubt. Jesus speaks to where I live. I suspect it's where all the rest of you live, if you are honest about it. He speaks into those circumstances in our lives where those times where it is difficult to have faith in God. He says, he knows that the faith that produces fruit in our lives is often.

There often seems to be a barrier by circumstances beyond our control that do seem insurmountable. We know those personally. We know those corporately, and that's what he addresses here in the mountains of doubt.

He says in verse 23 if anyone does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, well , he hits me where I live because there's probably not a day that I, that goes by where I don't struggle with some element of doubt, not not doubt and does God exist, but God, can you really do this? God, can you really change the circumstances in my life?

God, can you really change what is happening in the church and move it in the direction that that is more closely aligned with fulfilling your great commission? Faith and doubt. I think we're , most of us are our on a daily basis consider what faith and doubt are. We are faced with circumstances. You get a diagnosis of cancer from your doctor.

Faith is the response to that information, that diagnosis that maybe not right at the moment you get the diagnosis, but over time as you pray and you process that, faith is the, is the response to that information, that diagnosis that says, this is out of my control, but it's in God's control. I don't know how the end is going to come out, but I know that God is in control and I know that he works all things together for good doubt is the opposite response.

Doubt is the response to a diagnosis of cancer or whatever it may be, what other circumstance you are facing that says, I feel like I live in a universe where there is no god, where nothing is in control, where everything is subject to chance. James Talks about in James Chapter one this, this, this going back and forth between doubt and faith.

He says it's, it's like the see that is that is blown about by the wind and and and you go back and forth that your feelings and your thoughts are are stirred up one way or another and doubt is the state of never being able to come to that stable place where you believe that God is in control. Faith is that place where yes, even in the middle of the waves, I know where I'm anchored and so I can hang on because I know where my faith is anchored.

Jesus says here, he says to you, what he says to me, and he says to our church that doubt is overcome and belief is possible when we know what God's will is. Do you see it there in verse 23 what He, God says will happen? Not what is possible, not what God could do, but what God says will happen. I think the greatest , um , the greatest relief of our doubts is when we get to the place where we are certain, where we know what God says is going to happen. Well, how do we know that?

How do we find out what God says will happen in his word in scripture? So the faith in God that produces fruit moves us, first of all, to read God's word. And in reading God's word, we seek to know what is God's will as he reveals it in scripture. And where God's were will is clear in his scripture. It involves praying his word. Let me give you two examples of this. One is a individual, a personal example, but it speaks to, I think we're , many of us are individual .

The other's a church wide example. The personal example, my, my Middle Son, Alec , uh , on last Friday moved to Milwaukee and tomorrow he starts medical school there and why I'm a proud father of that. I know that comes after two years of rejection after rejection of him struggling to get in to medical school of him having places where he despaired in his faith because everything he'd been doing in his life up to that point was to prepare to go to medical school.

And in the middle of all of that, that two years of the applying and the rejections, I examine how I was praying and I was praying like this, God help that interview go well God help that application to be accepted. God Open the door and get him into this medical school or that medical school. And somewhere along the way, the Holy Spirit convicted me. You don't even know if that's God's will that he goes to medical school. God's will may have something totally different for Alec.

So I began to change how I prayed. How do I , how do I pray? God's well , what do I know is true as it applies to my son. And I realize to some degree this is a first world problem. I realize many of you are struggling with far greater things than this with with even the very health and life of your loved ones. But, but here's how I began to pray. What is the word tell me that I should really want more than anything else from my son.

And while there's many scriptures that would probably speak to that, here's the one that over and over, I kept coming back to Deuteronomy 1314 you shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him and you shall keep his commandments. Listen to his voice, serve him and clean to him. So I stopped praying about whether he was going to get into medical school instead. My prayers became Lord more than anything else I want. I want him to follow you Lord, more than anything else.

I want him to revere you, to fear you lord. More than anything else I want. Whatever path you lead hemline to be a path where he is hearing your voice, where he's keeping your word, where he is serving you and where he is clinging to you in the midst of it. Now, God, God answered that prayer and many, many different ways.

I don't take it that the fact that he is now going to medical school is necessarily the only way that God could have answered that prayer, but God, God could answer that prayer with many other career paths or no career path at all. But that is the kind of prayer that I think God desires us to pray. His word is not clear that my son was supposed to go to medical school. His word is not clear about many decisions that you and I face in our daily lives.

His word is clear about what he wants to do in our hearts. His word is clear about the kind of work that he wants to do in our hearts, so where his word is clear, we pray God's word. Let me give you another example, a church wide example. How do we as a church pray about our search for our next lead teaching? Pastor? Well, we could pray about the timing. You know, wouldn't we all love to have a new lead teaching pastor coming and being installed next month? I know I would.

You know, we could pray about the timing, but God's word is not clear about the timing of the bringing of our next lead teaching. Pastor, what is God's word clear about when it comes to praying for our search for our next lead teaching pastor? And maybe many passages come to your mind, but I think of Ephesians four I think of Ephesians four where God says, I have given you as a gift to the church. I have given you those who are gifted and called to be pastor teachers.

That's one of the gifts I give to my churches. And what is the purpose of a pastor? Teacher? Ephesians four says, it is not to entertain. It is not to make us feel good. It is not to keep us motivated. It is to equip the church to do the work of ministry. What would it look like if we began to pray rather than, Oh God, bring us our next lead teaching pastor. What would it look like to pray?

Lord, we , uh, we thank you for the gifts that you give to the church, including the gifts of pastor teachers. We realize you're sovereign over this and Lord, more than anything else, we want you to bring the man who is best suited to equip us to do the work of ministry and Lord, while we wait, use even that waiting. Lord, use that waiting to further prepare our hearts so that we're willing to be equipped what we're no longer willing to just be entertained. What we're not going to be passive.

Do the work that you need to do in us so that we're ready to be equipped and we're ready to do the work of ministry. When you bring that pastor teacher to do that work, this is what my prayer life looks like more and more. I used to read scripture and then pray and now I read scripture and pray.

I read and as I'm reading through the scripture that I'm reading each morning as the Holy Spirit will bring some phrase or some verse up to my consciousness up in the front of my spirit, then I began to pray that, oh, that's, that's something I can pray for Central Church. That's something I can pray for the elders. This is something I can pray for my wife. This is something I can pray for that that friend whose , whose , whose wife is in the hospital, my prayer comes out of the word.

We know that we're doing God's will as we pray the word or we know we're praying in accordance with God's will as we pray the word. Now I have to go on from there and admit that not, not in every case is the word. Absolutely clear. Again, the word did not say that, that , uh , that my son is to go to , to medical school. The word does not say that. We're going to get our next lead teaching pastor and September.

So what about those cases where the word is not absolutely clear where there's general principles may be , but there's not application? How do we get over the mountain of doubt when God's will about something is not clear? Well , where God's will is not absolutely clear in his word. I think we pray what we prayed this morning and the Lord's prayer. We pray your kingdom come, Lord, your will be done.

We pray that God's kingdom purposes would rise even above our own personal preferences and desires. This is what Jesus models for us. By the way, Jesus didn't get 70 and mark chapter 14 verse 36 remember, he knows what he's facing. He knows he's going to go to the cross. He knows what that involves and his humanness certainly desires. If there's another way, Lord, that you can bring about salvation for mankind. Lord, I desire that mark records the praise. Father, everything is possible for you.

Take this Cup from me. In other words, Lord, if salvation can be accomplished without me having to be crucified and go through all of that, Lord, please do that. I know that's possible, but it's prayer doesn't end there, does it? Because it's very next phrase in his prayer is yet not what I will, but you will. Jesus models for us that he wanted God's kingdom purposes more than his own desires.

I want God's kingdom purposes for my sons more than I want as a father, to have the proud desires of whether they're successful or whether they're happy or whether they're healthy or whether they have everything they need. I Want Kingdoms, God's kingdom purposes for central church. More than I want to have a lead teaching pastor here in a couple of weeks or booming attendance or anything else. We pray that God's will be done, that his kingdom would come if we pray for his kingdom purposes.

We we express. I think Jesus models with complete honesty. Lord, here's what I desire, Lord. Here's where my heart is, Lord. I want that person to be healed. Lord, I want that to that, that lead teaching pastor white , why don't you fill in the blank there? Jesus models for us laying out our desires, our hopes, our wishes, but we always put that underneath God's greater kingdom purposes, but your will be done.

Not My will ultimately Lord God, but your will and so back to verse 21 when Jesus tells us that whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you have received it and it will be yours . That is not a formula for health and wealth. That is not speaking a word of faith. He is calling us to align our prayers with his perfect will as he reveals it in scripture. He is calling us to pray for his greater kingdom purposes in our lives and in our church and in our culture.

He is calling us to pray for what will produce true spiritual fruit. That's what it's ultimately about. If we pray for things that will only produce leaves, whereas curse does that fig tree, he calls us to pray for what will produce true spiritual fruit in us and through us. The faith in God that produces fruit, believes that God intends as we prayed, that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so we believe in God. We believe not in ourselves.

We believe not in the strength of our own faith. We believe in the power and goodness of God who accomplishes everything that he intends to happen. That's why Mackenzie Song was so pertinent this morning. I will live in your love it and it encapsulated that perfectly. So let me close with this.

When you think about your life, when you think about this church, if you do not want your tree to wither , if you want more than just leaves in your own life and in this church, if you truly desire that you and your life and we in this church would produce fruit, Jesus says to you, very simply, have faith in God. Let's pray maybe even now in this quiet moment. What is it right now that you're struggling in doubt about?

Even right now in this moment of silence, lift up whatever it is right now individually, personally, maybe on a church level. I don't know what it is. What is, what is your heart burden by what is causing you doubt this ? Lift that up before the Lord right now.

Help us to believe that you are sovereign, that you will accomplish your great purposes and you will do it because you are perfectly loving. Lord, increase our faith. Give us the faith to believe that whatever mountains we face individually as a church and in our culture as we believe in you, you move those mountains. We pray this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.