Matthew 17:14-24 – What Manner of Christian Should We Be? – Bible study

Matthew 17:14-21 What Manner of Christians Should We Be? Sometimes forget that we worship a miraculous God. We all know that our God has done some pretty spectacular things. 1. He created all that is from nothing. 2. He keeps all that is running in perfect order. 3. He looks over the everyday miracles of life a. gives life to the newly conceived. b. heals wounds, sickness, surgeries. c. answers the prayers of His people. 4. We have many specific examples of Gods miraculous power in the lives of people. a. Jesus walked on the water at the Sea of Galilee. b. Jesus healed the sick of a variety of illnesses (being deaf, blind, unable to speak, lame, paralyzed, and issues with the blood.) c. He even raised three people from the dead. Despite all of this evidence that God is both able and desirous to do mighty things in our lives, we tend to forget. I understand it because I wrestle with the same forgetfulness. I think the reason why is because WE have not seen the type of miracles that the Bible describes on a regular basis. 1. We all know God has answered some of prayers, but it seems like His answers are irregular. 2. We have prayed and seen one person cured of cancer, but we have prayed just as hard and seen a half-dozen who were not. 3. To be honest, I have wondered at that. 4. It seems to me that we need to find whatever is missing in our lives that hinders the miraculous working of our God. This evening, for a moment, let us consider the question, "What manner of Christians should we be?" I. Christians need to understand our calling. It is to do the impossible. A. There are only three classes of works that we may consider to be the Christians task. 1. Normal, extraordinary, and miraculous a. Normal is the place where we usually live. (1) We work hard and we see some accomplishments. (2) Typically, there seems to be a relationship between how hard we work and the results. (3) That is basically the same kind of work to results relationship the lost world has. (4) I am not saying God hasnt blessed us when we work hard and see a result, but I am saying that Christians, who claim to have God in their lives, should be seeing more of God. b. Extraordinary works are those works that are rare and unusual. (1) By definition, there can not be a lot of these. (If everyone is doing it, it is not rare and unusual.) (2) Most every field has someone in it who is extraordinary at it. (a) Bill Gates and Microsoft has done extraordinary work with computers. (b) Stephen Hawking is the Albert Einstein of science in the world today. (c) And I am sure that in any field you might care to look you would find people doing extraordinary works. (3) However, I am not sure that any of these people would say that it is due to Gods blessings on their lives. c. And then there are the miraculous works. (1) These are the works which God alone can do. (2) They are situations that are beyond rare. (3) They are literally impossible. 2. Any kind of works less than these would be substandard and something no Christian should be producing. B. I believe God wants His people to be more apart of the miraculous. Matthew 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. Luke 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. John 1:51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. C. We live in a world where things which were once considered impossible happen! 1. Weve sent people to the moon. 2. We travel faster than sound. 3. We have computers that listen and talk. D. Why shouldnt it be the desire of the Christian to do the impossible for God! 1. Lets spend less time thinking of excuses for why our God hasnt answered our prayers and spend more time getting them answered. 2. Lets see if we can bring the miracle working God to bear on the world we live in. II. We need to stir our faith. A. \#19-20\ These men, after failing to produce a needed miracle, asked Jesus why they failed. 1. \#20\ They got a direct answer. a. It was your lack of belief. I take that to mean their lack of faith. b. Even though they had asked for something, their spirit really didnt expect God to do it for them. 2. I am not going to pretend that I know my own heart in this matter. a. There have been some times in my life where I really thought I believed God would do something, and He did not. b. Perhaps it has happened to you, too. c. It appears to be that it happened to these disciples. d. Even though they thought they believed, Jesus is telling them they did not. e. I am not certain we need to understand the problem to fix it. f. All we need is to do what Jesus said. 3. So what do we need to do? I believe we need to stir up our faith. B. We know that faith is a gift from God. Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. 1. That verse tells us that faith is a gift and that God has given to ever man a MEASURE of faith. 2. We all have faith. We could not be saved without it. Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 3. Yet, it would appear that we each have different MEASURES or AMOUNTS of faith, depending on how much God has given us. C. No believer ought to feel that he has been slighted by God in the area of faith. 1. The truth is that our faith is like our brain. The best of us only use the smallest part of it. 2. The smallest amount of faith can do more miraculous works than any human being has ever imagined. Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. D. The key to having faith doesnt seem to be faiths volume but faiths viciousness, that is, what it take to get it going. 1. Our faith is something like a guard dog. It must be stirred to act. a. A sleeping guard dog is no threat to anyone. b. But stir that dog and watch out! 2. Both Paul and Peter taught that Christians need to be stirred from time to time. 2 Timothy 1:6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. 2 Peter 1:13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; 3. Some of us, myself included, need to stir our faith to the place that it become fierce and vicious. E. \#Matthew 17:14\ So how do we stir up our faith? 1. Jesus told the disciples that they would not get to see the miracles of God without much (apparently meaning a lot more) praying and fasting. a. I think we need to pray more. b. I think we need to fast more. 2. We know what both of these are. a. Prayer is talking to God. (1) Any child can pray. (2) I dont think we need to make praying into some kind of mystical ceremony. (3) Just talk to God. b. Fasting is doing without, doing without a pleasure or a necessity of life to seek God. (1) The most commonly fasted item seems to be food. (2) However, it appears that you can fast almost anything. (3) That indicates to me that it is not as much doing without something that moves God but discipling the body so that you can do without that does so. c. It is not a question of, "What are they?" It is a question of, "Are we doing enough of it?" 3. Somehow, these two acts were the remedy for what ailed these disciples. a. The problem was their lack of belief. b. The cure to their lack of believe was more praying and more fasting. 4. We dont have to understand it. Just do it. a. All of us have taken medicine at one time in our life or another. b. No doctor has ever explained to me how the medicine worked. c. Most doctors wont even take the time to explain to you what is really wrong. d. They just make a diagnoses, write out a prescription, and walk to the next cubical. e. You and I dont have to understand why we dont have enough faith. (1) We dont have to understand why prayer and fasting will fix the problem. (2) All we have to do is to increase our prayer and fast times. (3) You say, "How much." (4) The only answer I have for you is pray and fast until you know God has heard you. III. We also need to focus our faith. A. When I say "focus" our faith, I mean we need to single our vision of what we want to see God do. 1. The Bible tells us that when we look at too many things, we over- complicate our lives. Matthew 6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Luke 11:34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. a. The word SINGLE means SINGLE, SIMPLE, WITHOUT FOLDS. b. The idea of the word is to keep things uncomplicated. 2. Gods command is to keep your focus simple. a. We all know the dangers with having too many irons in the fire, being spread too thin, being a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. b. We end up being involved in a lot of things but never really getting anything accomplished. B. You ask, "How do I know where God wants me to focus my faith?" 1. Miracles come about as we exercise the faith that God has given to us. a. That may sound like double talk but it isnt. b. We have already seen that faith itself is given to us by God. Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. c. Yet God gives us MEASURED FAITH. d. That MIGHT mean that the faith we have is specific faith, perhaps we could say "targeted faith." e. Maybe the reason you cant plant a tree in the ocean is because God didnt give you that kind of faith, but He has given you some kind of faith. f. What kind is it? g. Find it and use it. 2. Notice how God worked in relationship to the people who used the faith that He had given to them. a. God works in response to saving faith. (1) Like all faith, saving faith is a gift of God. (2) Again, everyone who is saved had to have it to be saved. John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (3) When does this faith work a miracle? When someone is challenged to believe on Jesus Christ and they do so. (4) God gives the saving faith but it only saves when someone makes them aware of it and they exercise it. b. God worked in response to healing faith. (1) I dont know whether we all have it or not. (2) I know that Jesus told two men that they would be healed only according to the faith they exercised. Matthew 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. a. God gave them that faith. b. They got healed when they exercised it. (3) I know that Jesus told blind Bartimaeus that his faith produced a miracle in his life. Mark 10:52 And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way. a. Again, all faith is a gift of God. b. God gave him that faith. c. When he exercised it, it gave him his sight. c. God worked in response to praying faith. (1) This seems to be all-in-all faith. It seems that those with this kind of faith can do about anything. Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 1 John 5:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. (2) Of course, we understand that Gods people must be living obedient lives and be praying in the will of God, but still, this kind of faith opened closed doors, closed opened doors, and changed a circumstances. (3) We have examples in the Bible of people who did just about anything. (i.e. call fire down from heaven, raise the dead, bring blindness, part a flowing river) a. The people that did these miracles, had to have the faith to do them given to them by God. b. Then, they had to use the faith that God had given to them. (4) That includes the miracles of: a. Moses b. Elijah c. Elisha d. Peter e. Paul 3. I am not saying that we have all been given the same measure of faith. a. I am saying that we have all been given some measure of faith. b. We need to find what God has given to us and use it. C. Perhaps the way to find out what kind of faith we have is to ask, "What has God put into my heart to do?" 1. I am not talking about what you want to do, but what has God put into your heart to do. 2. Find it and focus on it. a. Maybe its in the field of evangelism. b. Maybe its working with children. c. Maybe its going to the mission fieldtaking the gospel to someplace it has never been before. d. Maybe it is writing or using creative talents to present Christ through skits, dramas, or other literature. e. Maybe its music. f. Maybe its preaching. 3. What has God really put into your heart to do? a. That is the area you need to focus your faith on. b. My suggestion would be to pray and fast, seeking God to do something in the area you really feel God wants you to excel. 4. If you have no other clue about where God might want you to focus your faith, go with your natural talents. a. Some of you love people. Focus your faith on seeing how God can work in your life to help people. b. Some of you love to talk. You really need to get involved in the Family Focus ministry, calling people for Christ, and see how God can do miraculous works through you. c. Some of you love to serve. You should wear the church out demonstrating Gods care and concern for others. As you do, you may find out that God is able to work through you. I am not saying that we can raise the dead, heal the sick, or call fire out of the sky. I am saying that God is bigger than we are presenting Him to this world. The Bible indicates that faith moves God. We need to stir up whatever faith we possess (and we do that by prayer and fasting) and then we need to simplify what God wants to accomplish with us. If we do not find the miraculous power of God and unleash it on this generation, we have little hope for seeing a revival.