Mark 9:23-24 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. 
We are continuing our look at the promises of God to His people. We have seen His faithfulness, His sovereignty, His Omnipotence and His Omniscience active in the lives of those who respond to the call of His divine Love, in those covered in His mercy and saved by His glorious grace. Through the gift of His Holy Spirit, we have the comfort of God operating in our lives on a daily basis. We have the Word of God working in us through the direct application and life given it by the Holy Spirit. We have seen the eternal life that is ours in Christ, not for our sakes, but for the fellowship of God with man in the living Son of God, His Beloved. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, and we know that we can trust God with every aspect of our being and life on this earth. He will see us through to that which He will have on this earth, the perfect and spotless bride as a witness of the great love with which He has loved this world. These are but a few of the promises that we have considered. 
	This evening, let us look at the promise contained in thisr passage. This is the story of the man whose son was possessed of a spirit who would attack the boy and put him into fits of convulsions and seizures. It was so severe that the boy would fall into fire and be scorched, or into water and almost drown. The father was desperate in his love for his son, and had turned to the disciples and asked them to cast out the spirit, for the sake of the boy. The disciples had tried and had failed. This then brought forth the crowds to witness what Jesus of Nazareth would do. The scribes were there, intently watching what Christ might accomplish. The father pleaded with the Lord to help his son, and the Lord made this promise, for him and for all of us. If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Sadly, there is much held within this verse that has been perverted by the powers of the age in which we live.
	This has ever been a mantra of the positive thinkers declaring that man can do anything if he believes strongly enough in his abilities and in his strength and in his intellect and in his determination. This world elevates those who can proclaim their independence from the chains of mediocrity through their hard work and strong determination to make it on their own.
	Even Christians have been clouded in the dust of the world’s thought on this passage. God helps those who help themselves, is one example that has been claimed as part of God’s Word, even though it is a quote from Benjamin Franklin and not scripture. Man has ever wanted to see himself as able to do everything that his limited mind can imagine and which he can construct for himself through his belief in the power of himself. Oh, how far from the Word of God is that tactic of deception. The power of the father’s belief, in our story, was not set in that father, as many would proclaim. It was not because he was able to will his son to be better that the boy was released from the hand of his tormentor. It was the power of Christ that accomplished this, and only the power of Christ. His disciples had tried and failed, even with all their training in the ways of the Lord. The power of healing was fully in the hand and the heart of Christ. This was not a challenge to the ability of the faith of man to perform miracles. It was rather the testament to the inability of man to do anything, and the Omnipotence of God to do everything. 
	We have faced this same issue as we pondered the salvation that we were offered in Christ Jesus Our Lord and Our Savior. Much is held in this declaration of Who Christ is. Many of us had to struggle through the view that we were giving up the control of our lives to the Lord in accepting Him as Our Savior. We were more than willing to believe in Him with the view to our being saved from hell. It was the matter of Lordship, His control of our lives, which became the issue with us. We wanted salvation on our terms, not His. We wanted to maintain the power of doing what we desired rather than what He ordained for us in His plan and purpose for our lives.
	We wanted to be saved and at the same time be the one who controlled the way we lived and interacted with the world around us. We thought we knew ourselves and our capabilities and our strong points and our weaknesses better than even God knew us. No way can I do that Lord, I can’t speak in front of crowds, I can’t witness to strangers, and I can’t forgive the wrong that was done to me! Area after area in our lives became battle grounds with the Holy Spirit, in a most audacious manner of telling God what He could or could not do in our lives. Our belief was that we could handle the problems in our own way. We believed in ourselves and not the Lord. 
	Was this the experience of all of us, probably? Do we need to feel ashamed of our deliberate self-deceit? Not if we have now realized that only the Hand of God can accomplish all things in our lives and in this creation. If we have been brought to the point of complete reliance on God Alone to get us through the day, then we have been dealt the necessary death blow of self. We are now instilled with the truth that Our God is Omnipresent, and Omnipotent, and Omniscient in all the fullness of His love. We can see that He does know what the best is for each one of us, and that His ways far supersede even any thought that we might have. That truth is held in the passage of our consideration. It is in the belief that we have in God; Father, Son, and Spirit. 
	The father of our text was at the end of any hope. He had tried everything humanly possible to get healing for his beloved son. In utter desperation, he came to Christ, knowing that even Christ’s disciples had failed. Even so, he begged the Lord to deal with that destructive spirit. He was completely empty of any other recourse, and was willing to humble himself before this Jesus of Nazareth for the sake of his boy. There was no self-elevation. There was no bargaining with the Lord – if you do this, I will do that type of thing. No, he was wholly seeking after only that which would have a healing power in his son. He sought the hand of God to manifest Himself in a mighty fashion.
	How much like that father we are in our beliefs and in our seeds of faith. We will try anything and everything to get the help we need. Many times we do everything we can first, trying to establish whether or not we even need to go to a higher power. If we can handle the problem, then we feel it is not necessary to bring it to the Lord. We feel good about ourselves and our efforts and our abilities when we can deal with issues all by ourselves. The problem, however, is that we are multiplying a deeper issue in this manner. We are adding to the depth of reliance of self over the need of reliance upon God. It is as we face those elements that are far beyond us, that we begin to see that there is nothing in us that can deal with what we call the major issues. We seek assistance from every avenue, every person without any success. We try all kinds of fads and psychological mumbo-jumbo, anything except the way of the cross. Finally, after countless frustrations and disappointments, we come in humbleness to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are worn out. We are wallowing in hopelessness. We are at the end of all trust in ourselves. There is no where else to turn. We beseech Him in humbleness and in desperation. And the joy of the matter is that He then is able to meet our every need, even those we didn’t know we had.
	As we are brought to this place over and over again, we finally begin to realize our ways never really accomplish anything of spiritual value. We see that in everything, large and small, there is only one place to go, and that is to the Lord, first and foremost. Our abilities are seen for what they are - a gift from God to be used for God’s purpose alone. We hear the voice of God, as He talked with Moses in Exodus 31:3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. All that we are, all that we have, all that we know is a gift from God for His purpose and for His glory. That in itself is a tremendous realization. It changes the whole perspective of who we are on this earth. It settles the issue of the control of our beings, because we see that we have no control. All that is part of us is God’s to use as He has ordained. We become simply the willing and loving servants who choose to obey the leading of Our Master and bring unto others the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.
	This then brings us back to the father as he was prostrate before the Lord in his hopelessness and desperation. The Lord made the statement of the promise of God to those who believe, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. What is the belief that is required? Is it in the power of man to visualize and to determine in his heart that he can do anything that he puts his mind too? Hardly! It is in the power of God to do that which He has promised from before the ages of the ages. It is the belief that God so loved that world that He sent His only begotten Son to die as a means of bringing salvation to mankind, lost in sin and trespass. It is the belief that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is exalted above all else in the whole of creation. It is the belief that He alone is worthy to be Lord of our lives. If thou canst believe? The question rocked the very foundation of the desperation of the father. What else could he do, where else could he turn, what other avenue was open for the healing of his son? There was nothing. He was wallowing in the unbelief that anything would ever bring relief to the boy whom he cherished. He had to believe in something, and he chose to believe in the power of Christ. At that point, only the teacher before him could be of any help, and that desparate father laid open his heart before this rabbi. 
	It is here that there is a cutting asunder, as if with a sword, of the power of this world and the power of God. This is the challenge we face on a daily basis. This is the point at which the label of Christian and the life of Christ separate into two distinct camps. It is easy to call ourselves Christian. We do so with the complete inability to understand what consequences are before us. Christianity, in this world’s sense, is a manner of reaching out to a segment of society that will respond with wealth and worldly esteem. It places us into the realm of capitalization on the mores of our society. Many are the rewards of being a Christian rather than a heathen. Much is made of the stature of one, politically, economically, and socially, if one carries the correct label. It has become an element in a sort of American caste system. It is very difficult to attain the success of this age without the brand name of Christian somewhere in the credential process. That is this world’s perversion and attempt to discredit the value of the name of Christ. This is the avenue that expounds the value of self over everything and everyone else. This is the deluded aspect of the slavery and bondage of this age.
	The other course, at the feet of Christ, is the tearing asunder of this age’s belief system. We come to Christ, not to the name, but to the person. We stand before Him and we discover the depth of the belief that we have in ourselves and in Him. We are placed into the heart of the issue. Do we believe in Him? Do we really believe in Him? Not just in the name, not is the title, not in the things that we can get by the use of that name, but in Him. He is the Son of God. He is God incarnate. He is the complete antithesis of everything that we once knew and believed. Do we believe? Is He the only source of who we are? Do we believe that He Alone is the means by which God has offered salvation to mankind whom He created? Do the heart, soul, and spirit of our essence believe that He is the only means by Whom we can live on this earth? Are we ready to give everything to Him for His purpose, for His life to live forth from us unto others? Are we ready to have our self lives put to death in order for the life of Christ to become our life? Is He our only hope?
	The words of Christ echo in the hollow chambers of our minds and hearts. If thou canst believe? We are put into the position of defining what it is that we do believe. It is only as every answer returns, Christ, I believe in Christ Jesus. I believe that He is the source of my very life. I believe that He is the only salvation for me and for the entire world. That is what I believe. I know Him. I trust Him. I value Him above all else. Only He can do all that the promises of God entail. Only Christ can wipe away every tear and dispel every fear. Only Christ can heal me. Only Christ can hold my children and keep them close to His heart. It is Christ Alone who can settle the raging storms of doubt, of fear, of anguish, of hopelessness, of unbelief!
	It is in this knowledge that we can follow the words of Christ, All things are possible to him who believes. The value of our belief is not that we can do anything. It is that Christ can do everything. That is the tremendous difference in the focal point of the statement before us. Christ has included us in Himself, in the oneness that is established through His death and resurrection. The people at this event had no knowledge of what was still to come. Many, I am sure, thought that they would be given the ability to do all the things that their hearts desired. They echoed the world’s vision of me, mine and whatever else I can get. But that was not the thought of Christ in this wonderful promise. When we view it from what was to come, the union of God with man in Christ Jesus, we can clearly understand that the Lord was referring to the fact that as we believe on Him, as He becomes our life, our desires, our thoughts, our emphasis on this earth will not be what we can get out of it, but on what He can do through the people that He has loved unto Himself. We will not be looking at selfish goals and wants, but at what would please the Lord in the lives that we live before all mankind, before all of creation. 
Is there any limit to the power of Christ on earth or in heaven? Nothing can stand before Him without bowing down in the assertion that He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lamb Who was slain, and Who now reigns eternally. All power, on heaven and earth has been given Him by the Father, and He now indwells us by His very life. 
Yes, All things are possible to him who believes because we believe that Christ is preeminent above all things. Christ, in His Omnipotence, in His Omniscience, in His Omnipresence, has charge over us, and will keep us unto Himself because He loves us. That is what we believe with a granite certainty in the Word of God. It is Christ Who has the ability to do all things. What we soon discover is that what we want has been transformed into only that which would please God, and that is what the Son is doing. We are not the ones who make anything happen; we just begin earnestly praying more accurately after that which God is doing in Christ Jesus. We begin to see, ever more clearly the path that our lives need to take in the will of God, and we desire His will to be accomplished in us, in our loved ones and in all with whom we have contact on this earth. 
We seek after the saving power of Christ to be active in this world, in the lives of the lost. We seek after the healing of the nations that will only come as Christ is recognized as the Lord of all. We determinedly beseech God to make our lives an ever clearer vessel through which Christ can live forth unto this world. These are the most impossible tasks in this age of self-absorption, yet that is the work that Christ has already accomplished in His death and resurrection. In Him, all things are possible! This is attested to by the Apostle Paul in Phil 4:13, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. The all things is the bearing up under the pressures and the trials of this age so that Jesus Christ is glorified in the lives that we live on this earth. The power is His. The focus is Him. The outcome rests in Him, Alone. This is where the father of our story came face to face with the choice of the power of man or the power of God. He chose the infinite power of God, as evidenced in his response to Christ Jesus.
Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” The choice was made. The father willingly turned to the Lord and proclaimed that he did believe that Christ could do what He said He would. Even more, however, was the honesty with which he besought the Lord. We should echo the response of that father as we face the Lord Jesus Christ, I do believe; help my unbelief. 
Lord, I believe you are Who the Bible tells us you are. I believe that you are the Lord of all Creation. I believe that in You, our sins are forgiven and that we are now made the Beloved of God. I believe that You are doing all that You promised to do in our lives through the effective work of the Holy Spirit, I believe that only you can heal me – help my disbelief! Turn me inside out and do away with the doubt that plagues my mind and my logic. Lord, establish yourself as the very basis of my life that there is no longer any question as to the source of the life that I live.
Lord, I believe! Deal with my unbelief! For the sake of my loved ones, for the sake of my life, for the sake of your testimony put an end to everything else that questions You, Your Power, Your sovereignty, Your faithfulness, Your love. Turn me inside out in order to establish a complete reliance on You Alone. Be my life! Be my Lord! Be my Hope! Be my Thought! Be my heart! Lord Jesus Christ – Be my Faith to believe!
We need to recognize the fact that Christ Jesus brings more to us from God than salvation, more than Lordship, more than all the provision of our beings. Please know that none of these are too be belittled. None of these are lacking in any form or fashion in the Love of God. Each one is glorious in its own consideration of the life that we are to live before God. But there is something else inherent in this, something far greater than we may have ever considered before.
It is in faith that Christ is alive in us. It is in our belief and the removal of our unbelief that life pulses through these spirits of ours. As blood is the life source of the physical body, faith is the critical life source of our spiritual beings. Think for a second, one who refuses to acknowledge Jesus Christ is spiritually dead. There is no life because the faith required has not been established in Jesus Christ. For that person, there is no Christ. They utterly deny His very existence. It is much like the father who disinherits the son and refuses to acknowledge that he ever existed. I am certainly not saying that Christ is only alive if we believe, like a fairy tale. Never! That Christ is alive is recognized by us because we do believe, He has established His faith into our beings. He has raised us from the dead unto himself. It was a miracle and nothing short of it. But, for those who refuse Him, there is nothing. No spiritual life courses through their beings. They are, in a sense, a nonentity. They have no hope. They have no belief. They have no option. They have no life! It is as if Jesus of Nazareth never did rise from the dead on the third day. As they consider Him to be dead, so do they wallow in the death of their spirit, in utter selfish ignorance of the One Whom they deny. They are as dead as their unbelief in Christ is dead!
Oh Lord, we do believe that all things are possible, because we are the recipients of your spiritual life in the belief of our hearts. Help our unbelief! Set aside all that refuses to see the Love that You are to us in Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Our Savior. Lord, heal us in that power that raised Jesus Christ from the tomb, and seated Him at your right hand in the heavenly places. In your love, you have put us at that place in Jesus Christ. Bring us fully into all that You desire for our lives on this earth. Establish our belief and deal effectively and fully with our unbelief. 
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.