March 27, 2025 • 30 mins
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Following the startling image of a withered fig tree, Jesus seizes a powerful teaching moment about the transformative nature of faithful prayer. What begins as the disciples' amazement at a cursed tree becomes a profound masterclass on connecting with God through prayer.
Faith in God—not faith in faith itself—emerges as the cornerstone of effective prayer. While we often place our confidence in temporary things that inevitably disappoint us, Jesus points to something more reliable: the unchanging character of an all-powerful, all-wise, and ever-present God whose love and justice never fail. This distinction revolutionizes how we approach prayer, shifting our focus from the intensity of our belief to the trustworthiness of the One we're believing in.
The seemingly hyperbolic image of mountain-moving faith isn't about magical thinking but understanding that our biggest problems—symbolized by mountains throughout scripture—are never too overwhelming for God. Sometimes prayers must be verbalized, not just thought, giving testimony to God's work when those prayers are answered. Yet Jesus balances this power with important guardrails: prayers must align with His character ("in My name"), and our hearts must be free from unforgiveness.
Most striking is Jesus' emphasis on forgiveness as essential to prayer. Our natural tendency toward bitterness stands in stark contrast to God's heart that "desires none should perish." When we forgive others, we align our hearts with God's and open channels for answered prayer.
Whether you're facing mountains of impossibility or struggling to forgive someone who's wounded you deeply, this teaching offers practical guidance for developing a prayer life that moves beyond routine repetition to genuine, transformative connection with God. What mountains might start moving in your life when you approach prayer with genuine faith?
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
All right, mark, chapter 11.
I don't know what to say.
Thank you, how about that, mark?
Chapter 11, verse 20 is wherewe'll start.
We're considering the idea offaithful praying today.
We left Jesus last weekcleaning up the temple and
(00:34):
cursing a fig tree.
A little harsher side here toJesus.
The religious leaders areconcerned with the cleansing of
the temple.
That's not going over well withthem and they'll get into that
next week.
But the disciples are moreconcerned with the illustration
and the cursing of the fig tree.
(00:55):
So that's really what we'lllook at here today A fruitless
fig tree representing the nationof unbelief there at the time
and cursed by Jesus to remainunfruitful.
In verse 14, jesus, in thiscursing of the fig tree, says
(01:18):
let no one eat fruit from youever again, and you'll remember,
the tree withers from the rootsand dies.
Verse 20,.
We see the disciples the nextday and they realize this fig
tree.
And then, whoa, it really diddie.
Remember, jesus cursed that figtree and there it is now,
(01:39):
shriveled and dead.
And Jesus takes the opportunity.
As they're amazed by that,jesus takes the opportunity to
teach them about faith-filledprayer, effective prayer, a
useful lesson.
So let's join him in verse 20.
How about that.
Now in the morning, as theypassed by, they saw the fig tree
(02:02):
dried up from the roots andPeter, remembering, said to him
Rabbi, teacher, look, the figtree which you cursed has
withered away.
So Jesus answered and said tothem have faith in God, for
assuredly I say to you, whoeversays to this mountain be removed
(02:24):
and be cast into the sea anddoes not doubt in his heart but
believes that those things hesays will be done, he will have
whatever he says.
Therefore, I say to youwhatever things you ask when you
pray, believe that you receivethem and you will have them
Verse 25.
And whenever you stand praying,if you have anything against
(02:48):
anyone, forgive him, that yourFather in heaven may also
forgive your trespasses, but ifyou do not forgive, neither will
your Father in heaven forgiveyour trespasses.
So here we are Jesus has cursedthe fig tree.
The disciples are really amazedby this and Jesus takes time to
(03:27):
point them to faith, faith inGod.
So the first thing weunderstand about this?
Effective prayer.
Prayer is one of those thingsthat I think we know is part of
the Christian life.
It ought to be part of thenormal Christian life.
But what is it the first thingwe understand about prayer is
it's got to be based on who Godis and what he's like.
(03:48):
Have faith in God.
Faith has to be in God who heis.
Genesis 1.1,.
He's all powerful.
Right, there's nothing Godcan't do.
He has all power.
He's all present.
Psalm 139, great Psalm.
If I go up to heaven, you'rethere.
(04:09):
If I go down to the deepestparts of the earth, you're there
too.
God is always with us.
He's omnipresent, he's all wise.
Jude says in his letter, verse25, that God, our Savior alone,
is wise.
Right, so all these things, godis powerful, he's wise, he's
with us.
(04:30):
But then what he's like, right?
That's why we read the Bible somany times is to find out what
is God like.
We know it's his power, but wealso know his character.
Right, god is loving.
Right, god is love.
John tells us that's hisprimary character.
(04:54):
But he's also just.
Deuteronomy 32.4 says all yourways are justice.
Right, so he's loving, but he'sjust.
He's righteous and holy, buthe's so kind.
Right, all the character traitsof who God is.
(05:14):
You can study that as you gothrough the Bible and just look
at who God is and what he's like.
It's wonderful to see.
But faith is.
Our trust is based on what Godis like, who he is.
So we trust that he can work inour life because he's kind.
(05:37):
We trust that he will work inour life and take care of us.
That's who God is.
But notice there in verse 22,again same thing have faith in
God.
Our faith has to be in God.
And you think, well, that'swhat my faith is all about.
(05:57):
My faith is about God.
But sometimes, sometimes, wehave faith in faith.
I think Sometimes, sometimes wehave faith in faith.
I think, right, I believe, Ibelieve, you know, and our
prayer is God, I believe thatyou're going to work, I believe
in here, I'm having faith, I'mtrusting you, kind of like Peter
Pan right, I can fly, I can fly, I can fly, you know, if I just
(06:18):
say that, enough, I'll do it,it'll come true.
But we don't just have faith infaith.
That's kind of silly.
It's not faith in just prayer.
That's another thing.
Sometimes we can trust Well,I've prayed enough, I've lifted
it up to him.
Well then, it's going to allwork out, it's going to happen.
(06:39):
And it's that vain repetitionthat Jesus talks about.
You know that, the Gentiles,the vain repetition.
There are many words.
They think they'll be heard andwe just go like I've prayed
about it all day.
Now I know from experience whenyou're really going through it.
That's what prayer looks like.
You know you think about thatsickness or you think about that
(06:59):
situation and you just cast iton God.
Right, that's good.
I think that's what prayer andour trust in God does.
But it's not just because wepray that things are gonna work
out okay.
We're not just trusting inprayer, it's our faith in God.
(07:20):
That God is the one we need,our trust in him.
Now check it out.
We have trust.
We've said this a lot.
We have trust in a lot ofthings.
Right now.
You have trust in your chair.
I believe this chair is goingto hold me right.
You know you have trust in amechanic.
(07:40):
Sometimes when you have hope,maybe right when you take your
car in to get fixed, I sure hopethey can figure it out.
It's not going to cost too much.
But I put my trust in a goodmechanic, right.
We put our faith in a friend tobe faithful, a spouse to be
faithful, and here's the problem, of course, we see, is that all
(08:01):
those things could let us downright.
The chair, of course we see isthat all those things could let
us down.
Right the chair although itseems sturdy, the chair could
let you down.
It's happened before.
Right the mechanic althoughthey might have a good heart,
they may not see the problemthrough, they may not figure out
the right thing.
The friend may stab you in theback.
It happens, right, we'refamiliar with that.
(08:22):
But God, it happens, right,we're familiar with that.
But God, we put all of our trustin him and he will not let us
down.
In fact, part of his characteris that he cannot let us down.
He cannot be unfaithful.
He will be faithful.
And so we look at this thing ofprayer and and we go.
(08:42):
My faith has to be in God, notin me, not in my ability to be
religious and pray, but in God.
God, I'm trusting you, I wantto trust you.
Now check out the other kind offaith we see here in verse 23.
It's mountain moving faith inverse 23.
Now, because we trust in allpowerful God.
(09:04):
This shouldn't surprise us.
It's a pretty wackyillustration that Jesus gives
here, if you can say that, aboutsomething Jesus said.
Wacky, but you know this ideaof tell that mountain to go run
into the sea.
Picture it, the mountainsprouts little legs and runs
into the sea and cannonball, youknow, and you go.
(09:27):
Jesus says if I believe I cantell that mountain, go throw
yourself in the sea and it will.
And it's a little extreme and alittle absurd.
Probably got a little bit of alaugh, you know, from Thomas,
right, when Jesus said you cantell that now.
And Thomas said he said, thomas, why are you always doubting
(09:49):
man?
But you know, you know it'ssilly, almost it's a pretty
crazy thought.
But the thing is that God can doit.
There's nothing that's toodifficult for God to do, but
mountains are oftentimespictures of big problems.
(10:09):
God can do it.
There's nothing that's toodifficult for God to do, but
mountains are oftentimespictures of big problems.
We get it right.
Our problems are like mountainsin front of us In Zechariah 4,
verse 7,.
They're rebuilding the temple.
A guy named Zerubbabel is incharge and God tells him who are
you, o great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel, you shallbecome a plain.
So these problems and issues inour life, they seem huge like
(10:34):
mountains.
But yet God can move, domiraculous things and even move
mountains.
Now notice there in verse 23,.
Whoever says this mountain beremoved and cast in the sea and
does not doubt in its heart, inhis heart, doubt, it says that
(11:00):
number one we might need to sayto the mountain right, not doubt
, we'll talk about doubt in asecond.
We might need to say to themountain be moved Now, picture
that.
That also is a little absurd,isn't it?
To talk to a mountain right?
Jesus in our last study talkedto a tree right.
(11:23):
But then here he says speak tothe mountain.
Prayer is sometimes in ourhearts.
I love that kind of prayerright.
When I was a kid we wouldalways mention the special
unspoken.
Did anyone grow up with thatphrase, special unspoken?
I've got a special unspoken.
(11:44):
I'm not going to tell you whatit is, but it's in my heart and
I just want to pray about that.
And I like special unspokensbecause God knows our heart,
right, god knows.
That means that you can pray.
Wherever you're at, whateveryou're doing, you could pray and
God knows what's going on inyour heart, maybe at work, in
(12:06):
the middle of a job or something.
You can pray and God knows.
But there comes a point wheresometimes we do need to speak
prayers.
Some prayers only work ifthey're spoken.
Probably worth a turn.
Let's turn to Romans, chapter 10.
Romans, chapter 10.
(12:29):
Romans, chapter 10.
Very important passage here inchapter 10, verse 9.
Romans 10, 9.
Paul's words on salvation.
How it happens so, romans 10, 9.
If you this is in the middle ofa sentence which isn't ideal,
(12:50):
but it'll work this time If youconfess with your mouth the Lord
Jesus and believe in your heartthat God has raised him from
the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believesunto righteousness and with the
mouth confession is made untosalvation.
So check it out.
Paul says in order to be saved,you believe in your heart what
(13:14):
God has done for you.
Believe, you trust in yourheart.
That's deep inside.
You can't see it, but it'sthere right Now.
Follow.
This is important.
You believe in your heart, butPaul says you confess with your
mouth.
You say it right Now.
That's not one of those specialunspokens that you can have God
(13:35):
, I just believe.
And then you never tell a soulthat you've believed.
Paul here says you need toconfess with your mouth.
You tell people I do believe inJesus.
I have received him as mysavior.
A lot of what baptism is goesalong with that.
It's confessing to the world.
Here's what's happened in myheart.
(13:55):
I hope you see it, I hope youknow it.
He's my Lord, he's my master.
So some prayers need to bespoken and it can be helpful
sometimes to actually speak ourprayers out loud, things that we
really pray, that God wouldwork in situations.
(14:15):
It's helpful because when itcomes to pass, when God actually
does it, we have that testimony.
I prayed for that thing.
And James here says some of theproblem with prayer, in James 4
too, is that you do not havebecause you do not ask.
So speaking a prayer isimportant to moving mountains.
(14:41):
But look at verse 23 as well,back in Mark, chapter 11, verse
23.
That's not Mark, mark 11.
It says we shouldn't doubt inverse 23.
Now here's the thing.
I read that and I go.
(15:01):
Well, I'm sunk Because I doubt.
I doubt's the thing.
I read that and I go.
Well, I'm sunk Because I doubt.
I doubt all the time.
I don't know if there are toomany times in my life where I've
asked something in prayer andhonestly, without a doubt,
believed that it was going towork out.
I have doubt.
There is a spiritual gift offaith in 1 Corinthians 12, 9, a
(15:25):
gift of faith, but most of thetime, in weakness, we do doubt,
but to just trust.
And it's wonderful to see,through the Gospels, the
disciples O ye, of little faith,and yet Jesus still answered
them.
Oh, your faith is so weak andyet Jesus still answered them.
Oh, your faith is so weak andyet Jesus still worked.
(15:45):
Even when we do doubt, god doeswork.
But look at verse 24.
We'll move on.
Therefore, I say to youwhatever things now follow this.
Therefore, I say to youwhatever things you ask when you
pray, believe that you mayreceive them and you will have
them.
Just name it and claim it.
(16:07):
Guys, anything you want, that'swhat it says here.
Oh, I woke you up.
Somebody looked at me at thatpoint.
Man, you want a new car, askGod for a new car, he'll give it
to you.
Anything you ask Now, car,he'll give it to you.
(16:27):
Anything you ask Now, don'twalk away.
We better turn to this one,john 14.
A lot of turning here thismorning, but keep you awake.
It's hot in here.
Is it hot in here?
Feels hot in here?
Just saying John 14, verse 13.
14, verse 13.
Similar idea here in John 14,verse 13.
(16:48):
Jesus says and whatever you askin my name, I will do it.
That the Father may beglorified in the Son.
If you ask anything in my name,I will do it.
That's a great promise.
Now, in John 14, he's talkingabout the Holy Spirit and
spiritual things.
(17:08):
That's probably important.
But a phrase to really noticehere is that he says you ask
anything in my name?
Right, my name, and that's abig thing.
Right, my name, and that's abig thing.
Now, a lot of times you'llnotice that we end our prayers
(17:28):
by saying in Jesus name.
And I got to say growing up Ifelt like that was a little bit
of an abracadabra.
You know, if we throw the inJesus name, then poof, it will
be done in Jesus name, right,and yet obviously that's not it.
Asking in someone's name meansto ask in line with their
character.
James tells us now follow this.
(17:51):
James tells us in chapter four,verse two here's a problem in
prayer you ask and you do notreceive, because you ask amiss,
that you may spend it on yourpleasures.
So James here tells ussometimes we don't get what we
pray for because our mind andour heart is just messed up.
(18:14):
We're asking for things tospend on our own lust and our
own pleasure and you go, I getit.
I get it.
I can say I have all the decentmotives in the world and yet,
if it really comes down to it, Iwant what I want for me, you
know.
You know, God, give me amillion bucks and I promise you
(18:37):
I'll give you 10%, right.
But our motives are notnecessarily pure.
Even in our best scenarioswe're falling right.
Asking in Jesus' name isimportant because it means we're
asking according to hischaracter.
I like to go out to eat Wow,that's profound.
(18:59):
I like to go out to eat, Cherylwow, that's profound.
I like to go out to eat andI'll be right there with you
when it comes to the end.
When you're ready to pay forsomething you know who's going
to pay for this I'll try to atleast arm wrestle you to pay for
it.
That's how I was raised and youknow it's like it's a little
bit of a.
It does yourself good in yourheart, but you know I'll pay for
(19:24):
it.
But here's the thing that youmight know If you're going to
take me up on that, if you'regoing to order according to my
heart and according to my name,there's some things you probably
won't order Alcohol, right Nowwe can talk about alcohol and
there's different opinions inthe church and, honestly, the
Bible does not say that it's asin to drink.
(19:44):
But in my life my grandmotherwas killed by a drunk driver.
My mom almost died in that samecrash.
In my ministry, I've seencountless people throw their
lives and their families awaybecause of alcohol.
I've never seen anything goodcome out of it.
(20:08):
And so if you were to go tolunch with me I'm being
straightforward, I guess, and Isaid you know what I got it this
time and you order a beer, youwill not be ordering according
to my heart and my name, right?
I might say you know what youcan pay for that.
Let's have a great time.
(20:28):
I might not say that, I mightnot say anything, but you
understand, though, because ofwhere I'm at in my convictions,
that's not in line with what Iwould want to give you, because
I've never seen anything goodcome of it.
I think asking in Jesus name islike that.
We can't ask for things thatare against his will, right, and
(20:55):
yet so many times we don't havea clue.
Isn't that the craziest thing?
You go.
What does God want?
Does he want me to have thisjob or does he want me to have
that job?
I don't know.
And so that's why it's alwayssafe to leave it in God's hands
and say God, your will be done.
Even Jesus I don't understandall of it, but even Jesus said,
(21:19):
father, not my will, but yoursbe done.
And that's a great place toleave it in the heart of God.
God, do you want this personhealed, or to use doctors, or
what do you want?
God?
I know what I want.
But God, your will be done, youknow what's best.
God again, do you want me tohave this job or this job?
(21:40):
Man, I don't know where it'sgoing to take me in the future,
but God, your will be done, andwe just go.
God, even in that I want totrust you.
I don't know what the rightanswer is, but I trust you.
And so here we realize this,asking and getting anything you
ask for, this amazing pray foranything.
(22:02):
Faith is according to the willof God, according to the name of
Jesus.
Now one more thing here, inverse 25.
And it's hard to know if thisis connected because most of our
Bibles, you know, have a littlesection break there.
But I think it's connectedbecause it's talking about
(22:25):
prayer.
Whenever you stand praying, ifyou have anything against anyone
.
Forgive him, that your fatherin heaven may also forgive your
trespasses.
Now he goes on to talk about.
If you don't forgive him, thenneither will your father in
heaven forgive you, and that'spretty intense.
If we don't forgive, god won'tforgive us.
What does that mean?
I don't know, but you probablyought to forgive people is what
(22:49):
I think Jesus is getting at here.
But let's look at this idea offorgiveness, because it talks to
us about a right-hearted prayer.
A right-hearted prayer.
What we find from looking atthis is we're pretty messed up.
Right, the Bible says that tous often.
We're pretty messed up becausewe can look at other people and,
(23:13):
in bitterness, we hate them.
Right, we all have that.
We all have forgiveness that wecan offer to other people, and
we struggle with it.
We're all messed up.
The Psalms have you ever readthe Psalms?
And you're stopped by one ofthese.
They're called imprecatoryPsalms Great word to maze your
friends with imprecatory Psalms.
(23:33):
They're the Psalms of David,where he goes God, kick their
teeth in my enemies.
Kick their teeth in God, maketheir children orphans and their
wives widows.
And you're like is that a goodprayer?
You know, and David offers thisprayer of like God, just mess
them up, get them, you know, andyou go.
(23:55):
I don't know if that's a goodprayer.
I'm a little shocked by that.
David, a man after God's ownheart, and I think it's there
not because pray like this.
God kicked their teeth in, youknow.
But you know what we allstruggle, right, david was just
being honest and you can behonest with God in your prayer.
(24:16):
But forgiveness is important.
Going back to our last point,to have the same heart that God
has Now, think about it.
To have the same heart that Godhas for people.
We do not have the same heartthat God has for people, even in
(24:39):
our society, now, check it outEven in our society.
Now, I grew up veryconservative.
We've talked about alcohol andwe'll talk about language for a
second.
The word darn was frowned uponin my circles.
That's a little close, isn't it?
Darn right?
But you and I know that it'svery common for people to talk
(25:02):
about damnation, damning things.
Now, this is not about language, so much here, but it's the
concept.
Right, we hit our thumb with ahammer and we condemn the hammer
to hell.
That's what that word damnmeans.
Right, To condemn to hell.
You know, we step on the Lego,like every parent has, and we
(25:27):
condemn that Lego to hell rightNow.
Maybe some of us don't do itoutwardly, but it's in our heart
.
I'll just be honest, it's inour heart when we step on that
Lego and so you think about it.
In hell there are hammers andwrenches that have caused us to
grade our knuckles.
You know there are Legos galorein hell because of all the time
(25:51):
that people have damned a Legoright.
But there are also bad driversin hell.
There's a lot of bad drivers inhell.
If God answered our prayers onthe road right, a lot of bad
drivers are there and maybe someof our enemies.
And we look at that and, yeah,it's kind of silly.
(26:14):
Kind of silly to talk like that.
We don't actually mean Godcondemned that person to hell,
but we realize that our heart isnot God's heart.
Our heart is absolutely notGod's heart when it comes to the
people that have hurt us.
Now think about it.
When it comes to the peoplewho've hurt us or done us wrong,
(26:37):
we don't wish them forgiveness,we wish them worse most of the
time.
Now we wouldn't maybe say it,but that's it.
And here Jesus says you don'thave the right heart when you
don't forgive.
There's a lot more we can talkabout this.
If we've really been forgiven,we will forgive.
Other parables tell us, butcheck this out 2 Peter 3.9.
(27:02):
2 Peter 3.9 says this the Lordis not slack concerning his
promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering towards
us, not willing that any shouldperish, but all should come to
repentance.
So when we look at God's heart,when we look at this ugly world
(27:25):
, we go.
God, why don't you just judgethis place, nuke them?
God, you know fire andbrimstone and we go, but God is
patient.
And we go, but God is patient,not willing that any should
perish.
That's a huge statement.
God doesn't want anybody to goto hell.
Now, the will of God andpredestination, I don't get it
(27:47):
all, but God's heart is thatpeople not perish but come to
forgiveness and find salvation.
All of them, the worst of theworst in our minds.
God wants them to be saved.
So to have the heart of God, wehave to forgive.
(28:09):
We must forgive.
So now we've looked at a fewthings here quickly today.
We've looked at the effect ofprayer life.
It has to be based on who Godis, based on God.
That kind of prayer is powerfuland able to move mountains,
(28:32):
able to help us even forgive.
And we could talk about prayermore, but listen, the big
punchline here today is we oughtto pray in our hearts for our
friends, for our family, becauseGod can do wonderfully amazing
(28:52):
things beyond what we can evenimagine, if we just trust him
with the things that are in ourlife.
Simple prayer, god.
Here's the decisions in frontof me.
God, what do you want, god,lead me?
Oh, here's my family member.
They're struggling.
God, help them today to knowthat you're with them.
(29:13):
God, here's my ugly heart.
I'm having a hard timeforgiving, but you said, miracle
of miracles, that I couldforgive.
God, help me to forgive and seethe wonderful things that God
can do in our lives.
God, I confess that I do notpray like I should, and what a
(29:38):
wonderful advantage we have tobe able to share these things
and cast these things on you andyou care for us.
God, not only do you care forus, but, god, you're able to
work in our lives.
So, god, help it not to betheory this week that you would
just help us, as believers, totrust you with the deepest
(30:02):
things in our heart, our futureand our hurts.
God, help us to trust you, helpus to pray and lift all these
things to you.
And God see what you do,because you're good and you're
able to work.
In Jesus' name we pray.
All right, mark, chapter 11.
I don't know what to say.
Thank you, how about that, mark?
Chapter 11, verse 20 is wherewe'll start.
We're considering the idea offaithful praying today.
We left Jesus last weekcleaning up the temple and
(00:34):
cursing a fig tree.
A little harsher side here toJesus.
The religious leaders areconcerned with the cleansing of
the temple.
That's not going over well withthem and they'll get into that
next week.
But the disciples are moreconcerned with the illustration
and the cursing of the fig tree.
(00:55):
So that's really what we'lllook at here today A fruitless
fig tree representing the nationof unbelief there at the time
and cursed by Jesus to remainunfruitful.
In verse 14, jesus, in thiscursing of the fig tree, says
(01:18):
let no one eat fruit from youever again, and you'll remember,
the tree withers from the rootsand dies.
Verse 20,.
We see the disciples the nextday and they realize this fig
tree.
And then, whoa, it really diddie.
Remember, jesus cursed that figtree and there it is now,
(01:39):
shriveled and dead.
And Jesus takes the opportunity.
As they're amazed by that,jesus takes the opportunity to
teach them about faith-filledprayer, effective prayer, a
useful lesson.
So let's join him in verse 20.
How about that.
Now in the morning, as theypassed by, they saw the fig tree
(02:02):
dried up from the roots andPeter, remembering, said to him
Rabbi, teacher, look, the figtree which you cursed has
withered away.
So Jesus answered and said tothem have faith in God, for
assuredly I say to you, whoeversays to this mountain be removed
(02:24):
and be cast into the sea anddoes not doubt in his heart but
believes that those things hesays will be done, he will have
whatever he says.
Therefore, I say to youwhatever things you ask when you
pray, believe that you receivethem and you will have them
Verse 25.
And whenever you stand praying,if you have anything against
(02:48):
anyone, forgive him, that yourFather in heaven may also
forgive your trespasses, but ifyou do not forgive, neither will
your Father in heaven forgiveyour trespasses.
So here we are Jesus has cursedthe fig tree.
The disciples are really amazedby this and Jesus takes time to
(03:27):
point them to faith, faith inGod.
So the first thing weunderstand about this?
Effective prayer.
Prayer is one of those thingsthat I think we know is part of
the Christian life.
It ought to be part of thenormal Christian life.
But what is it the first thingwe understand about prayer is
it's got to be based on who Godis and what he's like.
(03:48):
Have faith in God.
Faith has to be in God who heis.
Genesis 1.1,.
He's all powerful.
Right, there's nothing Godcan't do.
He has all power.
He's all present.
Psalm 139, great Psalm.
If I go up to heaven, you'rethere.
(04:09):
If I go down to the deepestparts of the earth, you're there
too.
God is always with us.
He's omnipresent, he's all wise.
Jude says in his letter, verse25, that God, our Savior alone,
is wise.
Right, so all these things, godis powerful, he's wise, he's
with us.
(04:30):
But then what he's like, right?
That's why we read the Bible somany times is to find out what
is God like.
We know it's his power, but wealso know his character.
Right, god is loving.
Right, god is love.
John tells us that's hisprimary character.
(04:54):
But he's also just.
Deuteronomy 32.4 says all yourways are justice.
Right, so he's loving, but he'sjust.
He's righteous and holy, buthe's so kind.
Right, all the character traitsof who God is.
(05:14):
You can study that as you gothrough the Bible and just look
at who God is and what he's like.
It's wonderful to see.
But faith is.
Our trust is based on what Godis like, who he is.
So we trust that he can work inour life because he's kind.
(05:37):
We trust that he will work inour life and take care of us.
That's who God is.
But notice there in verse 22,again same thing have faith in
God.
Our faith has to be in God.
And you think, well, that'swhat my faith is all about.
(05:57):
My faith is about God.
But sometimes, sometimes, wehave faith in faith.
I think Sometimes, sometimes wehave faith in faith.
I think, right, I believe, Ibelieve, you know, and our
prayer is God, I believe thatyou're going to work, I believe
in here, I'm having faith, I'mtrusting you, kind of like Peter
Pan right, I can fly, I can fly, I can fly, you know, if I just
(06:18):
say that, enough, I'll do it,it'll come true.
But we don't just have faith infaith.
That's kind of silly.
It's not faith in just prayer.
That's another thing.
Sometimes we can trust Well,I've prayed enough, I've lifted
it up to him.
Well then, it's going to allwork out, it's going to happen.
(06:39):
And it's that vain repetitionthat Jesus talks about.
You know that, the Gentiles,the vain repetition.
There are many words.
They think they'll be heard andwe just go like I've prayed
about it all day.
Now I know from experience whenyou're really going through it.
That's what prayer looks like.
You know you think about thatsickness or you think about that
(06:59):
situation and you just cast iton God.
Right, that's good.
I think that's what prayer andour trust in God does.
But it's not just because wepray that things are gonna work
out okay.
We're not just trusting inprayer, it's our faith in God.
(07:20):
That God is the one we need,our trust in him.
Now check it out.
We have trust.
We've said this a lot.
We have trust in a lot ofthings.
Right now.
You have trust in your chair.
I believe this chair is goingto hold me right.
You know you have trust in amechanic.
(07:40):
Sometimes when you have hope,maybe right when you take your
car in to get fixed, I sure hopethey can figure it out.
It's not going to cost too much.
But I put my trust in a goodmechanic, right.
We put our faith in a friend tobe faithful, a spouse to be
faithful, and here's the problem, of course, we see, is that all
(08:01):
those things could let us downright.
The chair, of course we see isthat all those things could let
us down.
Right the chair although itseems sturdy, the chair could
let you down.
It's happened before.
Right the mechanic althoughthey might have a good heart,
they may not see the problemthrough, they may not figure out
the right thing.
The friend may stab you in theback.
It happens, right, we'refamiliar with that.
(08:22):
But God, it happens, right,we're familiar with that.
But God, we put all of our trustin him and he will not let us
down.
In fact, part of his characteris that he cannot let us down.
He cannot be unfaithful.
He will be faithful.
And so we look at this thing ofprayer and and we go.
(08:42):
My faith has to be in God, notin me, not in my ability to be
religious and pray, but in God.
God, I'm trusting you, I wantto trust you.
Now check out the other kind offaith we see here in verse 23.
It's mountain moving faith inverse 23.
Now, because we trust in allpowerful God.
(09:04):
This shouldn't surprise us.
It's a pretty wackyillustration that Jesus gives
here, if you can say that, aboutsomething Jesus said.
Wacky, but you know this ideaof tell that mountain to go run
into the sea.
Picture it, the mountainsprouts little legs and runs
into the sea and cannonball, youknow, and you go.
(09:27):
Jesus says if I believe I cantell that mountain, go throw
yourself in the sea and it will.
And it's a little extreme and alittle absurd.
Probably got a little bit of alaugh, you know, from Thomas,
right, when Jesus said you cantell that now.
And Thomas said he said, thomas, why are you always doubting
(09:49):
man?
But you know, you know it'ssilly, almost it's a pretty
crazy thought.
But the thing is that God can doit.
There's nothing that's toodifficult for God to do, but
mountains are oftentimespictures of big problems.
(10:09):
God can do it.
There's nothing that's toodifficult for God to do, but
mountains are oftentimespictures of big problems.
We get it right.
Our problems are like mountainsin front of us In Zechariah 4,
verse 7,.
They're rebuilding the temple.
A guy named Zerubbabel is incharge and God tells him who are
you, o great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel, you shallbecome a plain.
So these problems and issues inour life, they seem huge like
(10:34):
mountains.
But yet God can move, domiraculous things and even move
mountains.
Now notice there in verse 23,.
Whoever says this mountain beremoved and cast in the sea and
does not doubt in its heart, inhis heart, doubt, it says that
(11:00):
number one we might need to sayto the mountain right, not doubt
, we'll talk about doubt in asecond.
We might need to say to themountain be moved Now, picture
that.
That also is a little absurd,isn't it?
To talk to a mountain right?
Jesus in our last study talkedto a tree right.
(11:23):
But then here he says speak tothe mountain.
Prayer is sometimes in ourhearts.
I love that kind of prayerright.
When I was a kid we wouldalways mention the special
unspoken.
Did anyone grow up with thatphrase, special unspoken?
I've got a special unspoken.
(11:44):
I'm not going to tell you whatit is, but it's in my heart and
I just want to pray about that.
And I like special unspokensbecause God knows our heart,
right, god knows.
That means that you can pray.
Wherever you're at, whateveryou're doing, you could pray and
God knows what's going on inyour heart, maybe at work, in
(12:06):
the middle of a job or something.
You can pray and God knows.
But there comes a point wheresometimes we do need to speak
prayers.
Some prayers only work ifthey're spoken.
Probably worth a turn.
Let's turn to Romans, chapter 10.
Romans, chapter 10.
(12:29):
Romans, chapter 10.
Very important passage here inchapter 10, verse 9.
Romans 10, 9.
Paul's words on salvation.
How it happens so, romans 10, 9.
If you this is in the middle ofa sentence which isn't ideal,
(12:50):
but it'll work this time If youconfess with your mouth the Lord
Jesus and believe in your heartthat God has raised him from
the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believesunto righteousness and with the
mouth confession is made untosalvation.
So check it out.
Paul says in order to be saved,you believe in your heart what
(13:14):
God has done for you.
Believe, you trust in yourheart.
That's deep inside.
You can't see it, but it'sthere right Now.
Follow.
This is important.
You believe in your heart, butPaul says you confess with your
mouth.
You say it right Now.
That's not one of those specialunspokens that you can have God
(13:35):
, I just believe.
And then you never tell a soulthat you've believed.
Paul here says you need toconfess with your mouth.
You tell people I do believe inJesus.
I have received him as mysavior.
A lot of what baptism is goesalong with that.
It's confessing to the world.
Here's what's happened in myheart.
(13:55):
I hope you see it, I hope youknow it.
He's my Lord, he's my master.
So some prayers need to bespoken and it can be helpful
sometimes to actually speak ourprayers out loud, things that we
really pray, that God wouldwork in situations.
(14:15):
It's helpful because when itcomes to pass, when God actually
does it, we have that testimony.
I prayed for that thing.
And James here says some of theproblem with prayer, in James 4
too, is that you do not havebecause you do not ask.
So speaking a prayer isimportant to moving mountains.
(14:41):
But look at verse 23 as well,back in Mark, chapter 11, verse
23.
That's not Mark, mark 11.
It says we shouldn't doubt inverse 23.
Now here's the thing.
I read that and I go.
(15:01):
Well, I'm sunk Because I doubt.
I doubt's the thing.
I read that and I go.
Well, I'm sunk Because I doubt.
I doubt all the time.
I don't know if there are toomany times in my life where I've
asked something in prayer andhonestly, without a doubt,
believed that it was going towork out.
I have doubt.
There is a spiritual gift offaith in 1 Corinthians 12, 9, a
(15:25):
gift of faith, but most of thetime, in weakness, we do doubt,
but to just trust.
And it's wonderful to see,through the Gospels, the
disciples O ye, of little faith,and yet Jesus still answered
them.
Oh, your faith is so weak andyet Jesus still answered them.
Oh, your faith is so weak andyet Jesus still worked.
(15:45):
Even when we do doubt, god doeswork.
But look at verse 24.
We'll move on.
Therefore, I say to youwhatever things now follow this.
Therefore, I say to youwhatever things you ask when you
pray, believe that you mayreceive them and you will have
them.
Just name it and claim it.
(16:07):
Guys, anything you want, that'swhat it says here.
Oh, I woke you up.
Somebody looked at me at thatpoint.
Man, you want a new car, askGod for a new car, he'll give it
to you.
Anything you ask Now, car,he'll give it to you.
(16:27):
Anything you ask Now, don'twalk away.
We better turn to this one,john 14.
A lot of turning here thismorning, but keep you awake.
It's hot in here.
Is it hot in here?
Feels hot in here?
Just saying John 14, verse 13.
14, verse 13.
Similar idea here in John 14,verse 13.
(16:48):
Jesus says and whatever you askin my name, I will do it.
That the Father may beglorified in the Son.
If you ask anything in my name,I will do it.
That's a great promise.
Now, in John 14, he's talkingabout the Holy Spirit and
spiritual things.
(17:08):
That's probably important.
But a phrase to really noticehere is that he says you ask
anything in my name?
Right, my name, and that's abig thing.
Right, my name, and that's abig thing.
Now, a lot of times you'llnotice that we end our prayers
(17:28):
by saying in Jesus name.
And I got to say growing up Ifelt like that was a little bit
of an abracadabra.
You know, if we throw the inJesus name, then poof, it will
be done in Jesus name, right,and yet obviously that's not it.
Asking in someone's name meansto ask in line with their
character.
James tells us now follow this.
(17:51):
James tells us in chapter four,verse two here's a problem in
prayer you ask and you do notreceive, because you ask amiss,
that you may spend it on yourpleasures.
So James here tells ussometimes we don't get what we
pray for because our mind andour heart is just messed up.
(18:14):
We're asking for things tospend on our own lust and our
own pleasure and you go, I getit.
I get it.
I can say I have all the decentmotives in the world and yet,
if it really comes down to it, Iwant what I want for me, you
know.
You know, God, give me amillion bucks and I promise you
(18:37):
I'll give you 10%, right.
But our motives are notnecessarily pure.
Even in our best scenarioswe're falling right.
Asking in Jesus' name isimportant because it means we're
asking according to hischaracter.
I like to go out to eat Wow,that's profound.
(18:59):
I like to go out to eat, Cherylwow, that's profound.
I like to go out to eat andI'll be right there with you
when it comes to the end.
When you're ready to pay forsomething you know who's going
to pay for this I'll try to atleast arm wrestle you to pay for
it.
That's how I was raised and youknow it's like it's a little
bit of a.
It does yourself good in yourheart, but you know I'll pay for
(19:24):
it.
But here's the thing that youmight know If you're going to
take me up on that, if you'regoing to order according to my
heart and according to my name,there's some things you probably
won't order Alcohol, right Nowwe can talk about alcohol and
there's different opinions inthe church and, honestly, the
Bible does not say that it's asin to drink.
(19:44):
But in my life my grandmotherwas killed by a drunk driver.
My mom almost died in that samecrash.
In my ministry, I've seencountless people throw their
lives and their families awaybecause of alcohol.
I've never seen anything goodcome out of it.
(20:08):
And so if you were to go tolunch with me I'm being
straightforward, I guess, and Isaid you know what I got it this
time and you order a beer, youwill not be ordering according
to my heart and my name, right?
I might say you know what youcan pay for that.
Let's have a great time.
(20:28):
I might not say that, I mightnot say anything, but you
understand, though, because ofwhere I'm at in my convictions,
that's not in line with what Iwould want to give you, because
I've never seen anything goodcome of it.
I think asking in Jesus name islike that.
We can't ask for things thatare against his will, right, and
(20:55):
yet so many times we don't havea clue.
Isn't that the craziest thing?
You go.
What does God want?
Does he want me to have thisjob or does he want me to have
that job?
I don't know.
And so that's why it's alwayssafe to leave it in God's hands
and say God, your will be done.
Even Jesus I don't understandall of it, but even Jesus said,
(21:19):
father, not my will, but yoursbe done.
And that's a great place toleave it in the heart of God.
God, do you want this personhealed, or to use doctors, or
what do you want?
God?
I know what I want.
But God, your will be done, youknow what's best.
God again, do you want me tohave this job or this job?
(21:40):
Man, I don't know where it'sgoing to take me in the future,
but God, your will be done, andwe just go.
God, even in that I want totrust you.
I don't know what the rightanswer is, but I trust you.
And so here we realize this,asking and getting anything you
ask for, this amazing pray foranything.
(22:02):
Faith is according to the willof God, according to the name of
Jesus.
Now one more thing here, inverse 25.
And it's hard to know if thisis connected because most of our
Bibles, you know, have a littlesection break there.
But I think it's connectedbecause it's talking about
(22:25):
prayer.
Whenever you stand praying, ifyou have anything against anyone
.
Forgive him, that your fatherin heaven may also forgive your
trespasses.
Now he goes on to talk about.
If you don't forgive him, thenneither will your father in
heaven forgive you, and that'spretty intense.
If we don't forgive, god won'tforgive us.
What does that mean?
I don't know, but you probablyought to forgive people is what
(22:49):
I think Jesus is getting at here.
But let's look at this idea offorgiveness, because it talks to
us about a right-hearted prayer.
A right-hearted prayer.
What we find from looking atthis is we're pretty messed up.
Right, the Bible says that tous often.
We're pretty messed up becausewe can look at other people and,
(23:13):
in bitterness, we hate them.
Right, we all have that.
We all have forgiveness that wecan offer to other people, and
we struggle with it.
We're all messed up.
The Psalms have you ever readthe Psalms?
And you're stopped by one ofthese.
They're called imprecatoryPsalms Great word to maze your
friends with imprecatory Psalms.
(23:33):
They're the Psalms of David,where he goes God, kick their
teeth in my enemies.
Kick their teeth in God, maketheir children orphans and their
wives widows.
And you're like is that a goodprayer?
You know, and David offers thisprayer of like God, just mess
them up, get them, you know, andyou go.
(23:55):
I don't know if that's a goodprayer.
I'm a little shocked by that.
David, a man after God's ownheart, and I think it's there
not because pray like this.
God kicked their teeth in, youknow.
But you know what we allstruggle, right, david was just
being honest and you can behonest with God in your prayer.
(24:16):
But forgiveness is important.
Going back to our last point,to have the same heart that God
has Now, think about it.
To have the same heart that Godhas for people.
We do not have the same heartthat God has for people, even in
(24:39):
our society, now, check it outEven in our society.
Now, I grew up veryconservative.
We've talked about alcohol andwe'll talk about language for a
second.
The word darn was frowned uponin my circles.
That's a little close, isn't it?
Darn right?
But you and I know that it'svery common for people to talk
(25:02):
about damnation, damning things.
Now, this is not about language, so much here, but it's the
concept.
Right, we hit our thumb with ahammer and we condemn the hammer
to hell.
That's what that word damnmeans.
Right, To condemn to hell.
You know, we step on the Lego,like every parent has, and we
(25:27):
condemn that Lego to hell rightNow.
Maybe some of us don't do itoutwardly, but it's in our heart
.
I'll just be honest, it's inour heart when we step on that
Lego and so you think about it.
In hell there are hammers andwrenches that have caused us to
grade our knuckles.
You know there are Legos galorein hell because of all the time
(25:51):
that people have damned a Legoright.
But there are also bad driversin hell.
There's a lot of bad drivers inhell.
If God answered our prayers onthe road right, a lot of bad
drivers are there and maybe someof our enemies.
And we look at that and, yeah,it's kind of silly.
(26:14):
Kind of silly to talk like that.
We don't actually mean Godcondemned that person to hell,
but we realize that our heart isnot God's heart.
Our heart is absolutely notGod's heart when it comes to the
people that have hurt us.
Now think about it.
When it comes to the peoplewho've hurt us or done us wrong,
(26:37):
we don't wish them forgiveness,we wish them worse most of the
time.
Now we wouldn't maybe say it,but that's it.
And here Jesus says you don'thave the right heart when you
don't forgive.
There's a lot more we can talkabout this.
If we've really been forgiven,we will forgive.
Other parables tell us, butcheck this out 2 Peter 3.9.
(27:02):
2 Peter 3.9 says this the Lordis not slack concerning his
promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering towards
us, not willing that any shouldperish, but all should come to
repentance.
So when we look at God's heart,when we look at this ugly world
(27:25):
, we go.
God, why don't you just judgethis place, nuke them?
God, you know fire andbrimstone and we go, but God is
patient.
And we go, but God is patient,not willing that any should
perish.
That's a huge statement.
God doesn't want anybody to goto hell.
Now, the will of God andpredestination, I don't get it
(27:47):
all, but God's heart is thatpeople not perish but come to
forgiveness and find salvation.
All of them, the worst of theworst in our minds.
God wants them to be saved.
So to have the heart of God, wehave to forgive.
(28:09):
We must forgive.
So now we've looked at a fewthings here quickly today.
We've looked at the effect ofprayer life.
It has to be based on who Godis, based on God.
That kind of prayer is powerfuland able to move mountains,
(28:32):
able to help us even forgive.
And we could talk about prayermore, but listen, the big
punchline here today is we oughtto pray in our hearts for our
friends, for our family, becauseGod can do wonderfully amazing
(28:52):
things beyond what we can evenimagine, if we just trust him
with the things that are in ourlife.
Simple prayer, god.
Here's the decisions in frontof me.
God, what do you want, god,lead me?
Oh, here's my family member.
They're struggling.
God, help them today to knowthat you're with them.
(29:13):
God, here's my ugly heart.
I'm having a hard timeforgiving, but you said, miracle
of miracles, that I couldforgive.
God, help me to forgive and seethe wonderful things that God
can do in our lives.
God, I confess that I do notpray like I should, and what a
(29:38):
wonderful advantage we have tobe able to share these things
and cast these things on you andyou care for us.
God, not only do you care forus, but, god, you're able to
work in our lives.
So, god, help it not to betheory this week that you would
just help us, as believers, totrust you with the deepest
(30:02):
things in our heart, our futureand our hurts.
God, help us to trust you, helpus to pray and lift all these
things to you.
And God see what you do,because you're good and you're
able to work.
In Jesus' name we pray.
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