I Want to Be Strong
Mark 9:17-27
Introduction:
1. Read Mark 9:17-27
2. I often identify with this father: “help me in my unbelief”
3. I want to be stronger! To have more faith! To have more love! To have more zeal!
I. God expects us to be strong:
1. 1 Cor. 16:13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
2. Eph. 6:10ff. Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
3. 2 Tim. 2:1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
There was a woman who was well known in her community for her simple faith and her great calmness in the midst of trials. Another woman living at a distance, hearing about her, said, “I must go and see that woman. I want to learn the secret of her strong faith and happy life.”
The seeker inquired, “Are you the woman with the great faith?”
“No,” she replied, “I am not the woman with great faith; but I am the woman with the little faith in the great God.”
II. We Can Be Strong
1. 1 John 2:14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
a. We are strong when God’s word lives in us (Col. 2:6-7)
b. We are strong when we resist temptation (James 4:7-8)
2. Acts 16:16-25 Paul and Silas beaten and fastened in stocks were singing and praying.
1. Jude 24,25 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
2. Phil. 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
3. Eph. 6:10 Finally, be strong [lit. “be strengthened”] in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
4. 2 Cor. 12:7-10
· there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me
· I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
· "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."
· Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
· when I am weak, then I am strong.
5. 2 Tim. 4:16-18 the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished…The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom.
6. The question so often is not how strong we are, but whether we will trust God to the point we can be strengthened by Him.
7. Peter’s admonition (1 Pet. 4:19) let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.
8. God’s promise (1 Pet. 5:9-10) But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
Conclusion:
A group of scientists and botanists were exploring some inaccessible regions of the Alps in search of new flowers. One day they discovered through some binoculars a flower of rare beauty. The flower was in a place where someone could only reach it by being lowered down into a deep ravine.
The scientists approached a young man who lived in the Alps and who was watching their activity with a proposition to dig up the flower. They offered him a healthy sum to be lowered by rope into the ravine, get the flower, and then be raised up.
The boy looked at the dizzy heights and said, “Wait, I’ll be back.”
He returned with an older man and said to the botanist, “I’ll go over the cliff now and get the flower if you let this man hold on to the rope. He’s my father.”
You too have a heavenly Father, who will sustain you and strengthen you when you are faced with the hard times of life.
Heb. 13:5 "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,"
Is God at the other end of your rope?