Matthew 17 (Part 2) :9-23

You'll remember that this chapter deals with the transfiguration that is that that time when Jesus took Peter James and John up onto the mount and there it says he was transfigured before them not a word that you and I would typically use on a day-to-day basis but a word that describes nonetheless the the kind of the just the changing visually of Jesus to reflect his glory and they saw Jesus in his glory not only did they see Jesus but they see you'll remember they saw Moses and Elijah standing with Jesus and talking with him that must have been pretty freaky they've been you know reading about these guys hearing about them all their lives but they had long since passed from the scene Moses passed through death Elijah passed through a miracle never died but here they are now standing and talking to Jesus on the mount Peter is so befuddled he starts talking about how he's gonna put up little shelters for each of them just because he doesn't know what to say and finally the voice of the father speaks and says this is my beloved son and listen to him and and and then and then suddenly you know they're just alone with Jesus again and now they're on their way down the mountain and this is this is where we we pick it up and this is there's some important stuff going on here so look in Matthew chapter 9 excuse me chapter 17 I'm sorry I'm jerking you all around verse 9 verse 9 it says

now that statement right there is going to figure very prominently into some confusion that the disciples are going to have about this event we'll talk about it in a moment the disciples asked him well why then did the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first Jesus replied

and then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist let's pray really quick shall we Jesus open our hearts to the ministry of your word teach us from it instruct us we look to you Lord through your Holy Spirit in Jesus name amen so once again Jesus takes Peter James and John up onto the mountain see his glory speak with Moses and Elijah coming down the mountain they're thinking about it all this and they're thinking about how this fulfills scripture and what's what's kind of good on the one hand is the disciples are trying to connect the dots because they've been learning all their lives about the coming of Messiah and things that would take place around and and connected to the coming of Messiah and one of them is the appearance of Elijah it was prophesied that Elijah would come before the Lord but they're confused because Jesus told them I mean they just saw Elijah so they're thinking well that's it that's the appearance but gin and Jesus says don't tell anybody and they're walking down the mountain they're thinking don't tell anybody what do you mean don't tell anybody and this is well then why did why why is there a prophecy about the coming of Elijah why do why did the Prophet say that he must come and you're telling us not to tell anybody he was here we saw him you don't tell anybody you see they're confused all right let's start by looking at the actual prophecy that is given in the book of Malachi I'll put it up on the screen for you it goes like this surely the day is coming it will burn like a furnace all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble and that day that is coming will set them on fire says the Lord Almighty and here it is see I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children in the hearts of the children to their fathers well this must have been very confusing because this prophecy says Elijah is going to come and turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and vice versa and these guys are thinking wait a minute we just saw him and you're telling us not to tell anybody and besides we didn't see him turning any hearts right it doesn't it doesn't seem to fit that's why they're asking Jesus why why is this prophecy given in this way and so forth and and they just want to know how it all works so Jesus answers their question look at verse 11 in your text Jesus replied

then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist so there's the Lord's response right he affirmed the prophecy of Malachi that we read and he told them that John was the fulfillment of that prophecy so end of story right well not so fast there are many people who believe that the ministry of John was only a partial fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi now we know that John was not Elijah because he said so remember when the religious leaders came out to where John was baptizing they asked him point-blank are you Elijah they wanted to know he said I am NOT he wasn't Elijah he was John but he came in the ministry of the spirit and ministry of Elijah do you remember that's what the angel said to his father when the angel appeared to his father Zachariah in the temple as Zachariah was doing his priestly duties because he was in the priestly line and the angel said to him hey dude I don't know if you called him that but just kind of came out he says listen your prayers have been answered your wife is gonna have a child and of course you'll remember Zachariah didn't believe him because his wife was long past childbearing years ever heard that one before and he says starts to tell him about this son that he's gonna have you're gonna name him John and then he said this he will minister in the spirit and power of Elijah didn't say he would be Elijah said he would come in the power the spirit and power of Elijah okay so Jesus makes a statement here about John and he says you know actually elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus said if you're willing to accept it he is the Elijah who is to come but I got to tell you there's a lot of people who believe and I'm one of them that John the Baptist is in fact a partial fulfillment but this is one of those many passages in the Old Testament that has what we call a dual fulfillment and what we mean by that is that there are many passages in the Old Testament that share fulfillments often they're in a kind of a close-range fulfillment and then a farther distance sort of a fulfillment and there are several reasons that we believe that John was not the final and complete fulfillment of this prophecy that we read in Malachi and one of them is the language itself of the prophecy let me put Malachi back up on the screen for you but I'm going to underline some different portions I want you to notice the first part surely the day is coming it will burn like a furnace now I want you to notice the context of this language what is that what is it the context of it's the context of judgment is it not Jesus didn't come remember to judge the first time in fact Jesus said God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save it right what is Jesus doing the second time he comes he comes as righteous judge does he not all right so the language says surely the day is coming and it will burn like a furnace and even says all the arrogant the evildoers they're just gonna burn up like stubble and so forth and then he look what he says see I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes meaning just before and so forth and what's he gonna do he's gonna turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers it is I you know I see this passage and I see that God is going to bring the the prophet Elijah just before the the the wrath of God is poured out upon the earth there are many people who believe that Elijah is one of the two witnesses that are given to us in the book of Revelation chapter 11 I that's speculation I don't know it's very very possible but you know as you can at least plainly see the language of this prophecy is judgment and that is what Jesus comes to do in his second coming so You know whether or not you believe that John was the complete fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi or Like me believe that he was a partial fulfillment It's not going to affect your salvation doesn't have any effect on you whether you go to heaven or not So we're not gonna you know sit here and belabor the point, but it's interesting nonetheless keep reading with me in verse 14 When they came to the crowd a man approached Jesus and knelt before him Lord have mercy on my son he said He has seizures and is suffering greatly he often falls into the fire or into the water I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him Oh Unbelieving and perverse generation Jesus replied That's an important statement. How long shall I stay with you or how long shall I be among you? How long how long shall I put up with you bring the boy here to me? Interesting isn't it that Jesus kind of had this moment of just frustration that just kind of bubbled over you know And it says Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy And he was healed from that moment then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked why couldn't we drive it out? He replied because you have so little faith Stop there Jesus and the three disciples who were on the Mount I Know sooner arrive on level ground, but they are confronted with this immediate desperate situation So Jesus is up on the Mount of Transfiguration This guy comes along bringing his son to have Jesus touch him, but Jesus isn't there Where's your master? Well, he's on the top of he's on the mountain What's up? Well, my son is dealing with demonic possession This is this demons trying to destroy him. Can you do something for him? Well, these are the guys who had been anointed and sent out to cast out demons. So they're kind of thinking. Yeah, sure Yeah, we'll take care of it fail major failure and It even brings an argument Among some of the people who are standing by and walking watching so when Jesus gets there He doesn't just find a father who's desperate to see his son Changed and and and helped he sees an argument going on and he hears these people bickering and stuff and he comes down He goes what in the world and this father sees Jesus we read this in some of the other accounts He sees Jesus and he runs for him He says they have mercy on my son and so forth And he's there's a demonic issue and he needs your help and and you guys probably, you know Remember the rest of the story even as it's told in some of the other Gospel accounts Jesus takes care of the demon The boy is healed and Later on when the disciples are alone with Jesus, they're kind of like They want to get private, you know, they don't want to bring it out in front everybody else How come we couldn't do it, you know? And Jesus responds and it's it's it's an important response It's in verse 20 He says because you have so little faith, I actually like the way the New King James renders this too because The New King James says because of your unbelief You know Which really is consistent with the passage because when Jesus saw that this thing wasn't happening. He said Oh perverse and unbelieving generation and it was unbelief that he recognized among them as The issue that was causing a problem and so, you know It is I think it very much in keeping with the passage that Jesus would say to them because of your unbelief You know, that's that's what's going on So Jesus raises again this issue for us, which we find raised many times in the gospel accounts And that is the issue of faith And you know every time I talk about this We have to kind of talk about it we can't just pass it over quickly because there are so many people in the body of Christ for whom this subject of faith or The lack thereof is a very confusing one. so how much faith do you need anyway? How much faith is necessary? Well, Jesus actually addresses that as he goes on Here in verse 20 where he says look at verse 20. I Tell you the truth If you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move Nothing will be impossible for you Now wild Do you know how big we're talking here just just let me show you just in case you want to just get a little refresher Here's how big a mustard seed is You like that I Mean that's that's obviously magnified many many times That's a mustard seed Jesus said if you have faith the size of a mustard seed Nothing will be impossible for you. You can move mountains And I look at that picture even though it's magnified and I say that doesn't look all that big In fact, that looks pretty small to me. Doesn't it kind of look small to you? And we look at it and we go Whoa Why am I not moving mountain said? Why aren't we seeing mountains moving more than perhaps we we might otherwise and and Yet it is crazy, you know, you know what it means, you know what Jesus's statement means When he spoke to them and said you don't have enough faith or you have so little faith You know what? That means that means they had less than that It has to because if you have just that much you can move mountains That means they had less than that It might just mean that you and I do too quite possibly But then I have to ask myself a question. Is it really a matter of less? Or is it a matter of any at all? in other words was Jesus truly trying to make a statement of quantity of here or Was he using an example of comparison in order for you and I to get the point If you have faith the size of a head of a pin You can move mountains and what he's basically saying by that is if you have faith You can move mountains, you know, isn't that kind of what he's saying? And what that leaves you and I with is the idea that I need faith I need to have faith Because if something isn't happening it could very well mean that I don't have that and so forth Now here's the problem. Here's the problem This is what this is the where we have to kind of get into our usual terms of discussion There are some Christians well-meaning Who love the Lord? but who read a passage like this in Matthew chapter 17 and and a few other places and They look at this and what Jesus said to his disciples and they say see You see that They say when you pray and nothing happens it's because you don't have enough faith Jesus said so and And what they do is They make it into a hardened fast rule that applies in all situations and And and they basically say that is the reason why things aren't happening when you pray and so forth Well, you see the problem with that is that it you know, that is what the passage is saying right here But the fact of the matter is For those of us who take the Bible from Genesis to Revelation We find that there are actually statements throughout the course of God's Word that speak to the issue of why we might pray and Mountains might not move So here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna lay out for you five and this is just five I could do a lot more by the way, but I'm gonna lay out for you five reasons From the word and I'll show you in the word where each one is found Why we may not receive ready answers to our prayers number one Let me put it up on the screen here for you You can write these down those of you that are taking notes The very first one is the one that we just saw here in this passage We don't have faith in God and what that means is we are dealing with unbelief, you know When Jesus said I mean they the disciples came to him and they said why couldn't we cast out the demon Jesus said because of your unbelief or because you have so little faith and so forth It's you have less than a mustard seed Which is kind of his way of saying You just didn't have faith that that was gonna happen. And that is sometimes you have to admit it. That's that's sometimes the reason and What is our well our biblical proof text for that is the one we're reading here But also in James chapter 1 look at this. It says but when you ask You must believe and not doubt Because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea Blown and tossed by the wind that person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord Why because doubt is? crowding out Faith right so, okay. That's a legitimate reason But is it the only reason not at all look at the next one number two The next one is we simply aren't asking according to God's will now. Here's the problem you see here's the problem with some of the folks who like to kind of jump on this issue if you don't have enough faith is They've decided that pretty much anything they want is God's will and And it gets really dangerous frankly because they start seeing promises in the Word of God where no promises exist and It gets damaging it gets hurtful and that's the problem, but you know God's Word tells us very clearly that and we'll take a look at this passage too because This one is also in or this is in 1st. John look at this This is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to his will He hears us and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask we know that we have What we asked of him There are a lot of Christians today who? assume That things like physical healing are Guaranteed for us in the gospel. They are not I I Tell you let me tell you something. Let me tell you some the older I get the more I wish I could say they are You know, I'm serious But I I can't honestly do that and people who quote the verse that says by his stripes we are healed are misquoting scripture No, they're misusing. They're quoting it correctly. They're misusing it You look at that passage You look at it in its original context and you look at it where it was used by the New Testament Authors and you will find that in each and every instance it refers to salvation It does not It is not a guarantee of physical healing. It's just see that's the problem You see is that there are certain groups that just say well see there's a promise It's a promise You know and and if you don't if you so if you get sick or whatever and you and you pray you don't get healed You didn't have enough faith period. It's all there is to it well, you have to really, you know, you have to really know the Word of God and And and this passage in first John reminds us that we need to pray According to his will and when we do he hears us, you know So, what do we do in the area of like physical healing since I brought that up as an example, well you pray You pray and you say Lord God, you know, you're able to do this You're able to do anything you want to do and I ask you in Jesus name to do this We're to pray by faith We're to pray believing But we're to also lay things in the the lap of God and say, you know, according to your will let it be done That's the way Jesus taught us to pray Not as I will but your will be done so we need to know God's will we need to be praying in accordance with God's will and The thing that's really important about this verse that we see here in first John is that it reminds us something it reminds us That the God we serve is not obligated to give us whatever we want just because we've added enough faith to the equation That's what the word faith movement does that is so damaging it takes God out of a thinking caring sovereign being and it turns him into a vending machine and If you simply put in enough faith and you push the button out comes your prize and God is Obligated to give you your prize if you if you've put in the right amount of money, it's like a vending machine Hey, I put in a dollar twenty-five This machine is now obligated to give me that because it says it's a dollar twenty-five Boom, I push that button and if that does thing doesn't drop down. I'm mad and I'm shaking this thing and get you know, sort of then I'll go talk to the management and That's the way people respond to God, but they've got it all worked out in their theology See, all you got to do is just have enough faith and you push the button and it's there Doesn't they don't even think about whether it's God's will They assume of course, it's God's will of course. It's got well by his stripes. You've been healed. Yeah, you're misquoting that You misunderstand what that passage is saying and so forth and that's just one example There's a there's a third reason that the Bible tells us that we may ask and not receive right away and that's because we ask with wrong motives and This passage is also given to us in the book of James James chapter 4 verse 3 says when you ask you do not receive Because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures in other words You're just completely self-centered about what you're asking about or what you're asking for It's all about you. It's all about, you know It's all for the wrong reasons and this is closely related to the last point, but it clarifies You know a little for us why our requests aren't part of God's will it's because our motives are messed up You know you and I just can't assume that our motives are always pure. I wish we could I wish we could But you know Paul even wrote and he said, you know, my conscience is clear, but that doesn't mean I'm innocent That's a paraphrase, but that's basically kind of what he said My conscience is clear, but that doesn't mean I'm you know, everything's all hunky-dory Because God judges the heart. I don't know sometimes my motives are exposed for what's really going on and I'm even surprised To learn what's behind it all so sometimes we pray with wrong motives The fourth reason sometimes our prayers might not receive ready answer This is that that they are hindered by our own behavior. Check out this passage from first Peter chapter 3 Goes like this husbands and this is just an example in the same way be considered as you live with your wives and Treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs With you of the gracious gift of life look at this so that nothing will hinder your prayers The way and this again, this is just one example, but the way a man treats his wife can create a hindrance to prayer a hindrance for prayers being answered in other words What this passage says is I just can't go and live any way I want to and expect that I'm gonna have this effective prayer life I can actually hinder and the reason I can I can hinder my my my prayer effectiveness is Because when I'm living my own way and just walking in blatant sin There's becomes this separation between me and God that can only be restored through confession and repentance Turning from that sin and getting right back, you know getting back on the right track You know, I mean, I'm just telling you what the Word of God says right your your prayers can be hindered by by your actions and Then here's the last reason that I'm gonna share with you. It's that and this is a hard one though But it's good. Sometimes God has a higher purpose Then you know what you could even imagine Do you remember the The passage in 2nd Corinthians, I've talked about this so many times Where Paul said three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away meaning that thorn in the flesh and it says But he said to me, do you know what but he said to me means it means no Right three times. I pleaded with the Lord to take away this thorn in my flesh But he said to me, you know what Paul? Here's the part you don't understand that thorn in your flesh is has a higher purpose and I know it's tormenting you and I know Purpose and I know it's tormenting you and I know that it makes life very uncomfortable in fact miserable for you But let me tell you something that thorn in your flesh is actually Producing something in your life that keeps you useful in my hands Because you see I've shown you things that I've shown like very few people in this entire world and to keep you from becoming Puffed up or as the NIV says conceited I've given you this thorn in your flesh to remind you that you are a mere man Paul recognized it and you know what he stopped asking You know why because God said in this case Paul my grace is sufficient for you I'll give you the grace that you need To walk through life with this constant physical reminder you are a man and nothing more than a man I Love you But this is for a reason and that's something that's hard for you and I to grasp and lay hold of sometimes especially if God hasn't spoken to you and Given you specific Explanations for what you may be going through But where whereas someone might come to you and just say oh, well you obviously don't have enough faith You and I know that there are other reasons from the Word of God and one of those is that God sometimes has a higher Purpose it's what we call Redemptive suffering you guys in other words There's a redeeming value to the things that we suffer in this life God knows that we ought to know that we see it in The Word of God and we should understand that there are times that God says no. I've got a purpose for that in your life Simple as that now let me tell you something. I only brought up five things Could have brought more I I just in the interest of time I could have talked and we didn't talk about Demonic opposition we we see in the book of Daniel. There are times that prayers don't receive ready answers because of demonic opposition Literally holding back an answer to prayer and so forth. I didn't even mention just simply God's divine delays to answering your prayer You know in the case of Zachariah He prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed for his wife Elizabeth to have a baby and he had Long since stopped praying for her and then she got pregnant Way past when she should have ever gotten pregnant So there was a divine delay to that but I'm sure there was a long period of Zachariah's life where he went well God didn't answer that prayer and And somebody probably some well-meaning dork head came along and said well if you just had a little more faith your wife would have had a baby and It had nothing to do with faith. It had to do with God's timing and God brought it about in his own good time And you know you and I have to remember we're not at the end of our life there God can still answer some of those prayers that have been stored up from years past that maybe even you've stopped praying about but he Remembers you know in fact you remember that's what God said to Zachariah through the angel He said he said your prayers have been heard by God, and he's like what what prayer are you talking about? my wife Yeah, ain't happening. I Didn't even mention either the situation where God might not answer your prayer simply the way you prayed it because he had a different solution a Different way of meeting the need that maybe hadn't even entered into your mind But the point of all this is is that too often we just simply jump to conclusions About faith or the lack thereof and why things aren't happening the way we think there's they should and And we we don't take all of God's Word into consideration. Here's the deal though you see we serve a mighty God for whom nothing is impossible And that's something you and I need to remember nothing is impossible for God and He is a sovereign God who will act according to his will So with all this talk about faith The question I want to ask you this morning is How's your faith doing? And I'm not just talking about faith to believe for a new car Or faith to believe for this or that or talking about to just I'm talking about faith in the general sense How's your faith doing? We we usually figure that out when we go through a hard time. Don't we when we hit a rough patch as we like to say we we figure out pretty quickly where our faith is at and I Wouldn't it be great if we could just hook our hearts up to a faith meter. I put one up here I I thought this is great. I found this on the internet How much am I trusting God, you know, wouldn't it be great if you could just kind of hook that baby up and just kind of See where it registers, you know, it's like oh man. I'm all the way up to 200, you know Or maybe you're up to 10 or something like that, or maybe the needle doesn't even move It'd be kind of nice to be able to do that But you need to know something Satan wants to keep you at zero all the time. You need to know that Satan wants to erode your faith And he by the way, he's good at it he's been playing this game a whole lot longer than you and I have He's got his game down He's very effective The Bible says he's like a roaring lion prowling around Seeking whom he may devour right? How does he what how does he want to devour you just exactly how? He wants to take your faith people Do you know why? Because the righteous shall live by faith We are saved by faith. We are kept by faith. We are empowered by faith We believe for answers to prayer by faith. It is by faith The Bible says from first to last it's faith faith faith. And so when Satan comes along He's you know, he's not interested in your toys. In fact, he'd love you to have as many of those as you can But he's interested in eroding your faith and he loves to do it through the big D Which is discouragement? Things don't happen the way you think they should you see a world that seems out of control chaotic or whatever or just things happening all around and and and it just it there's this this There's this subtle erosion of trust and faith And you and you can live your life without even noticing the erosion until life just kind of smacks up against a wall and Then You you realize it You know, I I think of faith is kind of like a an immune system in your physical body Your your immune system can be compromised and eroded and weakened and you wouldn't notice it until a bug comes along You know and some virus or some bacteria comes along and because you have a weakened immune system It just attacks your body. Whoa, you know and you end up just you're getting everything You're picking up every little cold and every thing a disease and you know, whatever because you have a weakened immune system well when you have a weakened faith system You pick up all the little bugs that are going around with life too, and you just seem to kind of fall to everything Do you remember Do you remember at the Last Supper? When Jesus was telling his disciples that that very night that they were all going to desert him and Peter's kind of just Rose up in in his own personal, you know, he was just indignant. He said he said no No, not me. Not me And Jesus who was always full of love just said well Pete, buddy Actually, it's even gonna be a little worse for you You're all gonna desert me but you personally are gonna deny three times that you ever even knew me No No, I'm not going to do that. And then Jesus said this and this is this is really important In fact, let me let me let me put this on the screen. Let me put this on the screen This is really important. In fact, let me let me let me put this on the screen for you. This is so important Jesus said but I've prayed for you Simon. Look at this that your faith may not Fail and then when you've come back strengthen your brothers Isn't that interesting of all the things that Jesus was concerned about Peter related to this? Incredible bottoming out of his life, which was a huge thing in Peter's life the biggest concern Jesus had that he prayed for that his faith would not fail He knew the disappointment and the erosion potential of what Peter was about to go through He knew and understood what kind of dynamic? You know Consequences that sort of an event could have in Peter's life. There's that I've prayed for you that your faith might not fail You know We should we really need to take a tip from this guys when we're praying for people when we're praying for people going through a Hard time we're constantly praying that that hard time would go away Do you know it's a Jesus didn't say but I've prayed for you Peter that all this stuff wouldn't even happen Well, I'm just I just pray that you would just start living the rest of your life just heaven on earth Floating across the ground Never touching never stubbing your toe never having another he didn't say that he said, you know, I've prayed for you Peter This is this is going down. It's good. Let me tell you But I have asked God the Father To hold you to keep you to protect you So when this thing is all said and done It will have not shipwrecked you as it relates to your faith And I think that that is such an important thing for us to remember because you know what if you're not living by faith Which is the way we're called to live as believers the righteous shall live by faith if you're not living by faith. How are you living? by your wits You know by fear Half the time that's the way we're living not by faith, but by fear or by our own strength If your faith has been eroded You don't have much to go on And there's a very real potential your faith could be shipwrecked it's possible You know Paul was greatly concerned in his New Testament epistles when he wrote to the church about those who were coming into the churches and teaching false doctrine And he said because of these people the ship the the faith of some has been shipwrecked You know So What's the answer to keeping our faith vibrant and strong Probably waiting for me to get to this Because it always has to come down to it, doesn't it? I mean if we don't put we don't put legs on this thing if we don't put wheels under it It's not going anywhere. So we got to know what is What is the answer? Well, I'm going to kind of answer it Well, I'm going to answer that but I'm not going to do it in detail not today But I'm going to give you four things here and none of these are going to surprise any of you So don't expect to be wowed. Okay, and you know, that's the thing about what builds up our faith There's nothing new here that we're not cutting any new revelation you guys you you with me don't expect to go. Whoa I never thought of that No, these are all very very normal. Let me put this up on the screen for you. First of all The word Duh To keep your faith vibrant you need to be in the word next you need to be praying Next you need to be in fellowship and involved in the encouragement and accountability that comes with true biblical Koinonia, and then next you need to be walking in obedience Though it's amazing how obedience plays into the issue of a growing vibrant faith We downplay it way more than we should. All right. Now, here's the deal I'm about five minutes from you know Being done here, so we obviously can't get into these things, but here's what I'm gonna do And this is what I felt like the Lord was laying on my heart to do. I'm gonna take the next four weeks and We're gonna spend one week on each one of these things and we're gonna talk about how this can be used in your life to encourage you and to help you to have a growing and healthy and vibrant faith And we're gonna talk about And we're gonna talk about practical things we're gonna we're gonna look into the Word of God about what it says and Hopefully we're going to just have a very take a very pragmatic approach to this whole thing So that so after that four weeks is done. You're gonna feel like you've you understand better the tools That have been given to you by the Holy Spirit To be able to strengthen your faith You know, this is just one of those things that you and I can't we can't neglect, you know, we can't we can't neglect Because like I said, if you don't have a growing vibrant faith, then what do you have? What are you living by? What are you living by well something else Bible says without faith it's impossible to please God So we got to have faith we got to have a vibrant growing living faith Is yours a Vibrant living growing faith. I hope you can say yes, but if you're one of the many people who? Well, yeah, I won't say money. I'll even go farther than that for all of us our faith gets assaulted on a regular basis and becomes eroded and Whittled down to the point where you know, we are struggling big time So we need to we need to lay hold of these tools and really be using them You