Feel Little Faith? Produce Much PAIN!

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis.

Good morning, Saints. We are right back at it. It is Wednesday. My apologies for no episode yesterday. There was a whole bunch going on in my world yesterday, and I just needed a day to focus and plug in and Get done some stuff that had to get done. So my apologies for not being here and putting out an episode. But today we're going to get right back down to it. For those of you that are new to the program, it's a 15-minute devotional with some time of prayer. It's just so that men have an outlet and the ability to sit down and listen, whether you're driving to work, whether you're at your desk. Just spend some time in God's word every day. Often, often I hear that men just don't have the time. So I wanted to create an asset, a tool that you guys could do that. You could take that. 15 minutes and do it in a community. So that's what the purpose of this is. If you guys are like me and you like to do things in order, rest assured we are going through the Book of Luke. So we've gone from chapter 1 all the way through to where we are now in chapter 9. If you guys want to go back all the way to Luke 1, that's not a problem. All the episodes are there for you. If you guys are perfectly happy to just continue with us as we go through Luke 9, uh, welcome. We're going to do that today. So when last we were here, we had witnessed the Transfiguration of Christ, him at the top of the mount with Peter, John, James, and Elijah and Moses show up to the party as well. We had taken a look at how this was so similar to Christ's baptism in that God takes the time to pause, point, and say, this is my chosen. This is the one who was sent to do the thing that must be done. So today we're going to continue forward from that. Peter, John, and James now have this very clear understanding that Christ is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is going to die. He is God's chosen one. It is for that purpose that he has come. So starting today, it's going to be Luke chapter 9, verse 43. Oh no, sorry, verse 37. Yeah, so Luke chapter 9, verse 37. Now, as always, guys, I do encourage you to grab a Bible yourself to have that there with you so you can you know take notes or or rip through it on your own. But I understand some of you may be listening on the road, so don't worry. I do always read the passage onto the podcast. I read from the ESV. I understand that everybody's got their own favorite translation or paraphrase that they like to read, but for me it's the ESV. So here we go, Luke nine. Verse 37. On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses in him so that he foams at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not. Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation! How long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here. And while he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, let these words sink into your ears. The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. They did not understand the saying, and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying. So for those of you that were with us through Luke 8 and the start of Luke 9, we saw Christ's authority demonstrated very visibly in Luke 8. He showed his power over nature, over the demons, and over the body itself, over death itself. And here again, after the Transfiguration, he comes down from the mount, and what we see is the apostles who were left behind again lacking the faith to do what is necessary to drive this out. Now, this wasn't that it was a particularly difficult demon. It was a hard demon. It was a matter of— and Christ brings it to them— that You are faithless, but you do not have faith in the authority. You have it for a moment, but not for a season. You have it for a second, but not for an hour. You have it for a day, but not for a week. We constantly have this struggle of we see it, we witness it, we're a part of it, we breathe it, we live it, and yet somehow in a moment, in a, in a, in a In a brief moment, Christ goes away for a time. He goes away for— and in our own lives, he never goes away. He's always with us. But here he goes away for a time, and just that small time apart, the apostles that are left behind lose their faith. They forget the authority and the power of Christ, and it results not just in their own— not just in them receiving a rebuke from Christ directly to them, His frustration and his irritation, but also leads to the suffering of this father, the suffering of this child. When we withdraw from Christ, when we withdraw from his teachings and his authority, oftentimes we feel like that's a personal decision as men. We're going to do what we know to be true for a season at a time, and then we pull back. We either forget what the word has for us or we forget what Christ has commanded us to do, or we let something else from the world decide what will be as opposed to what Scripture tells us it should be. We wrestle with that and we struggle with that, but eventually we just let it linger and we let it go. And what we're seeing here is Christ demonstrating to us this doesn't come without a cost. When we lose that faith, you never lose salvation. So just to cut that off at the head, I'm not talking about salvation here, but I'm talking about faith, the depth of your faith. We even see throughout Scripture, we see Job lose faith, we see Jonah lose faith. We see Peter lose faith. We see Judas lose faith, and all of them in a different way. But when we lose faith, it doesn't just hurt ourselves. It hurts those in our community. It hurts those in our church. It hurts those in our family, our loved ones, those closest to us, our friends. To forget the authority, power, and absolute dominion That Christ has over our lives and the world causes pain. It causes hurt and it causes suffering. And I think that it's fitting here that we see in the passage, you have a passage where that pain is being made evident and Christ is making them aware that your faith is the issue. You twisted generation, you think that this is an action. Your apostles tried it, says your apostles could not do it, which means that they made an effort. They went through the motions, but without the faith, they weren't Able to actually bring to fruition the thing that should happen. They weren't able to do it. And then he proceeds to tell them, "You need to hear this. You need to hear this. I am the Son of Man, and I'm about to be delivered over to the hands of men. I am going to die." This is twice now, twice in Luke nine. He's told them, "I'm going to die." I'm going to do a thing and it's going to fulfill all of the Old Testament. It's going to fulfill all the promises you've been waiting for. I'm going to do it. And immediately following that announcement, they don't bow down. They don't sing Hosanna. They don't sing Hallelujah. They don't praise. They don't break into tears or songs of joy. They did not understand the saying, and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about the saying. It's important, guys, the authority of Christ in our lives, especially as men. We're called to be the heads of our household. We are called to represent Christ in our homes, in our communities, in our churches. And in order to do that, we have to remember the authority that Christ has and that to have faith in him isn't just going through the motions. It's not legalism. It's not rules for rules' sake. What it is is a dedication to the word. It's a dedication to what scripture has for us and what Christ has done for us. And if we lose sight of that, it's going to cause pain. It's going to cause hurt. So I would challenge you today, guys, if you see that you're hurting, if you see that there are those around you that are hurting, Take a moment and pause and pray and consider. Are you submitting to the authority of Christ? Are you looking to the word daily? Are you in the word daily? Are you hearing his commandments? Are you hearing his teaching? Are you making your decisions based off of what you see there? Or are you the man that looks in the mirror and quickly forgets who he is? Are you the man who reads scripture, knows scripture, and yet chooses to allow the world to influence? For whatever reason— political, religious, social, cultural, whatever it may be— are you allowing a worldview that isn't scriptural, that isn't from Christ, that isn't found in the Word to guide you, to lead you? If you are, I would ask you to just caution yourselves, build yourselves up, and come back to the Word today. Wrestle with it. Wrestle with that. If you are in the word, have faith. Have faith in that authority. And if you're seeing pain around you, go and bring hope. Bring that good news. That's what we're called to do. That's the beauty of the Great Commission is when you are sent out with the word and you bring that faith, you bring that passion, you bring that vigor in a steadfast way. It's going to ignite all the world around you and you will see pain start to drift away. You'll see separation and hurt and anxiety and, and anguish drift away. And instead, there will be conviction on Christ's authority. All right, men. This is the end of the episode every day. If you guys have prayer requests, again, the website is up. You guys can put your prayer requests there. You can reach out to me directly on social media. All those links are down below in the podcast description. So if you have prayer requests that you would like me to lift up, either anonymously or your first name or you don't mind having your full name, not a problem. Please just let me know, and I am happy to lift up those prayer requests. But I'm going to pray for you guys now, and we're going to head out to the day and just to have an amazing day. So, Lord, thank you so much for the blessings that you give. Thank you so much that despite what the world may seem, it doesn't have the authority. The rules of this world are what they are, and we are called to respect our leaders. We're called to respect the law, but only inasmuch As it doesn't contradict your word, as it doesn't contradict your teaching. You are first, you are foremost, you are final. I pray for the men that are struggling, Lord. Men that are struggling through pain in their marriage, men that are struggling through pain in their flesh, men that are struggling in pain with their children, with their community, with their job, men that are struggling, Lord. I just lift them up to you. I pray that they would constantly return to your word to be refreshed and see that you too suffered, but you were able to push through, to persevere and be steadfast. I pray that we would consider it pure joy because that's all that we can do. The trials are going to come. I pray that the men would be able to consider it pure joy that they face trials of many kinds, because just like you, Lord, we will get through it if we remain steadfast. And each trial men overcome, we will become to look a little bit more like you. I lift up praise, Lord, for the work that you're doing in so many: the healing of illness, the the reuniting of marriages, the emboldening of families, the the correction of churches to turn from one thing and come back to your word, Lord, to come back to your teachings. Lord, I lift up those that have fallen under the corruption of the world. You know the names of the men that are facing financial ruin and risk as a result of worldly greed and ambition, not their own, but those around them. And I pray that you would be in those times and places, Lord. I pray for the men, you know, the ones on my heart and the ones that have asked for prayer, Lord, that are currently facing a marriage where the love seems to be gone is the line, but your love never fails, Lord. So I pray that you would be in those places, you would be in those marriages, whatever the outcome, whatever the decision that the men and women make, Lord. I just pray that you're in that, that you would show them that you're there, that you would guide them in that, that you would strengthen them, that you would convict them that what you have joined together, no man may separate. I pray that these men would have an amazing rest of the week, Lord, and a powerful day with you. Not only seeing your faith, but trusting it and walking in it. In your name we pray. Have a great day, guys, and I will catch you tomorrow with another episode.

Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.