The Unfinished Work
It's Not Working Anymore
Jesse Holcomb
Today’s Scripture: Luke 9:37-42
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Luke 9:37-42 CSV
The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, because he’s my only child. A spirit seizes him; suddenly he shrieks, and it throws him into convulsions until he foams at the mouth; severely bruising him, it scarcely ever leaves him. I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.” Jesus replied, “You unbelieving (faithless) and perverse generation, how long will I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.” As the boy was still approaching, the demon knocked him down and threw him into severe convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.
1) LIFE IS FILLED WITH HARD STOPS
Mark 9:28-29 CSV
After he had gone into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
2) JESUS WANTS US TO PRESS IN
Unless we maintain this contact with God (in prayer) we lose two things. First we lose vitality. we lose that living power, that something plus which makes for greatness. The thing becomes performance instead of an offering to God. What should be a vital, living body becomes a beautiful corpse. Second, we lose humility. What should be used for God’s glory we begin to use for our own, and the virtue goes out of it.What should have been used to set God before men is used to set ourselves before them, and the breath of loveliness is gone- William Barclay
Matthew 17:20 CSV
“Because of your little faith,” he told them. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
3) WE MUST KEEP THE GOSPEL CENTRAL
Luke 9:43-45 CSV
And they were all astonished at the greatness of God. While everyone was amazed at all the things he was doing, he told his disciples, 44 “Let these words sink in: The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men
