July 13th, 2025 Sermon Manuscript
Sermon Text: Mark 9:14–29
Don Straka
It’s been a challenging week to say the least.
You know what has been a daily comfort to me though. These simple statements that I preach to my soul. God is in control. I am not. I may not know all the answers, or what’s best to do. God knows all the answers and what’s best to do.
What a week like this does for me, and I’m guessing you, is to remind me that ultimately I am not in the driver's seat. I’m helpless in many ways to change things. To put it positively, there is a right humbling of my own abilities. But we can’t let giving up on our own abilities lead us to give up on God’s abilities. In fact, it’s just the opposite. When we are weak, he is strong. When we are helpless, he is the great helper.
So today’s sermon is going to be really short, and my prayer has been that it would be a reminder to lean on our great God, right now in the middle of the storm, and to lean on him specifically in prayer.
We are going to look briefly at the story of Jesus healing a Father’s son, and the well known phrase “I believe, help my unbelief.” I’ll say from the get go that a pastor named Tim Cain helped me see much in this story, and helped me get great comfort from this text. I’d like to read the story real quick with you, and then we’ll look at it together.
(Mark 9:14-29) “And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had 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.”” (Mark 9:14-29).
Now, I want you to remember that as we come to this story, the disciples had actually already gone out and cast out demons. That happened back in chapter 6. Picture now these fathers whose son had lived his whole life with a demon. He wants the disciples to cast it out.
They try. It doesn’t work.
Then Jesus comes down from the mount of transfiguration, and he sees his disciples arguing with the religious leaders. Just pause there for a moment. And picture the scene. The disciples are standing there yelling at the religious leaders, justifying why they couldn’t cast out the demon. They had their excuses, explanations, etc. And the religious leaders are having none of it.
Here in a minute Jesus is going to come and cast out the demon. The disciples then ask him why it didn’t come out when they were trying. Here is his answer:
“And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”” (Mark 9:29).
You know what that means? It means as Tim summarized, “they had seen their own power cast out demons before but now they couldn’t. And they refused to pray. And instead of turning to prayer they started arguing with Pharisees. They come up with excuses and explanations. “Oh, faithless generation is likely these disciples.”
What was the proper response? What would have led Jesus to say, “Oh faithful generation”? Prayer. That would have seen their powerlessness and helplessness, and turned to God in prayer.
Simply put, Jesus is calling us to see helplessness as a call to prayer. Why? Because in prayer we exercise faith in our God. We exercise the faith that God is in control so we don’t need to be. Instead, we get the ear of the very one who holds all things together.
Now, let’s take one more look at this text, about this phrase from the Father, “I believe, help my unbelief.” This comment comes in response to a dialogue that the father and Jesus had.
“And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?”” (Mark 9:21).
*”this” is referring to the seizures.
And the father responds. “And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”” (Mark 9:21-22).
Now, you’ve got to have some understanding for this Father. We don’t know how old this boy was, but we get the sense that he’s more than a few years old. This mom and dad have endured day after day wondering if this would be the last day they would see their son. They would have to monitor him in case he threw himself in the pool or into a fire.
They tried everything. Nothing was working. Nothing was helping. But, he had heard about Jesus. He gets his boy, and walks to find Jesus. Jesus isnt’ there, so he settles for having the disciples try. The disciples can’t help.
You can see the helplessness the father feels. You can feel the despair. The Father knows he can’t do anything. But he has let his giving up on his own abilities to give up on God’s — “if you can do anything” Jesus picks up on his and responds:
“And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”” (Mark 9:23).
And that is what this prayer from the father is in response to:
“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”” (Mark 9:24).
That’s what Jesus was after. That faith. The question is not “ Am I strong enough to heal your son?” “It’s will you trust me?” And the man in a very honest why said, “yes, but help me with where I struggle.”
Oh, that is so helpful. It’s faith, but it’s an honest faith this side of heaven. This father really does believe that God can heal, but he’s weak in his faith. And he is asking God to take this meager faith and grow it, use it, answer the prayer by healing his son. And God does.
Table Rock, I want more than anything, I want this text to move you too desperate, prayer. Even if that prayer feels weak. Even it if feels like I believe, but help me with my unbelief.
We see two dangers in this text. We see the self-reliance of the disciple and the despair of the father. Both try to take us away from prayer. Self-reliance causes us to give up on prayer as we depend on ourselves. Don’t let that temptation creep him. Admit your neediness, and run to God in prayer.
Despair admits our weakness and helplessness. Despair acknowledges we can’t do anything to fix the situation. But it can quickly move from giving up on ourselves to giving up on God. Don’t give up on God. Run to God in prayer
So what we are going to do is we are actually going to turn to the table.