Sermon Notes – Thriving In the Valley of Reality

Thriving In the Valley of Reality, Mark 9:14-29
J. Josh Smith, MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church, attended September 27, 2009

Christian, from The Pilgrim’s Progress, only spent a little time on the roof of House Beautiful looking at the mountains. His journey required heading into the Valley of Humiliation. He could not stay long on that “mountain top” experience.

Jesus took His disciples to the Mount of Transfiguration for the same reason as Christian went to the roof, to give them a “foretaste of glory divine.” The mountain is not reality however. They had to come down to the valley – the valley of reality.

We live in the valley of reality. It is hard. It hurts. There a lot of tears, pain and disappointments. This passage reminds us of where we live. It tells us not just to exist there, but to thrive.

1. The reality of the valley – Mark 9:14-18

The reality of conflict – Mark 9:14-16

They come down to a tense situation. There is arguing. There is a crowd who doesn’t want to solve, or be involved in, the conflict. They just want to know of the conflict going on.

Note that Jesus has been gone and the conflict remains. The remaining disciples were preaching the message. As long as the message is preached conflict remains. We can not tell them of Jesus and keep things calm, or tell them and deal with the conflict.

We should not be surprised there is conflict. (James 4:1-2 and Philippians 1:29-30) There will be conflict in our relationships.

The reality of combat – Mark 9:17, 20, 22, 26

This is not a combat against flesh and blood, but a life of unending, unyielding spiritual combat. (2 Corinthians 10:3-4, Ephesians 6:12) Look at the combat in your heart to sin, to go back to the old man. The deeper you go with Christ, the harder the combat gets. This shouldn’t surprise us.

The reality of incompetence – Mark 9:18

“…and they were not able.” They could not do it. They were unable to do it. It is almost crushing sometimes to realize our inability to do it on our own. We need God to do anything. We need Him to tell us how to lead our family, to help us be a husband…the list is endless.

1 Peter 4:12 emphasizes this. It is almost as if he is saying, “Who gave you the misconception that you are supposed to get heaven here?” Our time here is not meant to be heaven.

2. The response of Jesus – Mark 9:19-24

He confronts the faithless – Mark 9:19

I hope He puts up with us longer! They depended on their own ability. They don’t believe in His ability to do what they need.

He confronts the situation – Mark 9:19-22

“Bring him to me!” If you can? Do anything? This is Jesus! Maybe he thought it was too big for Jesus since His disciples couldn’t fix it.

He calls the man to faith – Mark 9:23-24

Do you have the faith to access my ability? The man admits his own inability and sees his lack of faith. He doesn’t want to do miracles without us; He wants to do them through us. Engage your faith with His ability. The valley is not a problem with Jesus! Jesus thrives in the valley!

3. The reason for their failure – Mark 9:28-29. “Why could we not do it?” They ask a negative question but Jesus gives a positive answer. We would almost rather have Jesus give us the list on why it wouldn’t happen than why it would.

Failure of faith – He rebukes them for their faithlessness. They didn’t trust His ability.

Failure of dependence – They thought they could do it without Jesus. They thought they had the ability. Their state of rebellion led to humiliation.

Failure of prayerlessness – His answer that it requires prayer, means that they didn’t pray. They didn’t ask Jesus to help.

How do we thrive in the valley of reality?

Recognize your inability – Where are you on the incompetence scale? An 8? Whatever you think you are it isn’t enough. You are a 75. They couldn’t do it and neither can you. Must admit to Him that you are incapable of doing what you called me to do. Realize it now. The disciples didn’t know they couldn’t do it until Jesus told them.

Recognize God’s ability – On the competence scale God is about a 75 million! He has all the ability. He is able to accomplish what concerns you. He wants your recognition of your inability to free you and thus glorify Him.

Access to God’s ability comes through prayer – Get His “can” to our “can’t” by praying so His “can” gets the glory. Prayer is not your means to escape your reality but your means to thrive in reality. Don’t pray to escape! Do not live to survive; live to thrive. We aren’t here just to exist. He has us here to display to others His sufficiency and power in the valley. God doesn’t want to defeat you in your inability but to free you to access His power.