Study Notes

FOUNDATION STATEMENT: The administration of God’s love and grace in your life is determined by your faith.  God does not determine the administration of that love and grace, but it lies in the faith of the believer.

 

I.      Matthew 17:16-God’s grace is always more than enough & it’s more than enough for this situation

A.    2 Corinthians 12:9-God’s grace is sufficient for any situation

B.     We see the grace of God heal people of this (Matthew 15:30-31, 12:22) 

1.      Acts 10:34-God’s no respecter of persons; if he did for these he must do it for him

C.    Heb 4:16-In the time of need we need grace to help & grace needs faith to function

II.     If there is a lack of faith there will be a lack of grace and in turn you will lack the ability and resources to get the job done

A.    Matthew 17:16-The disciples tried but could not do it

1.      If the disciples couldn’t do it that reveals there was a lack of grace/power because if they had enough grace or power they could have done this

B.     Matthew 17:19-Jesus said the problem is your lack of faith and that’s why you lack grace

1.      Matthew 17:20-Jesus said you couldn’t do it b/c you lacked the currency of the Kingdom

a.      In the Kingdom of God the more you want to do the more faith you need

2.      The devil wasn’t too big (God’s grace was enough), their faith was too small

a.      Their capacity to receive wasn’t big enough to have this level of grace

C.    You can do something the word says, but not do it in faith and it’ll yield no profit

III.   The enemy will try to intimidate you out of your faith

A.    Satan can’t stop this grace once it shows up show his only hope is to get you out of faith so that it doesn’t show up

1.      Mark 9:20-When that spirit encountered Jesus, immediately it began to act up b/c it recognized the God in him and that spirit is trying to intimidate Jesus out of his faith

B.     If Jesus is going to get the devil out of him, he’s going to do it by grace through faith

1.      There’s some things that you just need to ignore

2.      The boy is over here rolling on the ground foaming at the mouth & Jesus doesn’t respond to it because he’s not going to let what he sees affect his faith

IV.   The administration of God’s power and love into the life of a believer is not determined by God, but it is determined by the faith of the believer

A.    Mark 9:22-He’s wanting to sit back and believe nothing and have Jesus be responsible for it

1.      IF THOU; that’s questioning, not believing - 1. If Jesus is - 2. If Jesus can - 3. If Jesus will

a.      Faith would have said, “The spirit cast him into the fire & into the water to destroy him, but you are the healer, you can heal him of this, and it’s your will to heal b/c you did it for every sick person that’s been brought to you, so get to going!”

2.      “If” praying is not acceptable (If you can, if you will, etc)-There’s no faith in “IF”

a.      Luke 18:42-What do you want him to do? Take it what you need

b.      It’s ur responsibility to know who God is, what He can do & what His will is-Eph5:17

B.     Mark 9:22-23-He tried to put his responsibility of receiving on Jesus and Jesus turns around and puts is right back on this man’s faith

1.      If THOU canst-He’s trying to make Jesus responsible for his receiving

a.      You can’t put your responsibility to receive over on God

1)       EX: What if the sinner said, God if you want to save me I know you will

b.      Your responsible for believing and God won’t do your believing for you

2.      Jesus is saying, “You’re trying to put this on my power and my compassion; I can do it, I want to do it, so now it’s just a matter of can you believe because what I do in this situation is going to be determined by what you believe?”

a.      Jesus asked for this boy to be brought to him (He wants to do something here)

b.      You can’t throw this over on God b/c He can do it and He wants to do it, but the level at which His power, compassion, and grace work is determined by your faith

1)       The swing vote in a man receiving from God is not God’s power or compassion, but it’s the man’s faith

C.    The man’s faith is like the thermostat; no matter what the thermostat is set at the furnace or a/c will go to work to meet the demand of the thermostat; in the same way no matter where your faith is set the power of God and the love of God will go to work to meet the demand of your faith

1.      The administration of God’s love, grace, and power in your life gets their instructions from your faith 

2.      You can’t put the responsibility of what you didn’t get on God b/c he didn’t set ur faith

V.    Mark 9:23-Jesus is revealing to this man that if he we’ll take it by faith there is nothing that can stop what he wants to happen from coming to pass

A.    All things are possible means nothing can stop you if you can believe