“How Deep is Your Faith”

**INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome to “Key to the Kingdom.” My name is Bret McCasland. Have you ever wondered if there is a way to measure or to evaluate your faith in God? You consider the faith of other people and are impressed by it, or you might even wonder if you have a faith like theirs. They seem to be strong in their faith when the trials and challenges come their way. They seem to stand strong when life gets hard. And that's good, but we want to have what they have. We want our faith in the Lord to be deep and strong; and I suppose we all feel like that at times. Today, on “Key to the Kingdom,” we will look at two stories in the Bible about people who demonstrated great faith in times of great need. They had exhausted all of their options, and in great faith they turned to the Lord and saw solutions to their problems. As we look at these stories, I would encourage us to think about the faith we do have in God, and to ask ourselves the question: Can my faith in the Lord be any stronger? If the answer is yes then we might consider how we can apply the message of today's Bible study. I would encourage you now to open up your heart and your Bible as we begin to study together.

**LESSON

For those who are seeking to follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, faith is very important. And, no doubt, we know that to be true. Faith is at the very center of our life. In fact, nothing is more important to us than the faith we have in Jesus Christ as the one and only Son of God. And also as followers, we know the importance of not only having faith in Jesus but growing in that faith. We know the importance of living by the faith that we have on a daily basis. And at the same time, we realize we cannot be a true follower and disciple if that faith does not continue to grow. It doesn't grow overnight, but it is an ongoing growing process of drawing closer to the Lord. And never can we think that the faith we already have in Jesus Christ is sufficient. Never can we think that we have all the faith we need, and we're just going to live based upon that. We realize there is a continual need to grow spiritually, to mature in the Lord. And that is certainly a temptation to avoid, to think that we already have the faith that we need. And so we are encouraged to grow up spiritually. We are taught to no longer focus on the very basic things of our faith, but to go on to something deeper and of greater value to us. For the next few minutes in our Bible study today, I want us to look at the stories of two people who recognized the need and who demonstrated the importance of growing in their faith. The first story is found in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9. Early on in His ministry, Jesus selected several men to be what we call His disciples or followers. They are known to us as the Apostles. We think about Peter, Andrew, James and John. Perhaps those are the four who are the most familiar. And these disciples, apostles, they walked with Jesus. They traveled with Him. They followed in His footsteps as He began to share the Good News of the Kingdom wherever He went. And as those disciples learned from Him, and did that very thing, they also were empowered to do miracles and many mighty works in the name of the Lord. Well in the 9th chapter, here in Mark, we read about a father who had a son, and that young boy had an evil spirit living within him, which caused him many problems. It oftentimes prevented him from speaking. Sometimes that spirit would throw him into the fire or into the water, putting his life at danger. And the boy's father brought him to the disciples in order for them to heal him; and yet, they could not do that. They could not cast out that evil demon. And that did not make sense to these disciple. They could not understand why. Three chapters earlier, they were able to cast out demons and to do many mighty works, and so when they could not do that they were frustrated. And as a result, the whole town came out in support of the father and his young son. They demanded some answers. They wanted something to be done in order to make this child better. Well, it was about that time Jesus came up on the scene, and we have a conversation between Jesus and the boy's father. It goes something like this, beginning in Mark 9 and verse 21. <Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” "‘If you can'?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”> When Jesus saw the faith of the son’s father, and noticed how all of the crowd was expecting Him to heal the young boy, Jesus cast out that evil spirit. He commanded the spirit to come out of the boy and to never enter him again; and that is exactly what happened. That young boy was healed on that occasion. We also find in the story these words from Jesus, “Everything is possible for one who believes.” And that's an interesting statement. And His point is that if one has complete and powerful faith in the Lord, then believing in Him for satisfaction to the needs he or her has, then that will be the case. And no doubt we've seen that even in our own lives. We believe that Jesus can work mighty things in our life, and sure enough, by the will of God those things are done and accomplished. The man also responded by saying, “Well, I believe help me overcome my unbelief.” Well, the man recognized his faith was limited. It was not as complete as it needed to be. And this was an opportunity for him to develop that faith. He came to Jesus seeking some answers for his son, and he received those answers, but he knew that his faith could grow even more. And so he basically said, allow that unbelief, that part of me that is not complete and whole to grow and to make it complete. Jesus saw the man's desperation, here. He saw the man's frustration with the disciples not being able to cast out that evil spirit. Jesus also recognized his willingness to grow in his faith, to overcome that part of him which held him back; that unbelief which was still present. And so Jesus answered the man's request. He cast out the demon from that young boy. But notice how the story ends. Let's read verses 28 and 29. <When Jesus entered the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And He said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”> Evidently, somewhere along the line, the disciples has started to take the special power they had received from God, to do many mighty works, for granted. And when it came time for the healing of this young boy who had a physical problem, they thought they could do the miracle without any problem. They thought, well, we've done it before, we can certainly do it again; and yet, to their surprise, they could not. And they were confused. They didn't understand. And so they asked Jesus about it, here at the conclusion of the story. And evidently, the disciples had quit relying upon the Lord. They had a spirit of pride. They took their God given power for granted. They believed since they had done miracles before, they could just naturally do them again. And so they were trusting in their own power to do that instead of trusting in the Lord. And when asked about it, Jesus said, “It can only be driven out by prayer.” The disciples had not lost the power to do miracles; rather, their prayer life was not what it needed to be. They were acting upon their own beliefs in themselves instead of through prayer, relying upon God to supply what was needed. You know, the disciples problem was not an absence of faith, but the absence of a strong prayer life. Now, certainly the disciples had a great measure of faith in Jesus, or else they would not be following Him in the first place. In a way, however, this desperate man showed the disciples how important it was to have an ever increasing faith in Jesus Christ. And from that experience, the disciples learned a great lesson. There may be times when we find ourselves in a similar situation. Something has happened with which we need help. It might be in our own life, or perhaps in the life of a dear loved one. Our faith is strong, but our prayer life is not strong. We might even believe in the Lord, but there is still an amount of unbelief that needs to be overcome. And those two things go hand in hand, a growing faith and a good prayer life. We cannot have one without the other when we come to the Lord and ask Him for help. No doubt it is good to have great faith in God. However, our faith can never take the place of having a powerful prayer life with the Lord. The two work together. We are to pray for our doubt and unbelief to be overcome so that God can do His work in our life. We are to pray that our faith is strong in all situations. And we are to pray, just as this boy's father did, “Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief.” Yes, our God given faith is more than enough to overcome our belief, if we allow it to do so; and that happens through a lifestyle of prayer. And so from this story, we learn that prayer reminds us we are to depend upon the Lord, Who already knows what we need, even before we ask Him. There's a second story that is quite similar to this first one in Mark 9. The second story comes from Matthew chapter 15. It is the story of a Canaanite woman and the faith that she had in Jesus. Let’s read this story, beginning with verse 21. <Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So His disciples came to Him and urged Him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before Him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.> This story is about a woman who demonstrated great faith in Jesus by refusing to take no for an answer. After Jesus and His disciples left the region of Tyre and Sidon, a woman came to Him. She had probably come from a village called Capernaum, some 30 miles to the north, and they met up together somewhere in that area. She came with a special request. She said, “Lord, have mercy upon me.” And mercy is one of the qualities of God that is mentioned, perhaps more than anything else in all of Scripture. This woman was in a bad situation. She was depending upon the Lord to help her. She was pleading for Jesus to extend His mercy and His grace. There was no other option. Perhaps she had been to other people seeking help. Perhaps she has spent a great deal of money going to doctors, and yet there was no solution. And so she had heard about Jesus and His disciples, and she showed up looking for something, looking for an answer, looking for mercy. Perhaps she had spent all of her money, gone to other people in other places, and yet her daughter was still possessed by a demon. She needed the Lord to bless her and her daughter in a very kind and gracious way. And basically, this foreign woman begged Jesus to heal her daughter, just get rid of the problem. Very similar to the story of the man and his young son, a woman and her young daughter come to Jesus seeking help for one of their children. And this was a very unusual thing to happen, here in Matthew chapter 15, for two reasons. Number one, she was a woman. And for a woman to approach a man in that day and society was highly unusual; especially when a woman approached Him like she did with Jesus. But then secondly, she was not a Jew. She was a Canaanite woman. She was not of the Jewish race. She would be of the Gentile race. And that is something else that we notice in this story. Well, at first, as she approaches, Jesus seems to not even recognize her. She's not even there; and imagine how she must have felt. She had heard many good things about Jesus. She had made a special trip to see Him and the disciples. But when she arrived, she was not even welcomed, but she received a cold shoulder. Jesus acted as if she was not even present. And then the disciple said, “Why don't we just send her away? Let her go on back to her people.” And in their minds, she was not a priority. She was a person just looking for some help. She was a nobody. She was not of any kind of significance. She was not a Jew. And so the disciple says, let's just have done with her. It's interesting to notice, the woman understood that she was an outsider. She had come from Gentile territory. She knew her place, and she was taking a long shot in approaching Jesus and asking for help. Jesus even stated, it would not be right for Him to give to her what first belonged to His own Jewish people. And that is why He made the statement, “It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.” Certainly, Jesus was not referring to this woman as a dog. That was a metaphor or a euphemism, but she knew that He was simply saying the dogs or anybody who was not a Jew. The children are the Jews and they needed to hear the Good News message Jesus came to proclaim before the Gentiles did. And so that woman was not offended by the language Jesus used. She knew full well where she was in regards to a priority. And that was His first priority; to go to the Jews to share with them the Good News of the Kingdom, the Good News that God had sent Him to share with other people, to proclaim Good News to the poor, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. And He and His disciples were in the process of doing just that. Well, being a Canaanite, she knew she was not a Jew. She recognized she was a Gentile. She knew her place in line, and that was at the end of the line, and she would just get the leftovers if there were any. So she was taking a chance that Jesus would just throw her a crumb from the table, as a master would feed crumbs to his dogs. In a way, it seems that Jesus was testing the faith of this woman. And at the same time, He was also teaching His disciples a very important lesson, which oftentimes He did. In testing her, Jesus declined her request and explained that she had no legitimate right to expect any help. And again, she understood that, yet she continued to make the same request for a very specific problem. She never gave up hope. She was not turned away. She continued to follow after Jesus, and her faith was too great to accept a rejection. She bowed before Jesus. She shouted, “Lord, help me, Lord, have mercy up on me. Have mercy upon my daughter. Cast out this demon.” She knew she had no other option except Jesus Christ and so she pleaded with Him because she had nowhere else to go. Well, upon that, Jesus acknowledged her faith. He even called her faith great. And the disciples heard that. And with that, He granted her request. Jesus healed her demon possessed daughter at the very moment when He saw the mother's desperation, and when He recognized her great faith. Even though this woman was not a Jew, even though she was not a man, she was a person of great faith. She believed Jesus could heal her daughter, if He would only choose to do so. She was stepping out in faith, with all kinds of strikes against her. And she pleaded with Jesus, and she would not accept no for an answer. And we might ask the question, then; well, what relevance does that have for us today? Well, there may be times when we do not think we are worthy enough to come before the Lord and to ask anything of Him. We may not feel as if we fit in with those who are getting their prayers answered. We may feel like we are not a priority and we are at the back of the line, that we have problems in our life we cannot overcome. We don't come from the right background, the right heritage. We might not even look right or act right or do certain things that would please other people. And those, plus many other things like that, might at times prevent us from coming to Jesus and asking for help. We may think we have too many strikes against us for the Lord to recognize us and to give us anything. But doubt and fear and unbelief and even the power of Satan is all removed when we, with great faith, come to Jesus and invite Him into our lives. And therein lies, I believe, the message from Matthew chapter 15. We come with great faith. Even though our background, our life doesn't look right, but we believe that Jesus can do something for us. Well, with these two stories, we have looked at people who possessed great faith. They acted upon the faith they had, and they longed for it to grow and to develop. And maybe today you see yourself in one or perhaps even both of these stories. You might have a great measure of faith; and if so, that's great. But you may think about a need to grow in that faith and to develop it even further. And so the question we ask ourselves is, how well do we exercise the faith we already have? Well, I would encourage us to allow the faith we do have to make a difference in our life, to include prayer as a part of our faith and to never give up asking the Lord, knowing that He will provide and He will give to us the desires of our heart.

**VIDEO CLIP

Perhaps at one time or another, all of us have felt as if we were at the end of the road. We did not know for sure what to do. We had some problems and difficulties we could not handle and we could not come up with a solution on our own. We felt as if we were at a dead end. Where am I going to go next? How am I going to solve this problem? What is the solution? Those are questions we ask ourselves, over and over again. And before we knew it, all hope was gone. We did not know what our next step would be, and we did not know how to take it. Sometimes when that happens to us, we simply need to change our perspective. It's not so much how much we can do for ourselves or the answers we can come up with on our own, but rather we focus on the Lord. What is it that He can do? What are His answers? What are the solutions He has in mind for us? In fact, when we reach the end of the road, and a dead end, God sees that. He knows where we are. He knows the help we need and He comes alongside of us and provides that solution. Sometimes we simply need to remind ourselves of how God has blessed us in the past, and we know that He will continue to bless us in the future. He doesn't leave us at the dead end, but He allows us to start again, to move ahead with a new direction and purpose for our life. I would encourage you today that when you find yourself at a dead end, change your perspective. Look to the Lord for help, the refuge, the stronghold of your life, and trust Him to provide a new beginning.

**CONCLUSION

Thank you for joining us for today's Bible study. I hope it gave us some things to consider as we evaluate how deep our faith really is and if we can help it grow in some way. This lesson is available on our website at keytothekingdom.com, and many other lessons are there as well. I encourage you to look at those that might be of interest and to download them without any charge or obligation. Many other devotional thoughts, Bible studies and information is available for your consideration; and all of it is designed to assist you in your daily walk with the Lord. A free phone app can also be put onto your smart phone, which will give you direct access to our website and to the study materials we offer. I hope you will take advantage of any that might be a blessing. It is always our privilege to share these messages from God's Word with you on a regular basis. Thank you again for joining us each week. I invite you to tune in again next time, as we continue to study the Bible on "Key to the Kingdom."